What's your favorite national song?

[Recursion]

I like several, but I'm curious what people think.

(As much as I love them, I've left the services' hymns out: the Marines' and Navy hymns are awesome, though...)

(Obviously, if it's "other" please share...)

24 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	The Star-Spangled Banner
	4 (17%)
	The Battle Hymn of the Republic
	2 (8%)
	God Bless America
	0 (0%)
	This Land is Your Land
	9 (38%)
	America the Beautiful
	7 (29%)
	We Shall Overcome
	0 (0%)
	Yankee Doodle
	0 (0%)
	Dixie / Bonnie Blue Flag (I figured I should put them up here; I actually like the songs themselves per se...)
	0 (0%)
	Born in the USA
	2 (8%)
	When Johnny Comes Marching Home
	0 (0%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. The Marseillaise (since you didn't say "American")

but of those listed?

[Recursion]

4. Not l'International? (nt)

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Not really a "national song", is it?

[Recursion]

10. Kind of by definition, yeah? Fair' point. (nt)

[closeupready]

49. +1.

[catrose]

80. My first thought too! eom

[Arkansas Granny]

2. America the Beautiful sung by Ray Charles.

[Lonusca]

97. Beat me to it

Without question.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. The Star Spangled Banner, no doubt.

as done by Jimi Hendrix.

[postulater]

6. Star Trek: The Next Generation theme

Ok it's a federation not a nation but I'm not a nation person.

[surrealAmerican]

7. From this group, I've got to choose Yankee Doodle.

It's brimming with the sort of eighteenth century weirdness you just don't see anywhere else.

[seveneyes]

8. "Proud to be an American"

[Recursion]

9. Lee Greenwood?

When I was in boot camp, once we "earned our stripes" and were officially Marines, they played greenwood's song. It's not as bad a song as people think, but still.

[seveneyes]

11. It was the first song that popped into my head after seeing the thread

Satire and coffee is breakfast on this Friday morning.

[JustAnotherGen]

33. A very nice man

Met him many many years ago at a New Year's Eve Celebration. That song is from his heart!

[4Q2u2]

42. Remember them playing that as well

I have hated that song ever since then. Not because of the song or the person but for the associated memory. After getting kicked in the nuts for weeks on end and just finishing Hell Week they played that song and it seem so out of place for me. It felt like such a contrived forced emotion that it had the opposite effect on me.

[joshcryer]

94. You cracked me up, funny.

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. The British Patriotic song, Jerusalem - is the most beautiful of all Patriotic songs in my opinion

Last edited Fri Apr 25, 2014, 11:01 AM - Edit history (1)

It makes me cry every time I hear it. I know of no song so poetic, so visionary and so beautiful

Although for America I would go with the Battle Hymn of the Republic -

Here is Jerusalem with the lyrics by William Blake

[Recursion]

16. That's a good one (nt)

[TBF]

13. How about "Born in the USA" by Springsteen?

I would pick the Internationale but it doesn't really qualify - it's my favorite international ballad.

[Recursion]

15. I had limited slots. Maybe that one should replace one.

Try it now....

[TBF]

22. Thanks! I do love Springsteen :) nt

[JackRiddler]

14. The "nation" is an illusion used to prop up power.

Generally not the power of the person who's invoking it as though he belongs to it and others do not.

So I want to say, the Internationale or the Marseillaise.

But also not those. They're also bullshit.

Artistically, the high point of this genre you wish to honor came at the end of Woodstock. The Jimi Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner. As he played it, and no other.

So that's my answer. Hendrix.

[el_bryanto]

19. All social contracts are illusions - it's an illusion to imagine that by helping others I can

somehow help myself. Probably a necessary illusion though.

Bryant

[JackRiddler]

21. The question is whether these are contracts.

An old one.

When were you asked to sign?

I submit the concept of social contract is a way of exploiting the individual's desire to see themselves as a sovereign. That is the appeal. Because the alternative seems to be that one is just shaped and never had a choice. However, that is about a hundred times more plausible.

Not that I'm suggesting any solutions!

[el_bryanto]

17. Columbia the Gem of the Ocean is good too

But not my favorite. It was a runner up for our national anthem at one point.

