National Anthem at HDC

It's not a question, it's an exclamation.

 

Re: Re: National Anthem at HDC

Actually, I was wrong. It is a question, which is answered in the second and third verses.

 

Um... no. But keep playing! Actually, Francis Scott Key wrote the "broadside" poem about the seige the Brits were laying pounding Ft.Mchenry. He wrote FOUR verses. The first verse ends with the aforementioned question. "Does it wave, etc?"

The second verse ends with "'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long MAY it wave o're the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Third verse ends "And the star-spangled banner, in triumph DOTH wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

And the final verse ends "And the star-spangled banner, in triumph SHALL wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave."

As we know, the tune was applied slightly later... a British song called "Anecreon In Heaven"... oh the irony. Now fast forward to... 1931!!!!! The United States adopts it as our national anthem (what took us so long?!?)

So actually, yeah. You could say it doesn't end in a question... if you sing all four verses. But our government has adopted the one verse standard (including military guides) and thus we always ask... "Hey man, is that flag still flyin'?"

Of course, we put "In God We Trust" on our currency in the fifties to seperate us from the "godless communists" of the Soviet Union.... but that's another story....

Now... back the game...

tm

 

Ah. You replied while I was composing the previous.

I guess we are in agreement, Blong, my brother! ;-)

As for national anthems, back in WorldCup '94, I got to see Bulgaria versus some African country (escapes me now... Camaroon?). And I remember telling my friend to listen to the differences in the anthems. The East European one sounded like a funeral dirge.. the African one was a party! I wanted to start dancing! Righteous, man. Righteous.

tommy mack

 

Wow. I guess I know where to come for SSB info. I just did the kind of research that used to get me by in school. Two and a half minutes on a website just to check the punctuation on a song doesn't cut it at the Bigsoccer Academy. Thanks for setting me striaght!

 

Nothing about that. A person is an artist if he lives his life with style. A person lives a life of style by bucking convention. It is a convention to doff you hat to the anthem, so there you go.

 

True. I usually don't enjoy 'soul enhanced' renditions, but this was special -- an arrangement that offered musical ornamentation, not attitude.

Compared with Rosanne Barr's travesty a number of years ago, even the hip-hop divas dredged up to open games sound like rock-ribbed Republicans, so I can't complain about this.

 

Hey... at least he didn't sing the Mexican National Anthem.

 

For those of you that might care about this, Vinx also toured with Stewart Copeland's "Rhythmatist" tour around 1995 or so. I've actually seen him live three times, with that tour, the Sting tour, and solo at my college in '92.

And one of the best SSB renditions I've heard was Michael McDermott at a Fire game, back at Soldier Field. Really nice acoustic guitar and vocal arrangement.

I want to see Blue Man Group do a national anthem. I remember the Pistons had Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith perform it just on drumkit once.

Later,
COZ

 

Or the Canadians'....

 

I liked it.

 

Re: Re: ???

Fixed.
You left out. "Brad would have saved it."

 

He took too long, but he made up for it by hitting the Shi'ite out of the high note at the end.

Is it un-American to say we have the world's worst anthem? It is? Okay, never mind.

 

It's un-American to not speak your mind when you see something wrong and help your nation try to fix it.
That in mind, I would advise keeping quiet.

 

I can't believe this is even being discussed.


I thought that guy was awesome.

 

Nothing escapes Big Soccer.

 

Didn't have a problem with the rendition that much but my question is why couldn't we get a bigger name to open this thing? Seriously, if this opening was such a big deal how come we can't get at least somebody that's sold a gold record, nevermind platinum? Hell, couldn't we have gotten Ruben Studdard?

As for the do-rag, give me a freakin break already. It's nice when people take off their hats and hold their hearts for the anthem but when you start demanding that everyone do it then you start sounding Nazi-like.

I think the reason MLS couldn't get anyone better than Vinx was because it cost so much to get Pele to show up.

 

He charges 50K for an interview. Perhaps he did this just because. And remember. He wants to be on MLS's good side for biz reasons.

 

There's a big difference between demanding he uncover his head and being disappointed that he didn't have enough respect to do it himself. It's not like uncovering your head out of respect is even American, it's a generally accepted showing of respect (in other words, despite what you think the fact is, it's more than "nice").

And the guy has a great voice, yeah, but it did drag. I was disappointed overall.

 

If he was discovered by Sting, does that make him British?

 

According to allmusic.com, he's not only American, but he was a member of the ill-fated 1980 Olympic track team.

He's an ex-jock. He's from Southern California. It's just possible that he took the gig because he likes the Galaxy.

 

i thought they should have gotten a dancehall reggae artist to sing the national anthem... like bounty killer.
"hear me now... o say can you see... lord have mercy.. by the dawns early night... big up jamaica massive... that our flag was still there... i'm in a dancehall mood..."

 

It's a sad sign of the times that we're complaining about too many "liberties."

 

I was really looking forward to discussing Vinx's amazing performance on this thread, and I was disgusted to find some of the comments on this thread.

For those that are less informed, please note the following:

First, Vinx is an incredible performer. The fact that he has not become 'popular' or 'big' to the general public should in no way cloud people's perceptions of an amazing performance of our national anthem.

Second, Vinx is a big sports fan. He probably asked to sing the national anthem. I don't think his presence there took away anything from the opening of the stadium. In fact, when he was announced, I said out loud: "Wow, MLS got Vinx. Very impressive."

Third, Vinx is one of the nicest, most intelligent, and thoughtful individuals I've ever had the pleasure of meeting for a brief few minutes. I'm sure he would take offense to everyone's comments here about removing his head dress. He's American.

Now, let's all return to topics of greater importance.

 

Good post. I would just point out, however, that there is some use to this thread. Should I ever shell out for premium membership, I have a ready-made place to go in order to start my ignore list.