Last night, Metallica‘s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett kicked off game five of the NBA Finals with a metal version of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Members of the U.S. armed forces held a large American flag while the guitars wailed prior to the start of the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.
While my favorite version of the national anthem played before a basketball game remains a legendary performance by Marvin Gaye, this Metallica version was still pretty cool. Check it out.
Chimesfreedom has previously discussed some of the different versions of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and now we can add a version by Sufjan Stevens who has reinterpreted the national anthem. It is a new re-working of the song, changing the melody and some of the lyrics. Stevens posted the song last night before the election results, but it is not a celebration song: “And the flag marked with blood with the blood of our hands / And our hands marked with death, with the blood of a man.” Check it out.
As part of his upcoming Christmas season tour, Stevens will release a holiday-music EP box Silver & Gold: Songs For Christmas on November 13. I know it is a little early for holiday music, but in case you want to check out one of the songs from the upcoming CD, here is his take on “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
What do you think of the way Sufjan Stevens reinterprets “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chimesfreedom previously examined some of the famous versions of “The Star Spangled Banner” performed at sporting events, and it looks like there is another interesting version to add. Last night at the NFL season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants, Queen Latifah took a jazzy take on the National Anthem, somewhat reminiscent of the famous Marvin Gaye version. Many are divided on whether or not they like it, but I do like it.
Check it out for yourself.
What do you think of Queen Latifah’s take on the National Anthem? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In the years leading up to July 4, 1976 in the United States, you could not escape American Revolution Bicentennial fever and celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There were parties, celebrations, ships, special coins, speeches, Bicentennial Minutes every night on television, and much more. But there is very little this year to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, which officially started 200 years ago today when the U.S. declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. Basically, we had a bicentennial and all I got was a website.
Several years ago I worked with some young people from England and I was surprised to learn that they had never heard of the War of 1812. It is probably true that today most Americans know very little about the war, which makes it understandable that there is little about the bicentennial of a war that accomplished little. Even with some rewriting of history it is difficult to make the War of 1812 about lofty principles such as we do with other American Wars like the Revolution (freedom), the Civil War (freedom), and World War II (defeating Hitler). The 1976 Bicentennial events, in many ways, were not celebrating war but celebrating ideas. The date corresponded not to a war but to the signing of a document about equality — even though we continue to work on expanding what “equality” means.
By contrast, the War of 1812 was largely about sea rights, land rights, and the seizing of American sailors. The war involved a lot of complicated issues, such as U.S. expansion into Native American lands, that are worth exploring but beyond the scope of a short blog post. At the end of the war when the U.S. and England signed the Treaty of Ghent on February 17, 1815, many questions were still left open. Neither side won the war, but many Americans saw it as a victory that they had held their own against the powerful British Empire.
The war did have some lasting musical influences. A battle at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry gave Americans its national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner,” which we wrote about in a previous Chimesfreedom post. Another War of 1812 battle inspired a pop hit in the 1950s when Johnny Horton sang about the war’s most famous fight in the song “Battle of New Orleans.” The humorous take on the battle in the song is reflected in The Ed Sullivan Show performance below of the song that was number one on both the country and pop charts in 1959.
We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin; There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago; We fired once more and they began to runnin’ on, Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
The actual Battle of New Orleans was a big victory for the U.S. over the British, but it happened after the war had officially ended. One outcome of the battle is that it helped launch the political career of future president Andrew Jackson, referred to by his nickname “Old Hickory” in the song.
Regarding the song, Jimmy Driftwood (1907-1998), an Arkansas school principal, wrote “The Battle of New Orleans” in 1936 as a way to get his students interested in history. Driftwood, who was born James Corbitt Morris, initially recorded “The Battle of New Orleans” but radio stations would not play it because the original version had “hell” and “damn” in the lyrics. For example, in Horton’s cleaned-up version, he sings, “We held our fire ’til we see’d their faces well./ Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave ’em … well.”
Driftwood wrote several hits throughout his career, including “Tennessee Stud.” For the music to “Battle of New Orleans,” he used an old American fiddle tune called “The Eighth of January,” which is the date of the famous battle. Here is a lively rendition of that tune:
Johnny Horton (1925-1960), who had the biggest hit with “Battle of New Orleans” in 1959, was a country and rockabilly singer who had other historical hits with songs such as “North to Alaska.” He also married Hank Williams’s widow Billie Jean Jones, and the couple had two daughters.
If you want a video with a little more history than Horton’s song, check out this short summary of the war:
Finally, while there is little U.S. national celebration of the War of 1812 Bicentennial, that does not mean the event is being ignored. For example, Ohio, whose own history was affected by the war, has several events over the next few years. Meanwhile, Maryland issued War of 1812 license plates and plans for a three-year commemoration. Also, Canadians recognize the war as playing an important role in their country’s national identity. But wherever you are, have a safe and happy bicentennial!
Painting of Battle of New Orleans by Edward Percy Moran (public domain) via.
