OH SAY, I DON’T SEE!

The Star Spangled Banner

Francis Scott Key wrote the poem in 1814, Defense of Fort Mc Henry. The poem was later put to the music of: The Anacreontic Song, by John Stafford Smith but modified somewhat, and retitled The Star Spangled Banner. In 1931 Congress proclaimed The Star Spangled Banner the U.S. National Anthem

 

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O 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 thro' 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 on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, 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 wash'd 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.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause 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!

From Francis Scott Key to Alicia Keys, something is wrong.

The Grammy Award winning Keys performed a lengthy version of the Star Spangled Banner: that lasted about 2:35 at the Super Bowl XLVII.

I’m a traditionalist, I don’t like to fix things that aren’t broke, and the National Anthem isn’t broken. But it seems every year, year after year: some singer takes the stage and completely looses the meaning of the event within the big event.

Alicia Keys sang that anthem like she was dragging her piano uphill, and the guy doing the hand motions for the deaf, had very tired arms by the time it was over, as the singer warbled, then screamed and started to distort the tribute in those 2 minutes and thirty five seconds.

I think about the men and women who have died for this country, giving their children a right to ownership to this nation by their sacrifice. I think of the many parents and grandparents who marched off to war in the 1940’s to Europe and the Pacific, the early 50’s in a police action and of course the Viet Nam war, where so much was sacrificed for so little, and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I know that the words to the anthem speak of it, not just that day in Fort McHenry in Maryland, but for all the sacrifices in blood made, in the face of their fear as warriors on a mission they needed to fulfill. How can we not sing it for the reasons meant? This is not a forum to show off how many high notes you can hit, how long you can draw out a note, or how innovative you think you are. IT IS NOT ABOUT THE SINGER’S TALENT, NOT ABOUT THE SINGER, it is about those people that fought and died and some are still not appreciated as it is.

Earlier in the pre-game festivities, singer Jennifer Hudson joined 26 students from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., to sing a beautiful version of "America the Beautiful."

There are plenty of songs that Alicia Keys can lend her talent to, to bastardize music, but leave that one song alone, it is an audible monument to the land of the brave and the home of the free.