Episode 31: Our Star-Spangled Banner, Ourselves
The American national anthem AKA The Star-Spangled Banner is absurd — in terms of the lyrics, the music, and also the weight behind it as a performance piece. And we can't just never talk about that, can we? So we're going in on it today, exploring the origins of this song and some iconic performances from the past 50 years.
The national anthem is a very hard song to sing and a high stakes milestone/legacy song for a lot of artists because, to put it simply, nationalism is real and rampant. Performances of the anthem and their outcomes can tell us a lot about an artist and Where We're At, culturally. Our Star-Spangled Banner, Ourselves.
We promised to share some crucial links in the show notes, and here they are:
Vox, Why the US national anthem is terrible — and perfect
National Anthem performances (and remix):
José Feliciano, 1968Jimi Hendrix, 1969Marvin Gaye, 1983Whitney Houston, 1991The Chicks, 2003Christina Aguilera, 2011Fergie, 2018Fergie/Warriors remix, 2018
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