Our national anthem sucks.

[Archae]

I was just watching the news, and they showed people singing the French national anthem, which is beautiful.

Ours here in the US stole the music from a British drinking song, and the lyrics are difficult at best to remember.

[niyad]

1. and few can sing it properly

[KamaAina]

2. Except Roseanne, of course

[Logical]

24. If that bothers you then you are missing the point. Nt

[niyad]

50. I can make any point I choose.

[whathehell]

29. Bad singers don't do well with it,

I, on the other hand, sing well.

[GummyBearz]

3. A bit harsh

My dad (viet nam vet) doesnt like our national anthem because in his words, war shoudnt be glorified... keep in mind were not talking a hippy guy drafted. he volunteered, served multiple tours, and always votes for an R.

He is like a walking self contradiction

[B Calm]

26. Most veterans, democratic or republican get it. My WW2 father knew first hand the horror

of war. He hated the Vietnam War back when I enlisted in the Navy in 1969. He wasn't a true blue pacifist, but today he would be labeled as one.

[GummyBearz]

34. This is the same in my family

my dad's father was a WW2 vet, and his parents were against viet nam from the start. The sad thing is they never gave my dad any support. They were quite poor, so no college exemption, my dad knew he would get drafted so he volunteered, and then signed up again. His parents never gave him support. To this day he will say he will volunteer for a third tour if the politicians would let the armed services fight the war the right way.

He also used the GI bill to get a college degree in social sciences, worked as a social worker, volunteers constantly at the VFW and homeless shelters. It is so strange he is also a strait republican ticket voter... I dont understand it as I am liberal. I do feel a bit saddened when I see broad brush statements about "the other side" posted here. My dad is a very good person who made my and my sibling's lives way better than he had it growing up.

[Orrex]

4. I don't know that the lyrics are all that hard to remember

Some of the notes are out of my range, but I haven't had reason to sing it in at least a quarter century.

What gets me isn't the origin of the tune, which is more or less irrelevant, nor the relative beauty of one nation's anthem versus another, because that's largely a value judgment. Instead, I'm struck when I see footage of a sporting event in another country when the entire arena has sung the US national anthem in an impromptu show of support/solidarity. I'm willing to bet that fewer than one in 10,000 Americans could sing another country's anthem without practice.

[redwitch]

43. That is rather amazing to me also.

I can sing the Canadian national anthem and God Save the Queen. And hit all the notes! Our national anthem is a little tricky and I don't have the range to do it justice. When someone sings it at a sporting event I am always cringing for fear they will miss the high ones too. Or worse yet try to do something fancy with it that is just awful!

[yawnmaster]

5. The French lyrics are something! I don't think they are easier to remember than our own, though...

especially in French.

Let's go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!

Sacred love of France,
Lead, support our avenging arms!
Liberty, beloved Liberty,
Fight with your defenders! (repeat)
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to your manly tones!
May your dying enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

Refrain

We will enter the pit
When our elders are no longer there;
There, we will find their dust
And the traces of their virtues. (repeat)
Much less eager to outlive them
Than to share their casket,
We will have the sublime pride
Of avenging them or following them!

Refrain

[brush]

7. Agreed, not any easier or less war-like than ours. It just sounds better in French.

[CurtEastPoint]

6. 'America The Beautiful' is so much nicer and easy to sing.

[TexasBushwhacker]

64. That's my favorite too. And This Land is Your Land n/t

[jeff47]

8. Methinks you don't speak French...

The lyrics for the French national anthem are a wee bit violent.

[Act_of_Reparation]

9. All national anthems suck.

Ours at least has the benefit of being relatively short.

[yeoman6987]

14. I disagree

Ours is beautiful is sang properly. Probably best one in the world. Again you have to sing it correctly.

[DonCoquixote]

30. Keep in mind the anthem is a waltz

3/4 time whereas thanks to John Philip Sousa, most bands play it as a march, 4/4. To give you an idea, take any waltz and add an extra beat to it, awful, right?

but every anthem has some bad stuff:the Internationale has some god awful lyrics about killing people, even those on "our own side."

Personally, if we had to change the anthem, I could go with "this land is your land" or, the song "simple Gifts" The latter, a very old Shaker tune, may not strike a chord, but I bet you have heard this song.

or done in orchestral form:

[yeoman6987]

44. I went to a funeral that was Unitarian and this land was plated. So awesome

The song could be our anthumn easily.