Bryant

[Violet_Crumble]

18. I don't have one, so I'll go with one even more horrible than those ones...

I guess it counts as a national song, plus it's even worse than the stodgy national anthem and a few others...

&list=RDXfR9iY5y94s

[el_bryanto]

20. I think you said horrible when you meant to say awesome. nt

[Violet_Crumble]

25. No, I meant horrible*, though there are some in that bunch I haven't heard of...

Is 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' considered an American national song sort of thing? If so, this version, and this version only, MUST hands-down be the best national song ever...

* Oops! Only just spotted Born In The USA in there. That's certainly not a horrible song. I saw Springsteen do it live back in the 80's and it qualifies as pretty good...

[el_bryanto]

27. I was referring specifically to the awesome song "Land Down Under."

I was like 13 or 14 when it hit so it bypassed some of the filters I've developed since then - I remember one of my friends telling me that he'd discovered a song that expressed everything about him - and it was "Land Down Under."

Bryant

[Violet_Crumble]

35. I probably should have said annoying rather than horrible...

Even back then I hated catchy songs that sucked a fair bit and kept on jumping out to annoy me everywhere I turned

[pangaia]

31. "Buy me some peanuts and crack!"

[JackRiddler]

23. Sympathy for the Devil.

[Champion Jack]

37. +10000

I was going to say the Hendrix version of the Star-Spangled Banner

[Zorra]

24. The Fish Cheer ~ I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag, or Money by Pink Floyd

[lunasun]

53. YE$

[Lizzie Poppet]

58. On that note (see what I did there):

[H2O Man]

26. Jimi at Woodstock. n/t

[G_j]

30. word!

[Champion Jack]

38. ++++

[LuvNewcastle]

28. Being a Woody Guthrie fan, I had to go with 'This Land Is Your Land.'

I like the way it includes everyone, which is what America really should be all about. We should be a country that recognizes the brotherhood of all mankind and share this great land with one another as we would with a brother or sister. There's more than enough for all of us if we use our resources correctly and don't be greedy.

[PoliticalPothead]

32. +1,000,000

[leftynyc]

45. I USED to like that that song

until I went to a Dave Matthews concert and he played Don't Drink The Water. Combining This Land with that song (which he does when playing live) shows how really awful it is - it's our land because he slaughtered the Native Americans to get it.

[leftynyc]

46. The lyrics to Don't Drink The Water

"Don't Drink the Water"

Come out come out
No use in hiding
Come now come now
Can you not see?
There's no place here
What were you expecting
Not room for both
Just room for me
So you will lay your arms down
Yes I will call this home
Away away
You have been banished
Your land is gone
And given me
And here I will spread my wings
Yes I will call this home
What's this you say
You feel a right to remain
Then stay and I will bury you
What's that you say
Your father's spirit still lives in this place
I will silence you
Here's the hitch
Your horse is leaving
Don't miss your boat
It's leaving now
And as you go I will spread my wings
Yes I will call this home
I have no time to justify to you
Fool you're blind, move aside for me
All I can say to you my new neighbor
Is you must move on or I will bury you
Now as I rest my feet by this fire
Those hands once warmed here
I have retired them
I can breathe my own air
I can sleep more soundly
Upon these poor souls
I'll build heaven and call it home
'Cause you're all dead now
I live with my justice
I live with my greedy need
I live with no mercy
I live with my frenzied feeding
I live with my hatred
I live with my jealousy
I live with the notion
That I don't need anyone but me
Don't drink the water
Don't drink the water
There's blood in the water
Don't drink the water

[HERVEPA]

55. But has to be the full version. With the "subversive" verses as well.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

[Ex Lurker]

29. Waltzing Matilda nt

[Violet_Crumble]

34. It's only good when it's done by the Wiggles...

[BainsBane]

44. The Pogues

[rurallib]

36. Favorite is "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond

Surprised there isn't any Sousa in there, like "Stars and Stripes Forever"

ETA - why not watch it?

[tularetom]

39. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Won't make you want to stand up and wave the flag but it'll sure make you think.

