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Butchering The Star Spangled Banner, Written by Francis Scott Off-Key, Before Athletic Events


DonRocks

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"... musical performers aspired to greater heights of virtuosity and cultivated their skills as improvisers, often peppering the plain melodies they encountered with ornate filigree culled from manuals on the art of embellishment. This, too, could provoke opposition. Josquin, upon hearing a singer ornament his music beyond recognition, once flew into a rage. "You ass," he cried. "If you wish to improve on finished compositions, make your own, but leave mine unimproved."

-- from "Temperament" by Stuart Isacoff, 2001, describing the reaction of virtuosic composer Josquin des Prez, c.1450-1521, upon hearing a singer butcher one of his compositions by showing off with excessive ornamentation.

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To me, there are two categories of butchering our national anthem - the obvious one, in which the singer just flat-out cannot sing, and the other one, in which the singer has talent and decides to embellish.  They are both offensive to me, as a person who spent years performing the song as written (and quite well, if I do say so myself :P).

I will grant that it is an extremely challenging song to sing - I honestly prefer when sporting events opt for instrumental versions of the anthem, as I find them to be much truer to the correct version.

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I don't have any idea why Christina Aguilera is invited to sing it so often:

Yeah, that was disgraceful, and made the first Top 10 list (I hate Top 10 lists, but these are kind of fun, in an evil sort-of way):

"10 Worst National Anthem Performances Ever" by Billboard Staff on billboard.com

"Top 10 American National Anthem Performance Fails" by WatchMojo.com on youtube.com

"Top 10 Worst National Anthem Renditions" on content.time.com

A performer can not make the song about *themself*, because its not. Even a mediocre singer, who at least tries to honor the country, will be politely received.

You have to kind-of feel sorry for Rosanne Barr, having committed herself to what she thought would be a comedy act, and realizing mid-steam what an abject failure it was (*), and having to finish what she started, but what in God's name was she thinking? And to hell with that sea-hag Madonna for being so haughty in sticking up for her (I do feel sorry for Barr, but only because she made such a big mistake and had to suffer the embarrassing consequences - I truly do believe she thought it would be taken with good humor, but when you strip things down to their very core, you don't mess with the fundamentals of the good ol' US of A.

(*) This is not unlike what Gilbert Gottfried did at Hugh Heffner's roast when he starting making a 9/11 joke, and started to get pounded by the audience, but he corrected himself on the spot - thank God - and turned it around into a classic delivery of The Aristocrats. He was mere seconds away from his career taking a huge hit.

Whitney Houston's performance was not perfect, and arguably even slightly overrated, but it *was* GREAT, and the right performance at the right time. Let's remember her as being a welcome exception to all this sludge.

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It's not a Top 10 list without Carl Lewis' rendition.

Yeah, he's on the second video: Francis Scott "Off-Key," the announcer said. Right here.

If I was famous, and couldn't sing, I'd try to at least do something respectful - recite the lyrics with your hand on your heart, or something, *anything* that tries to show some humility.

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Barr is the (in)famous one to be sure.  I'd never heard of "Kat DeLuna" before. Maybe this is why.

I'm curious: Do people detest Barr for this, or do they cut her some slack for trying to be funny and failing miserably? I lean towards the latter camp, but can understand both sides.

If you think about it, the *concept* of what she did (scratching her groin, pretending to spit tobacco) is kind of funny; the execution, apparently not so much. She clearly misunderstood just how seriously people take this country at their core.

From what I can see, nobody has questioned her "right" to have done it; merely her "decision" to have done it. Yet, is it any worse than "OOOOOOsss!!!!!! say does tha-hat Star Spangled Ba-han-ner-her ye-het wa-have?" at Camden Yards? Personally, I think that's fun - maybe a little low rent, but fun, and harmless. And I don't think anyone is showing any disrespect.

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I grew up thinking that the last two words of the National Anthem were "Play ball!" followed by a lot of applause.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fans yelling "O" when the Anthem gets to "...Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave..." But it certainly has caught on in Balmer.

For me, the best renditions are by military performers, be they bands or vocal groups or individual singers. They get it right....and they do it with pride.

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Although it's a different national anthem, I'm going to put this here:

Back when the Canadian Football League did its ill-fated expansion into the States (the most successful team was the Baltimore CFL Colts, which turned into the Stallions after the NFL sued), one of the teams was in Las Vegas.  At one game, the singer tried to sing "O Canada" to the tune of "O Christmas Tree".  And some of the words got messed up.

Seriously.

It may have made the news across the Great White North...

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Why do we have a national anthem before sporting events? What is the connection?

Not sure, but I've wondered the same thing. I hate to be that horrible, unpatriotic person, but I can do without it at EVERY event. I mean, we're bound to have numerous disgraceful performances simply because of the number of times it's performed. I say save it for the big events...of course, many will say those are sometimes the worst performances.

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2 hours ago, DIShGo said:

I'm cynical enough to believe she pulled a Miley Cyrus, who I had *never heard of* before she did that awful, disgusting tongue-twerk thing with Robin Thicke; and now she won't go away.

Miley.jpg <-- There will be hell to pay tomorrow. -_-

Fergie knew what she was doing - there's no way she didn't run that by someone. When's the last time before this you heard her name? Now she's all over the place again.

This is strongly in the "celebrity-chef" school of PR: No publicity is bad publicity - just maximize it, and repeat the following loop for as long as possible:

0) Do something attention-grabbing - the more ridiculous, the better.
1) Take your licks online.
2) Lay low for a couple of days, then enter the "useful-idiot journalist phase":
3) Apologize for your "artistic risk."
4) Play the victim card and blame someone else.
5) Get an older version of yourself to speak out with advice to "ignore the haters."
6) After enough time goes by, blame the "haters" yourself, and say you "made history."
7) Repeat the above until someone else more smart-stupid comes along and the public permanently loses interest in you.
8) (Use Madonna as your role model for longevity.)

I don't buy any of this - I guarantee she'll "apologize" soon, and then you'll begin hearing her name again - wait and see.

The lust for money and fame does really weird things to people.

These for-the-masses "artists" (deliver me) aren't dumb, and pay a lot of money to be advised by strategists. This wasn't bad judgment; this was a cunning business plan, and all these people criticizing her "artistic blunder" are giving her free publicity. Oh, but at least she swung for the fences. <_<

Meanwhile, real artistic geniuses - who refuse to prostitute themselves - lie in near-total obscurity, as the American public covets shock value more than actual talent.

Sorry if this sounds crotchety, but if you think I'm being too hard on our fine populace, look at our political situation right now - that should be the only example you need.

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