[Nac Mac Feegle]

53. Youre forgetting about this one:

Gives me goosebumps and tears me up every time....

[DonCoquixote]

61. The problem with this one

is the last verse which no one sings, which talks about "all men know christ in peace", however, that can be taken out as no one sings it.

[whathehell]

32. +100. nt

[struggle4progress]

16. I rather admire the South African anthem in five languages

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika
Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo

Yizwa imithandazo yethu
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo

Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso
O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso
Setjhaba sa, South Afrika, South Afrika

Uit die blou van onse hemel
Uit die diepte van ons see
Oor ons ewige gebergtes
Waar die kranse antwoord gee

Sounds the call to come together
And united we shall stand
Let us live and strive for freedom
In South Africa our land

[Act_of_Reparation]

19. I admire that it was written for five languages...

...but patriotic prose always sounds kitschy and derivative to me, no matter the language in which it is written.

[struggle4progress]

22. It reflects a brilliant political reconciliation, combining the national anthem

of the white supremacist years with a song often sung to signify resistance to apartheid

[Act_of_Reparation]

25. Oh, I get that.

And I understand why it would resonate with South Africans, particularly those who sang the song in protest. I lack that emotional context, however, and to me it reads like any other patriotic composition: a bunch clichéd geographic metaphors laced with saccharine appeals to liberty and freedom.

It's all subjective, of course. If you like the song, more power to you. It just doesn't do it for me.

[whathehell]

31. Sez you..

[Act_of_Reparation]

33. Yes, says me.

Glad you understand how "subjectivity" works.

In other news, water is wet.

[whathehell]

38. Lol, I think I understand how subjectivity works better than you

and that's why I know not to state OPINIONS as facts.

[Act_of_Reparation]

41. Did I state an opinion as a fact?

A thousand pardons! I was not aware there of some unwritten grammatical rule that I must preface every opinion I present with a particular clause denoting that it is, in fact, an opinion, but fear not! When next I post, I shall not be so foolish as to assume the reader is reasonable enough to determine, by virtue of its content, whether I am presenting opinion or fact.

After retreating forthwith to my laboratory to devise a complicated system of emoticons by which I might better communicate when I speaking in subjective terms, I have returned to present to you this code:



Whensoever that I construct a sentence that is not absolutely, unarguably, incontrovertibly fact, I shall preface it with the aforementioned string of metacommunicative pictorial representations of emotions and/or activities, so will you know, without a shred of doubt, that my post is opinion.

Thank you, drive though.

[whathehell]

62. Yes.

Have a very nice day.

[hack89]

10. "War Song for the Army of the Rhine" - La Marseillaise's original name. nt

[Paladin]

11. Horrible, clunky, hard-to-sing tune.

And the lyrics---a whole series of questions about a minor battle, which occurred umpteen years ago. I bet Sondheim could furnish us with a vastly-improved anthem, inside of a week. That's about as likely to happen as Trump and Carson acquiring political wisdom....

[LittleBlue]

12. At least we don't have a God reference. Imagine singing God Save the Queen

Especially if you're an atheist republican (small r)

[Retrograde]

36. God shows up in the fourth verse

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”

The song is unsingable doggerel. I suggest we replace it with the Grateful Dead's "US Blues".

[LittleBlue]

37. Yeah but we don't sing the other verses

I doubt even 1 American in a hundred even knows the other verses.

[COLGATE4]

13. I've got to agree with you on the French anthem -

it's extraordinarily beautiful and moving.*

*Doubters - pls. watch the scene in Casablanca https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQtwIwBGoVChMI5JOH-M-VyQIVhkgmCh2BWAhZ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHM-E2H1ChJM&usg=AFQjCNGB7DdUy-dIU2Y9MaJVNi1yK2l7ew&bvm=bv.107467506,d.eWE

[SwankyXomb]

49. Better link

[COLGATE4]

63. Much better. Thanks. nt

[Hekate]

66. That clip from Casablanca will always be the most moving version, imo

[struggle4progress]

15. We should change it

[immoderate]

54. You forgot one.

-- imm

[struggle4progress]

56. +

[KT2000]

17. Canada's is nice too!

Letterman used to have the band play it sometimes just because he enjoyed it - me too!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

18. I disagree. It sounds excellent at Baltimore Orioles games.

O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[raccoon]

20. I've suggested here before that Springsteen's "My Hometown" should be our national anthem. nt

[hunter]

21. When I become Emperor our national anthem is going to be Louie, Louie...

[clarice]

23. I love our anthem...always chokes me up. nt

[whathehell]

27. I like our national anthem..

Maybe it's you that sucks.

