Oh say can't Jojo sing?

There were two massacres at last Tuesday's Orange Bowl. One, USC made the Oklahoma Sooners realize the sooner the game was over the better off they'd be. The second was when some pop-diva massacred the National Anthem. Her name is JoJo. I have no idea who she is so I went to her Web site to learn something about her. There was little information there aside from a photo of her with another singer named Bow-Wow.

I am not enthralled with The Star Spangled Banner. F. Scott Key borrowed the tune from a drinking song. I always wondered how much he had guzzled when he was looking o'er those ramparts. Our anthem. Whew. It's bad writing and worse music. I was 12 years old before I realized I shouldn't be singing "Don's Surly Light."

We didn't adopt it as our National Anthem until sometime in the 1930s yet most Americans revere it as if it were penned along with the Declaration of Independence. That is until it's sung at a sporting event.

I love it when Canadian teams are playing in a television sporting event. I get to hear Canada's meaningful and easy-to-sing anthem. Our anthem isn't God Bless America, which probably sold enough War bonds to win World War II. And it certainly isn't America, the Beautiful, whose "... beautiful for spacious skies and amber waves of grain," is not only lovely poetry, but is so easily sung it turns us all into one or two of The Three Tenors. But the Star Spangled Banner is our anthem, and we're stuck with it.

When sung properly the old SSB can hold its own in any top 10 countdown of patriotic songs. Notice, if you will, "sung properly." The music was written in three-quarter time. It's upbeat, it moves, it should soar like Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner gliding across a movie set. That's why I can't understand why we put up with the butchering our anthem receives at our major sports events.

The rendition delivered by JoJo at the Orange Bowl was an example of how the anthem is mistreated. She might as well have brought Bow-Wow to "arf" along with her.

Part of the problem may lie with our fondness for celebrity singers. Put them in a recording studio with enough electronic equipment to turn Elmer Fudd into Enrico Caruso and they're fine. But when they're live, with a difficult song, they need to put their own spin on the anthem. It's a national anthem. This country's official tune. There should be no room for interpretation. Would we stand still for someone changing the words to the Gettysburg Address to suit their speaking style? "Hey man, about 80 years ago some Daddy dudes brought... " I think not. Or how about the Declaration of Independence? "When, you know, things start to fall apart between you and the country that's your main squeeze..." I don't think we'd tolerate that, either.

Yet we never get upset about renditions such as the one at the Orange Bowl. In fact the crowd began roaring their approval before she finished singing.

When the Detroit Tigers needed a singer to perform the National Anthem they called in a local person who was known as Fat Bob the Plumber. Bob had a pleasing operatic-style voice, which he used to belt out the Star Spangled Banner with such enthusiasm he had half the crowd ready to run down to the nearest Marine Recruitment Center.

We need Bob. Sporting events on TV need Bob. Even at today's plumber's rates he'd be a bargain.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mo...g/10617164.htm

Our anthem. Whew. It's bad writing and worse music. I was 12 years old before I realized I shouldn't be singing "Don's Surly Light."

Don't disrespect my country.

[SilverSpoon]

Originally posted by -Leilaa:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Our anthem. Whew. It's bad writing and worse music. I was 12 years old before I realized I shouldn't be singing "Don's Surly Light."

Don't disrespect my country. </font>[/quote]America sucks! Canada rules!

*runs away crying*
[img]tongue.gif[/img]

I love it when Canadian teams are playing in a television sporting event. I get to hear Canada's meaningful and easy-to-sing anthem.

Meaningful? What the bloody hell are you talking about? "True patriot love"? Oh, come on. Nobody in or out of Canada loves Canada. And easy to sing? That song makes me feel like throwing up. It's so lame.

[ January 14, 2005, 09:09 PM: Message edited by: SilverSpoon ]

JoJo sucks...
USA sucks...

its a sucky match made in heaven

[JenniferNoble]

but dont you just love their cheeseburgers [img]tongue.gif[/img]