The Star-Mangled Banner

I missed most of the Superbowl on Sunday night, but I did see the terrible rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as performed by Jennifer Hudson.

This is not, I have to say not a kick at Ms Hudson, who certainly can sing, and has had a rough time of late. That said it is part of a broad trend which I see as another indication of the anaemia besetting Western societies and a harbinger of our eventual eclipse. A part of the linked article talked about Ms Hudson’s take on the anthem being “more personal than patriotic”, which to me is a particularly galling example of how people have no concept of what a National Anthem is all about.

I asked a co-worker what the words of the American anthem were about, and I stopped him after about the fifth word he said, “fight”. The SSB is about a battle, one of those (taking-the-piss alert) that the American actually won in the War of 1812.

An anthem is supposed to kick you in the ass and make you want to defend those ramparts, take that hill, whatever. Contemplating the amber waves of grain can be done at your leisure, which is why I am not excoriating Faith Hill’s take on “America the Beautiful”. It was (my opinion again) lame, but it doesn’t offend me because her version doesn’t fly in the face of the song’s genesis and/or purpose.

The best example I can think of immediately that grabbed me was the Red Army Chorus at the 1987 Canada Cup belting out the “Internationale”. That kicked ass, and it was in Russian so I have no idea what they were saying (Ok, here’s an English version) but the point is that it at least made me think of something active or aggressive.

That last is a bad thing to the nanny-state supporters who know what’s best for us, and of course Nationalism is the root of all evil, so we are not meant to feel inspired to great deeds or feel any connection with those of our forbearers. Heaven forbid that Canadians, etc. should find some common history to pull them together.

Closer to home, “O Canada” is regularly mistreated, and it (especially in English) is weak to begin with. The original French is much better, now that I understand it, providing some competition for that which should be our anthem, “The Maple Leaf Forever”. No, I don’t mean the emasculated, bland versions the CBC commissioned, but the original. Of course it could use a bit of updating, but that could be done in such a fashion that didn’t destroy the power of it. Of the “approved” version, I don’t know how you “protect the weak” etc. without a bit of bloodshed, and conquering the elements isn’t really the same thing as vanquishing some human foe.

When I stand for an anthem (no matter whose) it should be something that makes me want to stand up, not something that puts me to sleep. I am very conservative in this regard, but if you’re going to retain anything of the past, the National Anthem is the best place to do it. Of course, understanding a good anthem requires a bit of history too, so I guess it’s no surprise more people don’t complain like I do because the words don’t mean anything to them anyway.

That however, is a rant for another day.