I see some hands over here...
WWJD? (Follow the link.)
Gotta be "Don't Stop Believin'." I'm especially thrilled at the prospect of middle school choirs filing into ballpark infields and doing carefully harmonized beautiful renditions of this.
I still don't get why we haven't just switched over to "America the Beautiful".
I was so disappointed that Czerny and the ticking calculation of the first was dumped for Hopkins and the ludicrous slam-bang of the second. Hopefully the third comes back a bit, but I'm not hopeful.
No to Don't Stop Believin' - used WAY too much last year, especially for the White Sox.
No to "I've been everywhere" - used ad nauseum for the local CTA commercials
I'd nominate "American Band" - to honor Flint's great Grand Funk
Also, you forgot to mention how fighting the war of 1812 took away precious British resources from fighting that Napoleon fellow, history's most awesome short dude.
Definitely "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," by Warren Zevon. Encapsulates everything this country is about!
(Seriously, I'd be down with "America the Beautiful" or "This Land is Your Land.")
I'm lobbying for "America (F#$k Yeah!)." But not the bummer remix, though.
This Land is Your Land takes a dark turn towards the end, so that might not fly (for that matter, the later verses of You Are My Sunshine are a little weird too).
At my school assemblies back in the day, the "big kids" (4th grade and up) got to sing The Star Spangled Banner, while the lower grades sang "America the Beautiful" at school assemblies.
The message of The Star-Spangled Banner is that if you are attacked by the technologically-superior military of the world's greatest superpower, hang tough! Their dread host may drop rockets and bombs on you all night, but eventually they will run out of rockets and bombs and go home. You will climb out of the rubble and declare victory.
I actually like The Star-Spangled Banner, but this seems a troubling moral.
Why don't we just make Hendrix's Woodstock rendition of the national anthem the definitive version and move on? This way we can evade the issues of language, lyrics, and melody and instead be reminded of a message perhaps more faithful to our nation's heritage, that of soaring melodies redolent of clarity and optimism continually being challenged by the discordant, and perhaps more interesting, dissonance of feedback and distortion.
Or maybe "God Save the Queen." Personally, I think that the American Revolution was a big mistake.
Actually Brian, don't think that one hasn't crossed my mind a lot of times, in fact, at one point when we were missing our copy of the anthem before a HS football game, that was going to be my solution until I thought someone might not get "it" and complain. But if it were made the definitive version, well...
Given the unbelievably blown-out-of-proportion flap over singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish, I propose that we all learn how to sing it in Polish instead.
Craig, regarding "Don't Stop Believin'": While I too really like this song, do you really think that the national anthem should make a reference to a non-existent part of the country (I'm pretty sure you were the one who explained to me that there is no "South Detroit")?
"I've Been Everywhere" was written by a Canadian. They'd be all over this one, just like with Alexander Graham Bell.
I'm on board for "America the Beautiful". We played it in marching band rehearsal on September 12, 2001 in what was probably the most moving experience I've ever had in music.
I like the fact that it's hard. "O Canada", which everyone loves, is like pop music. The Star Spangled Banner is like a great orchestral composition or jazz. Harder to do, but when it's done and done well, it's beautiful. And there's something endearing about lots of people mangling it in different ways - there's beauty in dissonance.
With that said, if they do change it, I'll go for the Letterman route and request Lionel Richie's "Dancin' On the Ceiling".
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