Star Spangled Banner

You opened the thread, now pick up where the previous person left off. Lets see if it gets completed.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light...

What so proudly we hailed,

at the twilight's last gleaming.

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea?

through the perilous fight

haha oops!

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare

the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night.

That our flag was still there.

Oh, say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave?

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

I'm willing to bet that there are many out there that have never heard (or even knew that there were more) verses

during the war the Anthem was never sung without the 4th verse being included ... not sure when the tradition of the starting all sporting events with the singing/playing of the National Anthem was begun

2nd verse:

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

3rd verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

4th verse:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I'd like to see the response of a crowd hearing all the verses.

N Sperlo wrote: I'd like to see the response of a crowd hearing all the verses.

It really is a E36 M3ty song. We would pick something only people with a whistle in their necks could sing correctly. You wouldn't want the peasants to be able to belt it out or anything.

In reply to N Sperlo:

Goosebumps. That is all.

I was a marching band geek for 9 years. That also meant most home basketball games and several dozen springtime sports games each year as well. I probably have played the Star Spangled Banner over a thousand times. I still get goosbumps when the final lines of the first verse are sang...when you hear the crowd start to roar as the song is drawing to a close, and when ...the home of the brave is sang, and the crowd loses its mind...its pretty awesome.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: I'd like to see the response of a crowd hearing all the verses.

It really is a E36 M3ty song. We would pick something only people with a whistle in their necks could sing correctly. You wouldn't want the peasants to be able to belt it out or anything.

origins of the tune

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/624/was-the-melody-of-the-star-spangled-banner-taken-from-an-old-drinking-song

4cylndrfury wrote: I was a marching band geek for 9 years. That also meant most home basketball games and several dozen springtime sports games each year as well. I probably have played the Star Spangled Banner over a thousand times. I still get goosbumps when the final lines of the first verse are sang...when you hear the crowd start to roar as the song is drawing to a close, and when *...the home of the brave* is sang, and the crowd loses its mind...its pretty awesome.

sorta the same as trying to keep a dry eye at the playing of "Taps" at a funeral

how the bugle player manages I don't know

wbjones wrote: sorta the same as trying to keep a dry eye at the playing of "Taps" at a funeral

Those motherberkeleyers playing Danny Boy on the bag pipes at funerals ruin my E36 M3 every time - even if I didn't know the departed.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

Danny Boy doesn't do it for me, even on the bagpipes (which in many cases do do it for me). It is for funerals what Green Day's Good Riddance is for high school graduations.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

wbjones wrote: sorta the same as trying to keep a dry eye at the playing of "Taps" at a funeral

Those motherberkeleyers playing Danny Boy on the bag pipes at funerals ruin my E36 M3 every time - even if I didn't know the departed.

Taps, Danny Boy, Amazing Grace ... all of those (especially on bag pipes)

In reply to wbjones:

Only taps on the trumpet and amazing grace on bagpipes get to me.....