[quote=“Tetsuo”]No no no, I’m pretty sure it’s
[quote]Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Oi oi oi![/quote][/quote]
That’s the one! Keep forgetting the damn words though.
Sod your national anthem, I wanna see you all do the
haka
!:taz:
[quote=“daasgrrl”]Sod your national anthem, I wanna see you all do the
haka
!:taz:[/quote]
To my eternal shame, I can no longer remember the actions, but I know the words by heart. Which is kind of pointless really.
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]The USA couldn’t come up with one by themselves as usual and used a British tune.[/quote]“It was the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during the British attack on September 13, 1814 that inspired 35-year old, poet-lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem which was to become our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem was written to match the meter of the English song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” (Francis Scott Key used this English drinking song to set the meter of “The Star-Spangled Banner”) In 1931 the Congress of The United States of America enacted legislation that made “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem.”
Huh? That would be news to me. Which British tune?[/quote]
Wow. Utterly floored by ignorance. You were being facetious, weren’t you?
[quote]During the 1800’s, the tunes of popular songs often were used for another set of lyrics. For example, Maryland, My Maryland is sung to the same tune as O Tanenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree). Following this custom, Francis Scott Key used a popular English drinking song as the basis of The Star-Spangled Banner.
The drinking song that Francis Scott Key used was from the Anacreontic Society, which was a popular gentlemen’s club in London (named after a Greek poet, Anacreon, who lived in the fifth century B.C., the “convivial bard of Greece”). The society’s membership was dedicated to “wit, harmony, and the god of wine.” The lyrics of the Anacreontic Song, the first four words of which are “To Anacreon in Heaven …” have been credited to the president of the Society, Ralph Tomlinson, Esquire. However, it is entirely possible, and perhaps even probable, that the song was a collective effort by the members. John Stafford Smith (1750-1836), a court musician and member of the society, was probably the driving force (he is also the composer of the British national anthem – God Save the Queen – a tune set to different lyrics here in the US which we know as My Country T’is of Thee). As early as 1798 the tune of The Anacreontic Song appeared in American papers with various lyrics, among these was Robert Treat Paine’s (1731-1814) popular Adams and Liberty, perhaps the most prominent American song prior to The Star-Spangled Banner.
As early as 1806 Francis Scott Key adapted the tune to an earlier poem he wrote entitled When the Warrior Returns in honor of an American naval victory over the Barbary pirates. It was the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during the British attack on September 13, 1814 that inspired 35-year old, poet-lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem, when he saw the flag over Fort McHenry “by the dawn’s early light.”[/quote]
To know that the national anthem for a nation that would voluntarily elect George W. Bush as president is the same tune sung by the 19th-century British version of drunken frat boys serves as the finest example of irony I know.
How interesting. During the prohibition era, the US Congress made the tune of a drinking song our national anthem.
i remember most of mine (Advance Australia Fair) and can sing along when it’s played but bugger me if i can remember it cold, without the right setting! even so, there’s always an extra verse i never recognise.
i remember the whole of ‘waltzing matilda’ though.
[quote=“urodacus”]
I remember the whole of ‘waltzing matilda’ though.[/quote]
In NZ we always sang this one lyons.mcmail.com/playgroundsongs/w.htm
Don’t know how we got it so wrong 
cute, bassman.
i don’t actually know any NZ songs, except Split Enz. Oh, and the Bats, and the Headless Chickens…and stuff.
I will totally stick up for aussie immigration. If it wasn’t for the nice 2 women that stopped me, I would have lost my permanent residency due to some weird visa application stuff cathay pacific did for me in taiwan.
They were helpful and very sweet and now I don’t have to re-apply for perm res, which took me 2 years and a bit o cash to get. 
I couldn’t see an immigration rep in the states doing this. 
That said, i think I have forgotten my national anthem as my husband always sings the US one from Naked Gun. 
For me it would depend on how they treated me at check point…Cause I know two Anthems for America…The regular and the Black National Anthem.
[i]Lift every voice and sing,
till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the
dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet
come to the place
for which our fathers died?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the white gleam
of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God,where we met thee;
lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world,we forget thee,
shadowed beneath thy hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God,
true to our native land.[/i]
By: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, 1901
I love this quote about the Canadian national anthem (and wonder if I channeled it in my earlier post on this subject):
“The school orchestra struck up with squeaks and flats, and we sang ‘O Canada!’, the words to which I can never remember because they keep changing them. Nowadays they do some of it in French, which once would have been unheard of. We sat down, having affirmed our collective pride in something we can’t pronounce.” - Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
[quote=“urodacus”]I remember most of mine (Advance Australia Fair) and can sing along when it’s played but bugger me if I can remember it cold, without the right setting! even so, there’s always an extra verse I never recognise.
