National Anthems, Patriotism, etc
 

They play the star spangled banner before many of my kids' swim meets. Lots of hands on hearts. means nothing to me. Sometimes it's sung live. That's pretty cool. At the hockey games, Oh Canada and Star Spangled Banner are sung live. Goosebumps. I sort of get it.

But not when your national Anthem is God Save the Queen. It's like a funeral dirge. We Brits/English need to pick something that does the goosebump thing. Like this (although i wish they hadn't done that knee-bob thing, that's sort of burned on my memory in an unpleasant way.)



or this.



not my favorte -as an atheist- but I love Parry and given there is a national religion there, it's not unreasonable to expect god in the national anthem.....

please, sir/ma'am, can we have a new anthem?

In my grade school, we said the Pledge of Allegiance, then sang My Country 'Tis of Thee every morning before class. My Country 'Tis of Thee is, of course, to the same tune as God Save the Queen. Far easier to sing, and far less martial than the Star Spangled Banner. Whoever picked that one, bah!

I think all national anthems are pretty horrible. Although I do like the Russian one in The Hunt for Red October.

:)

Yeah, but the tune is enough to make your country want to kill itself. probably the only tune in the world that would sound more cheerful if played on the bagpipes.

the line "land where my fathers died" always got me; in the same way as the "if I should die before I wake" prayer bs did

One of the saddest things I've ever heard is "Amazing Grace" played on bagpipes.

Jerusalem is one of my favorites. It has been taken and used by so many for so many different reasons. There it is, sang at the Proms, the epitome of Englishness, with the emphasis on England's Green and Pleasant Land and reeking of class....and yet there it is again, sung by marching socialists; the socialist anthem, that speaks of the injustice of England's Dark Satanic Mills and the hope of a new Jerusalem.

It will always be special for me because of the latter usage. I cannot sing it but it catches in my throat. I remember when my good friend Alan died a few years ago. He'd fought the good fight his entire life. The congregation was full of that old guard of working-class labour folks. We sang Jerusalem.

Here are the words in full. To me it seems it was written, not as a glorification of what England is/was, but as a glorification of what England could be/should be. It was written a generation after the songs like Rule Britannia, themselves part of a cultural shift in which the newly united Britain began to be thoutht of as uniquely blessed amongst nations: uniquely, geographically, and morally blessed. Britain was a chosen land, the British/English a chosen people, and the our Island effectively a Jerusalem for the modern age.

And here, in 1808, is Blake's answer to that:


Jerusalem
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.


The bit that always gets me most, particularly when sung in the context of a socialist's funeral is:

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.


I think most northerners have a slightly different cultural relationship with the song than southerners do. The line about the 'dark satanic mills' is kind of etched into the soul of the northern mill towns. Probably less nowadays, since the few remaining mills have become luxury apartments, or art galleries. But I remember growing up in a mill town, and some of the mills were still active. I used to walk past the Gaskell Street Mills on the way home from primary school. My school history classes were full of tales of children working in mills, and 'Knocker-Uppers' waking the workers before dawn.

Don't know if that held true for your part of Gtr Manchester Monnie? I'm guessing probably.

The anthem for a baguette/croissant bakery I worked in as a yute began

Allons croissants de la Patrie,
Le jour de mange est arrive!

I first heard Jerusalem performed by ELP, and despite their somewhat overwrought, I don't know, kitchyness?, I think they captured some of the passion of Blake, one of my all time favorite poets.

I think my favorite lines, the part where the rabbit bites its own head off, are

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

had to look up what the "proms" are

Oh christ, every Memorial Day the Melha Temple pipe band would march in the town parade, then have a big Bar-B-Que at my Dad's. Periodically, they would stop drinking long enough to play a couple songs, and Amazing Grace would start the water works. The more everyone had to drink, the more would be bawling like babies. :mecry:

Gets me every time, too.

Staple at police and fire funerals.

thirded ...

yup, totally. Every goddamned field trip was to some sort of preserved mill or other

Ray Charles tried for quite a while to get interest stirred up in changing the national anthem to America the Beautiful.

powerful stuff from bitd