National Anthem Revisited

Why do singers want to discombobulate, so rudely, the Star Spangled Banner? Folks, this tune should be revered not reviled. I hear singer after singer trying to put their own twist to this wonderful yet difficult to sing song, failing miserably, most of the time. As written, the song has a definite number of notes but a majority of the performers insist on taking it to a level that renders the song undistinguishable to the human ear.

I've heard young women in sports venues drag it on to over two minutes trying to make it their own. Ladies, it's not a song about you. It's a tribute song to the US of A written in a time of turmoil.

All the military bands play the tune in one minute and who better to show the rest of us how it's best performed.

This leads me to my pernt.

There are those of you who will tag me as a racist for the following opinion but it is just an opinion and it's my right to voice my opinion. If you don't like it voice a rebuttal of your own.

Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul”, absolutely slaughtered the National Anthem a couple weeks ago in Detroit as the Lions prepared to do battle with some other football team. I listened to the first few notes and decided my blood pressure didn't need to hear the end or the middle or any other part of that four-and-a-half minute treasonous travesty. It was undoubtedly the absolute worst rendition I have ever witnessed. Jimi Hendricks ruined it at Woodstock in 1969 or so. Rosanne Barr spat and scratched her way through it before a baseball game. But they were tame compared to Mrs. Franklin's take on the tune.

That's it for now folks. Thanks for listening. (And keep those cards and letters coming.)