I remember the whole of ‘waltzing matilda’ though.[/quote]
No offense, but I lost a lot of respect for Australia when they picked Advance etc. over Waltzing Matilda- it’s as mediocre as most other’s, (Canada’s especially.)
Best anthem for music has gotta be the “Marseillaise”
Waltzing Matilda should by all rights be Australia’s national anthem - it’s about camping, sheep theft, and evasion of justice. All in the great spirit of what it means to be Australian 
On the other hand, I think it’s pretty obvious why it wasn’t picked to officially represent Australia, and I don’t think any sensible person would have done otherwise. Of course, they could have kept the tune and done something about the words, I suppose.
The other unofficial anthem of Australia’s economic refugees (as adopted by Qantas): “I Still Call Australia Home”.
How interesting. During the prohibition era, the US Congress made the tune of a drinking song our national anthem.[/quote]
Why do you think Walt Whitman, a very enlightened American said this, in his Song of Myself, if he didn’t think contradiction was often good for a country:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
US poet (1819 - 1892)
Paradox is the key to living.
But to be fair, I agree that the Star Spangled Banner is hard to sing…How about God Bless America?
Just change “God” to “HB” (Higher Being)
jdsmith -
Although you may just be poking in jest, there is certainly no reason to change anything. The use of “God” in a song, or national anthem, should cause concern to no one. If it does, its their problem.
And, the United States of America has only 1 national anthem - The Star Spangled Banner. No others.
Personally I would prefer the song America the Beautiful as the anthem. Beautiful lyrics and a much much easier to sing melody. This change is brought up fairly regularly, but so far, no change.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]jdsmith -
Although you may just be poking in jest, there is certainly no reason to change anything. The use of “God” in a song, or national anthem, should cause concern to no one. If it does, its their problem.
And, the United States of America has only 1 national anthem - The Star Spangled Banner. No others.
Personally I would prefer the song America the Beautiful as the anthem. Beautiful lyrics and a much much easier to sing melody. This change is brought up fairly regularly, but so far, no change.[/quote]
Yes it was in jest. And I could do with America the Beautiful too. 
Is there any research of countries that did change their national anthem?
If I was a Seppo, I’d be pushing to have Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” for a national anthem. That’s a great song.
I only know the first verse, but at school we used to change it a bit:
God of Nations smell my feet
In the local pub we meet …
When we get round to changingit, some people have suggested this:
[quote] I was speaking to a mate of mine just the other day
A guy called Bruce Bayliss actually who lives up our way
He’s been living in Europe for the year, more or less
I said “How was Europe, Bruce?” He says “Fred, it’s a mess”
/ / / /
We don't-know how-lucky we are mate
We don't-know how-lucky we are
Me father-in-law’s been feeling pretty pleased with himself:
He’s been living in Greece for the good of his health.
I said, “How was the climate? And how was your year?”
He says, “The climate’s too hot, you can’t get a beer,
The sheilas look like blokes, and of course the blokes are all queer,
and if you want a really good time, you might as well live here.”
We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are
Me stock agent’s got a beach place where he spends most of his days
His wife bit the dust down there last year, got ate by a couple of crays
And his two littlest daughters got killed by a whale
I said “Are you goin’ down there this year mate?”
He says “Fred, right on the nail”
"We don't know how fortunate we are to have that place
We don't know how propitious are the circumstances Frederick"
So if things are looking really bad and you’re thinking of givin’ it away
Remember New Zealin’s a cracker place and I reckon that come what may
If things get appallingly bad and we all get atrociously poor
If we stand in the queue with our hats out one can borrow a few million more.
We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are
We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are.
[/quote]
[quote=“daasgrrl”]Waltzing Matilda should by all rights be Australia’s national anthem - it’s about camping, sheep theft, and evasion of justice. All in the great spirit of what it means to be Australian 
The other unofficial anthem of Australia’s economic refugees (as adopted by Qantas): “I still Call Australia Home”.[/quote]
while it is unAustralian to be unable to sing waltzing matilda (preferably while pissed, around a campfire) it doesn’t really rate as a great civic minded song… but they could have pickd a better replacement. still, we’ll be able to change it when we change the flag…when we’re finally a republic!
not that i’m holding my breath until little Johnny Howard dies
It’s got a lot of verses (seven), and it gets a tad radical as you go along (Woody was, well, pretty close to being a communist):
[quote]As I was walkin’
I saw a sign there
And that sign said no trespassin’
But on the other side
It didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me![/quote]
Years ago, I read an interview of the late Will Geer in Rolling Stone. He recalled the old days when he and Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger used to go around doing agit-prop, trying to help with union organizing. Will Geer mentioned that the three of them had been communists, and the interviewer asked him if they were members of the CPUSA. Mr. Geer replied that the CPUSA wouldn’t admit them as members because they were too eccentric.