Published: August 22, 2009 05:19 pm      

It’s time we change tunes to an anthem we can all sing

DUNCAN — It’s a song that can cause pride and patriotism to swell in our hearts and prompt tears to stream down our cheeks.

It’s also a song that prompts tears — and embarrassment — when someone butchers the tune. And unfortunately, a lot of people — you and me, probably — have problems singing our National Anthem.

The Star Spangled Banner is a notoriously unsingable song that’s mangled by most citizens, including some famous folks who’ve produced public flops.

Roseanne Barr created national outrage by screeching the National Anthem before a baseball game in San Diego in 1990, and it was obvious she intentionally made the song sound like a cat fight.

But other celebrities have bombed miserably when they tried to sing The Star Spangled Banner well, such as Carl Lewis before an NBA All-Star Game or Jessica Simpson before this year’s AT&T National golf tourney.

On a campaign stop in Iowa two years ago, poor Hillary Clinton stood too close to a mic and we discovered she’ll never be asked sing the National Anthem to start a ballgame or a street fight.

Most of us in the Great Unwashed can relate. Regardless our intent or fervor, trying to sing the National Anthem reveals we won’t be confused for Pavarotti or Whitney Houston.

Musical folks who understand such things say The Star Spangled Banner is a vocal nightmare; its melody spans nearly two octaves, when most people’s voices are lucky to cover one octave, max.

The first eight lines are an endless sentence with subordinate clauses that don’t give the average person a good place to take a breath. There are too many vocal spirals and dives (like, “... what so PROU-dly we hail ...”) that send most of us crashing to earth.

Lifted from an old English drinking song best suited for vocal cords oiled by alcohol, if singing The Star Spangled Banner weren’t tough enough, there’s the lyric content. Exactly what does our National Anthem say about America and Americans?

Francis Scott Key’s poem was written about the battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. The first set of verses, which is all we normally sing, are about bombs, rockets, war and bloodshed. It’s an accurate recounting of a battle, but is it a reflection of America we should promote?

Then the lyrics shift into even darker verbiage, such as: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of the flight or the gloom of the grave.” (Say what?)

About the only reference to a value commonly associated with America is “land of the free,” and even “home of the brave” is shallow bravado, since Americans don’t have exclusivity on bravery.

Suggesting we sack The Star Spangled Banner pinches some people’s patriotism, but it’s not as though we’d reject a time-honored tradition started by the Founding Fathers. There was no National Anthem until 1931, when Congress anointed The Star Spangled Banner through a resolution and President Herbert Hoover endorsed it.

But if not The Star Spangled Banner, what would be a National Anthem that’s singable and reflects our nation and people?

Some suggest My Country, ’Tis of Thee, a.k.a. America. But although it’s simple, easy to sing and has some lyrics expressing American sentiments, it’s just a rip-off of God Save the Queen.

Irving Berlin’s God Bless America? It might generate a First Amendment debate and the lyrics are more enthusiastic than eloquent, but most of us can handle its melody.

I lean toward America the Beautiful. Its range is an octave plus one note, and there’s a couple tricky moments (“Uh-MARE-i-cah, America”), but by and large, most of us can handle the melody written by Samuel Ward — and it’s a lovely melody.

What’s even better about America the Beautiful are the lyrics written by Katharine Lee Bates. References to “amber waves of grain,” “fruited plain,” “self-control,” “nobleness” and “crown thy good with brotherhood” are images of our nation and people we should sing about — loudly.

Other songs are suggested the National Anthem debate — This Land is Your Land, God Bless the U.S.A. and even Born in the U.S.A. have supporters.

But regardless what tune we may favor, it has to be more user-friendly than The Star Spangled Banner.



— Jeff Kaley is editor of the Waurika News-Democrat and a Duncan Banner columnist. He can be reached at 580-228-2316 or e-mailed at jeff.kaley@duncanbanner.com.