Topic: origins of the American National Anthem
daniel48706's photo
Sun 05/25/08 08:54 PM
Edited by daniel48706 on Sun 05/25/08 08:55 PM
I think most people here know the American National Anthem is "The Star Spangled Banner". Yet how many know it's history?

While lookin gup songs for a time slot I will be dj'ing for, I ran across this information about the star-spangled banner and where it originated. I thought you might be interested, and decided toplace it here as well.

let me know what you think.


The Star-Spangled Banner has its genesis as an English-American hybrid.

The music as we know it today is English in origin. Ralph Tomlinson,

president of the Anacreontic Society, a London social club, wrote a poem

in 1770 called "To Anacreon in Heaven." A year later John Stafford Smith,

an organist and composer set the poem to music. Forty-three years later

Francis Scott Key, a poet-lawyer, witnessed the valiant defense of Fort McHenry

by American forces during The Battle of Baltimore. One thousand dedicated

Americans stopped the British advance on Baltimore, and on September 13, 1814

when he saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry "by the dawn's early light,

" Francis Scott Key changed the words of the original tune from England, replacing

them with his own. He named it The Star-Spangled Banner. In 1931 the Congress of the

United States enacted legislation that made the song this country's official national anthem.



here is a link to where you canlisten to the original song it was based upon: http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/star-spangled-banner.htm

jlopez88's photo
Sun 05/25/08 08:56 PM
Isnt funny how our anthem is from another tune/country, just like most of our patriotic songs. That original song, is a drinking song too.

daniel48706's photo
Sun 05/25/08 09:03 PM

Isnt funny how our anthem is from another tune/country, just like most of our patriotic songs. That original song, is a drinking song too.


And how do you get the information that it is a drinking song in less than five minutes from my posting it? I am not saying your are wrong, but it is an obscure bit of information to begin with, and for you to already know that it was a drinking song without researching it, seems kinda funny.

daniel48706's photo
Sun 05/25/08 09:05 PM
also, you have to stop and remember, America is originally British, wether we want to remember that or not. And when we settled over here inthe new land, we brought all our traditions and such with us. So, considering we are still young enough as a country to be considered a child or pre-teen, then it is not unreasonable that a lot of our patriotic somgs may have come from Britain, or elsewhere.