The Star Spangled Banner

[Mr. MacPhisto]

And the awful renditions of it. I know there was a thread on this not too long ago, but I didn't find it after a quick look. Besides, I figured why not start up a new once focused on these stinkers, starting with the one for Monday night's game with the Iggles versus the Cowpokes.

Either this chick can't hold a note (possible) or she just wants to show off here vocal range. I wouldn't be surprised if she has trouble holding notes because I've seen a lot of people who have that problem, but is there a real need to go up and down the scale like you're in an elevator? The performance is also rather drawn out because of her need to move here voice around. I also love the hand/finger wags in there. One of the most awful performances of the national anthem ever. Yeah, it's far from Roseanne's, but what did anyone expect out of her? While Marvin Gaye did do a different take, he came at the anthem with a great respect and reverence for it. He didn't use it as an attempt to showboat like Monday night's performance seems to me. I think she watched Whitney's performance a bit too much, but she doesn't have the gravitas to handle the song. It doesn't help that she doesn't have the range either. The Star Spangled Banner is not easy to sing, honestly.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R21LeB9ihRE[/youtube]

[skatingtripods]

Josh Howard doesn't celebrate that shit. He's black.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1llOTCAyf0[/youtube]

Right around the 1:40 mark.


My biggest qualm with people that sing the anthem are those that sing it like they're at a funeral. It should have an upbeat tone and tempo to it.

I can't find a Youtube of it, but Ronan Tynan does a magnificent job with the anthem.

Would this ever happen in today's day and age?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvpxVE_kQXg[/youtube]

I know this is the Canadian anthem, and it starts on the video at 55 seconds, but this is one hell of a way to do it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tysbTyRIqR8[/youtube]

[jfiling]

Damn, Mac, she like hit everything I hate that performers do when they sing the anthem. Sing it like a pop song, constant tempo changes, goofy herky-jerky movements. I didn't make it to the end, but I think the only thing she got right was the words. Fucking pop stars.

[boilerdaveb]

Was in the stands for the Steelers game, and I am sure the sauce had something to do with it, but the crowd was very audible in singing the anthem for the first time in a long time, almost like that Calgary Flames game for the Canadian anthem. Pretty cool.

[SteelersStillSuck]

Worst one I ever heard was Macy Gray at the Pro Football HOF game, It was all over the news a few years a go, she got her ass booed off stage.

[FUDU]

20 yr old pop sensation, LOL never heard of her.

Terrible effort, I agree Mac 100%.

The National Anthem isn't each performer's own little shot at fame, it isn't about the performer.

All that hand and finger gesturing, she is a bout 15 years too late, that act was played out on comedy shows around the country long ago. After all it is a song, that you sing with your voice, it is not a game of charades.

I actually cannot stand listening to the SSB anymore when it is sung just b/c of acts like this, I would much rather hear it performed by an array of instruments only.

[SteelersStillSuck]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpXzASiXX8U[/youtube]

Oh Canada, Oh Canada, How lovely are thine branches.

[BDFD]

Cue Carl Lewis' 'rockets red glare'. I'll have to check these out later unfortunately...

[davemanddd]

roseanne barr's rendition where she grabs her crotch and spits on the field is by far the worst. as for "take me out to the ballgame", i would say it's a tie between mike ditka and ozzie osbourne.

[Apex777]

Geez. . .that was pretty damn bad, whoever signed her to perform must be d-e-a-f!

[ThisIsNat]

Anybody else remember Rocco Scotti who used to sing the anthem like 50 times a year at the old Cleveland Stadium? He wasn't that great, but he sure sang with all his heart...kinda miss him!

[Mr. MacPhisto]

I actually cannot stand listening to the SSB anymore when it is sung just b/c of acts like this, I would much rather hear it performed by an array of instruments only.

I'd prefer just to have an honor guard and a military band doing it. I always sing it at games because I love the anthem and know the historical significance of it. Francis Scott Key's feelings as he sat on a British ship in Baltimore Harbor as Fort McHenry was besieged during the War of 1812. Washington D.C. had just burned and the government was in flight. Key was attempting to negotiate the return of a captive and was not allowed to leave the British ship while battle activity was going on.

One of my favorite moments ever was going to the Smithsonian as a kid and seeing that actual Star Spangled Banner. Awesome to see it unveiled (they only did it briefly a couple of times a day).

I just wish more people would actually read all of The Star Spangled Banner and not just the first verse. It's an amazing poem:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?


On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


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."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I also must admit that I'm a backer of an official act of Congress to give us a second national anthem, America, The Beautiful. There have been many efforts over the years to do so and it has been substituted in the past. I remember them using it instead of The Star Spangled Banner in a WS game a few years ago. That's another great song with a tune that I like better than TSSB's.