God Bless America!

Just a few random thoughts on patriotic music:

- Why is the song that begins, "My country, 'tis of thee..." entitled "America", when the word "America" is mentioned nowhere in the song?  It only makes it easy to confuse that song with "America the Beautiful." 

- If you're going to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner", please, for the love of God, sing it right!  I just hate it when singers try to embellish the national anthem by adding and/or changing notes.  It's an epidemic that, sadly, has plagued almost every sporting event that I watch on TV these days.  It especially irks me when they jump a complete octave on the last two notes of "that our flag was still there."  If those notes aren't in your vocal range, then you have no business singing the national anthem in public.  And for God's sakes, make sure you know the words!  I remember this one guy who sang it "for the land of the free."  It's "o'er" - the contraction for "over"!  If you want to embellish other patriotic songs, that's perfectly fine with me.  But when it comes to the national anthem, like the Snickers commercial says, don't be a diva.  It sounds more sincere when it's sung the way that it was written. 

- And don't even get me started on that Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner"!  In translating it, they completed butchered the meaning of the song!  This is America!  We speak English! 

- Finally, while we're on the subject of national anthems, I think that "God Bless America" or even "America the Beautiful" would be more fitting for our national anthem than "The Star-Spangled Banner."  A national anthem should be about its country, not just its flag.  I know, atheists are going to cry foul about the explicit mentions of God in the former two songs, but if you look at the second verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (OMG, there's a second verse?  Yeah - there were four, actually!), you'll find the line "And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust'".  That sounds a lot more like forcing religion upon everyone than the other two songs do; they're just asking for blessings upon the country from whatever higher power each of us believes in.  More importantly, though, "God Bless America" is a heck of a lot easier to sing than "The Star-Spangled Banner".  The latter of these songs goes really far up and down the musical octaves, making it very difficult for anyone with a normal vocal range to sing it.  Maybe is has to do with the fact that it was written to the tune of a drinking song.  That's right - a drinking song!  Is this really how we want others to see our country - that we're such a bunch of drunken idiots that we made a drinking song the tune of our national anthem?  Not to mention, I don't even know if the tune was composed in America - correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it was written in Britain or Ireland or somewhere overseas.  "God Bless America", on the other hand, I know for a fact was both written and composed by an American, Irving Berlin.  Our national anthem should be "God Bless America" because it was completely made in America, describes our beloved country so eloquently, and most importantly, is easy to sing. 

- You are, of course, free to disagree with me and tell me what you think.  This is, after all, a free country, which is the very reason that we're celebrating Independence Day today.  I hope all of you out there in Reader Land, from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam, have a happy and safe 4th of July!  Let freedom ring, and of course, God Bless America! 
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