[guillaumeb]

28. La Marseillaise, verse one:

Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L'étendard sanglant est levé
Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras.
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes!

Aux armes citoyens
Formez vos bataillons
Marchons, marchons
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons

What a marvelous song about bloody flags, ferocious soldiers, and endless war against the impure blood of the enemy watering the fields. Fascism and violence combined. And that is just the beginning!!!!!!!

[restorefreedom]

35. i wish anthems weren't so much about war. nt

[uawchild]

39. I think our anthem is strikingly poetic.

The lyrics, in the first verse, are simply sublime and lyrical.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

40. I kind of like this one:

The verses that are commonly sung aren't warlike, but there are a few less well known ones that are quite bloody, apparently having to do with the Vikings (the real ones, not the crappy football team).

I like ours, too, when it's performed well.

[Blue_Tires]

42. I won't go that far as to say that

But our national anthem does lack some of the melodic flow and evocative power of some of the world's better-known anthems...

[Glassunion]

45. Do you know French?

It's pretty brutal actually.

[bigwillq]

46. I like it.

I like the lyrics and melody, but it is a hard song to sing.

[derby378]

47. Other national anthems only WISH they were ours

Jimi Hendrix proved it at Woodstock.

[Mnpaul]

48. Jose Feliciano did a great version as well in '68

but some got upset by it

[redstateblues]

57. I thought that too. Got to see him do it at the Atlanta

Pop festival. Amazing!

[FLPanhandle]

51. For something scribbled down during a battle, it's pretty damn good

Also, it's not a knock off of another countries national anthem.

[Recursion]

52. Uruguay's is ripped from a Donizetti opera and has a cadenza

The Olympics have to shorten it when Uruguay wins a medal.

In other trivia: the poet and composer Rabindranath Tagore wrote the songs that became the national anthems of three countries: India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Nobody else has even written two national anthems.

[Yorktown]

55. The French is a military march written for the Marseilles militia

And some of its words are so violent a rewriting is regularly proposed

The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts

To arms citizens Form your battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows

[Gidney N Cloyd]

58. I think we should change it to "Sweet Caroline" but Albert Brooks had another idea:

[tavernier]

59. Being Latvian, I really like this one...

Bless Latvia, O God,
Our verdant native land sod,
Where Baltic heroes trod,
Keep her from harm!
Bless Latvia, O God,
Our verdant native land sod,
Where Baltic heroes trod,
Keep her from harm!
Our lovely daughters near.
Our singing sons appear,
May Fortune smiling here
Grace Latvia!
Our lovely daughters near.
Our singing sons appear,
May Fortune smiling here
Grace Latvia!
-----

No war talk, and the melody is hauntingly beautiful.

[Unknown Beatle]

60. Mexico National Anthem

CHORUS

Mexicans, at the cry of battle
lend your swords and bridle;
and let the earth tremble at its center
upon the roar of the cannon.

Your forehead shall be girded, oh fatherland, with olive garlands
by the divine archangel of peace,
For in heaven your eternal destiny
has been written by the hand of God.
But should a foreign enemy
Profane your land with his sole,
Think, beloved fatherland, that heaven
gave you a soldier in each son.

CHORUS

II

War, war without truce against who would attempt
to blemish the honor of the fatherland!
War, war! The patriotic banners
saturate in waves of blood.
War, war! On the mount, in the vale
The terrifying cannon thunder
and the echoes nobly resound
to the cries of union! liberty!

CHORUS

III

Fatherland, before your children become unarmed
Beneath the yoke their necks in sway,
May your countryside be watered with blood,
On blood their feet trample.
And may your temples, palaces and towers
crumble in horrid crash,
and their ruins exist saying:
The fatherland was made of one thousand heroes here.

CHORUS

IV

Fatherland, fatherland, your children swear
to exhale their breath in your cause,
If the bugle in its belligerent tone
should call upon them to struggle with bravery.
For you the olive garlands!
For them a memory of glory!
For you a laurel of victory!
For them a tomb of honor!


Bloody War

[Hekate]

65. In French theirs says they'll water the furrows with the impure blood of their enemies. Cool, huh?

Definitely a catchy tune, I agree.

National anthems are often bellicose. For the US I'd really prefer America the Beautiful.