Why do you think most people are ignoring the 1812 Bicentennial? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On September 13 in 1814, a 35-year-old American lawyer wrote down a poem aboard a ship. He had just watched Fort McHenry in Maryland being bombarded by the British all night long during the War of 1812. British troops had already attacked Washington, D.C. and were now looking to take Baltimore.
The lawyer had come to Baltimore to successfully negotiate the release of a prisoner who was his friend. Now, he became inspired when during dawn’s early light, he saw the U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry.
The Song
And so, immediately, the lawyer began writing a poem called “The Defense of Fort McHenry.” Francis Scott Key’s poem began invoking his sight of the flag, “Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, / What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?.”
After the poem was published in newspapers, the words were linked to the music of an English drinking song by John Stafford Smith, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The union of the American poem and the British music took on a life of its own as “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And eventually it was adopted as the U.S.’s official anthem in 1931.
Criticisms of “The Star Spangled Banner”
There are many critics of the national anthem. Some critics note that the song is difficult to sing. Thus, we get various poor performances ranging from Cyndi Lauper’s minor lyrics flub at the 2011 U.S. Open to more disastrous results.
Others criticize the song because it celebrates war over the nation’s other accomplishments. Personally, I love “America the Beautiful,” which many advocate as a replacement anthem. But there is something inspirational in the old drinking song tune put to Key’s words.
As a pre-Civil War song, the reference to the “land of the free” is about a land where American slaves were excluded from that freedom. In fact, Francis Scott Key had owned slaves, worked against abolitionists in his law career, and generally held a number of racist principles.
Thus, it is fascinating that the greatest versions of the song were performed by African-American singers and a man born in Puerto Rico. These singers instilled the song with different meanings.
Whitney Houston’s 1991 Super Bowl Performance
The most recent of these versions is the rousing and patriotic Super Bowl version by Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl in January 1991. She performed the song while the nation was involved in the Gulf War.
People immediately recognized her version was something special. I remember seeing the single CD of the beautiful performance for sale in record stores, and Houston made the national anthem a best-seller.
The fact that Houston pre-recorded the vocals and sang into a dead microphone does nothing to take away from how amazing her rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is — or how much she gave to the performance. Her voice rose over a full band.
On a day when the nation was on high alert and Americans were unsure of the future, Houston altered the 3/4 waltz of the national anthem by changing it to 4/4 time. She thus elongated the notes, steeping the song in the time signature of the blues.
Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969
Maybe the single most famous public performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is the Jimi Hendrix guitar version from Woodstock in 1969. His instrumental version instills new meaning into the song and captures the turbulent time.
Although Hendrix had been scheduled to close the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on Sunday night, various delays resulted in him taking the stage around 8 a.m. on Monday morning, August 18, 1969. Thus, the closing act appeared before a crowd that had thinned out since the beginning of the weekend.
Hendrix first performed many of his most popular songs. Next, as the band began improvising, Hendrix told the crowd, “You can leave if you want to. We’re just jammin’, that’s all.” And then in the midst of the jam, he launched into “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Even though Hendrix had played the tune on stage in the past, this performance was one for the ages. Hendrix took a song written about two nations fighting a battle, and he turned it into an elegy to a nation battling itself.
Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game
The third example is one of my favorites, which is Marvin Gaye’s performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1983 NBA All-Star game. In what could have been just another pre-game performance, Marvin Gaye surprised us all.
At the time, Gaye was fighting a serious drug addiction problem, and within a little more than a year, he would be killed by his own father. On the night of this performance, he must have wondered how the crowd would react. He was running behind schedule on his way to the game after his only rehearsal of the song had not gone well.
That night, I remember watching the All-Star game. After Gaye began, at first, I wondered what was going on. Then, like the crowd, I began to realize that something incredibly special was taking place.
Gaye, like Hendrix before him, was reclaiming the national anthem, transcending the original warrior lyrics, capturing the pain and celebrating the joy of a troubled country, and giving it a little bit of soul.
José Feliciano at the 1968 World Series
Before any of the above versions, José Feliciano, another person who would have been excluded from Francis Scott Key’s country, reinterpreted the national anthem during an afternoon game of the 1968 World Series.
Feliciano performed in Detroit before Game 5 of the series between the Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals. The Tigers and NBC received angry calls and letters following the unconventional performance.
But one may find an attempt to heal a divided nation in Feliciano’s voice. The year had already seen the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Riots erupted in August at the Democratic National Convention. As the Viet Nam conflict continued, the nation seemed to be coming apart.
You may hear Feliciano’s amazing version below. Also, check out his discussion of the controversy caused by his October 7, 1968 performance.
In less than a month, the country elected Richard M. Nixon as president. The war continued and the nation remained divided. But Feliciano — like Gaye, Hendrix, and Houston — had reminded us that the national anthem and the nation still could be saved.
What is your favorite version of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Leave a comment.
As a pre-Civil War song, the reference to the “land of the free” is about a land where American slaves were excluded from that freedom. In fact,