Oh Say Can You Sing?

Most people are stuck on the fact that she messed up the words (for those of you who might have missed it when Aguilera was supposed to sing the line "O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming" on Sunday, she instead repeated an earlier line, with a slight variation. She sang, "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last reaming," repeating and mangling an earlier lyric, with the word 'watched' instead of 'hailed' and 'reaming' instead of 'gleaming.'

Aguilera later apologized and explained her goof up "I got so caught up in the moment of the song that I lost my place," she said. "I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through." I as a person can understand that one might get nervous at the most televised sporting event of the year, even if they are used to singing to HUGE crowds.

For those people, Like Neal Boortz that think the lyrics are too hard to learn and we should change the song to something more manageable, I would like to tell them to work harder. This is a song I've known since I was little. The words are ingrained in me like my name and social security number. To know this song, is to show how much pride you have in your country. It may not have been the first anthem of the country, but By the 1890s, the military had adopted the song for ceremonial purposes, requiring it to be played at the raising and lowering of the colors and its designation as the national athem became official by executive order of President Wilson in 1916. This order was confirmed by act of Congress in 1931. Therfore leaving it the official anthem that pretty much everyone alive today knows.

But as I can buy Aguilera's explanation for forgetting the lyrics, the part that actually bugs me is the way she sung it. Aguilera is not the first, nor will she be the last to add her own musical "flare" to the Star Spangled Banner. Some have been good, some not so good. Roseanne Barr's rendition at a 1990 San Diego Padres game and Macy Gray's 2001 version sung for the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game were among the most noteable throw aways. Jimi Hendrix's version, though trashed at first, is now considered by many to be quite beautiful. But does that give any of them the right, in a song that should invoke love and pride and honor in the country we live in, to sing it in ways so much different than the way it's written? Many of these renditions do not allow for the "feeling" of the song to come out. When you close your eyes and hold your hand over your heart, you should be able to see the broad stripes and bright stars as seen through the rockets red glare and hear the bombs bursting in air. We should not be distracted by how high, low, or warbly a voice can go, in other words, singers of the National Anthem should learn the KISS method - Keep It Simple Stupid.

If you want respect, you show respect, and that's what our anthem does for us. It shows how we respect our country when it's sung as it's supposed to be and it shows (as in the Olympics etc.) the pride and joy we feel when we watch the red white and blue fly over our heads.