[dipsydoodle]

52. And today is Anzac Day

[VScott]

40. Yankee Rose

[hrmjustin]

41. My country tis of thee.

[DanTex]

43. America! Fuck Yeah!

[joshcryer]

95. This is what I thought of too.

[winter is coming]

47. Lift Every Voice and Sing. n/t

[kwassa]

87. I love this song. James Weldon Johnson.

I sing bass, and this has a fabulous bass line, besides being a great song.

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 sighed
We have come over a way that with tears has 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.[6]

[Coventina]

48. Based on musical merit, I'm going with "Stars and Stripes Forever"

for songs associated with the United States.

For official national anthems on a global scale, I feel it's a toss-up between Germany's "Deutschland" and Russia's, again, based on musical merit (IMHO).

For non-official national songs....well, I might be stretching the definition of "song" a bit here, but Sibelius' "Finlandia" and Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" are my favorites. There's a move in Finland to switch their current anthem for Finlandia.

[LeftinOH]

50. "Living in America" - James Brown

[Iggo]

51. It's a tie between Oh Canada and that French one from that Humphrey Bogart picture. (n/t)

[fadedrose]

93. French Natl Anthem......I like the Russian Natl Anthem too

but it's too beautiful and sad for a creep like Putin

La Marseilles...... Ingrid Bergman, Claude Reines, and "As Time Goes By" was nice too....memory lapse, can't think of the name of that movie...I saw it as a child and many times after on TV...

What great war movies we had . . .

[Iggo]

96. Casablanca.

Funny how our recall gets slower as time goes by, eh?

[fadedrose]

101. That's it....thanks....

I think to myself, going to the kitchen to take something out of the freezer for supper, walk 20 ft or so, and in the kitchen, I can't remember what it was that I was there for...

Stuff like that happens all day.

[On the Road]

54. Abraham Lincoln's Choice

probably would have been "Dixie." He loved that song.

I like hearing the Star-Spangled Banner sung in Baltimore, since the crowd always shouts the final "O" in honor of the Orioles. (First time hearing this was surreal.)

Although, if I have to sing a song in front of a group, I have been known to choose the Canadian national anthem.

[Jesus Malverde]

56. Smells like teen spirit.

[eShirl]

57. American Pie

[NuclearDem]

59. When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Orchestral version is terrific, but also because it has its anti-war counterpart Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye.

Side note, knowing that tune is both for a tragic and heroic song, rewatch Dr. Strangelove with that in mind.

[TlalocW]

60. Pacman Fever by Buckner & Garcia

Technically it's not a national song... yet, but I've been working for years to get it recognized as such.

One day...

TlalocW

[Paladin]

61. Damn near anything is better than "Star Spangled Banner," AFAIC.

Sorry to anyone who's offended, but musically and lyrically, there are plenty of obscure Third World nations with much better national anthems than ours, songs which aren't so routinely and depressingly mangled at sporting events. I know there have been discussions of replacing it with something better in the past, but I don't think such efforts ever got anywhere. Kind of a shame.

[Coventina]

63. I'm OK with the lyrics, it's the music that's spectacularly under-whelming.

It's not a masterpiece, but we should have stuck with "Hail, Columbia."

JMHO

[Paladin]

66. Lyrics which largely consist of a series of questions about one old obscure battle?

JMHO, as well.

[Coventina]

67. Well, I'm "OK" with them, not in love with them.

And yes, a series of questions is more suited to the original poem, rather than a song lyric.

We should give a sound to those who saddled us with this silly choice.

[Paladin]

68. Oh, well. Nothing to lose sleep over, right? (nt)

[L0oniX]

62. Big Bad John or Workin in the Coal Mine.

[Blue_In_AK]

71. Or...

You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

[Spirochete]

64. Propbably this one...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

65. Pink Houses

[KamaAina]

69. O Canada

you didn't specify American, and I'm a hockey fan.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

76. +1.

Although I'm not a hockey fan, I live with a Canadiens fan.

I think she mainly watches for the fights, though.

[KamaAina]

77. They certainly got it done!

They swept out Tampa Bay with le broom!

Why is there hockey in Tampa Bay?

[enigmatic]

70. Phil Ochs- "The Power And The Glory"

Come and take a walk with me thru this green and growing land
Walk thru the meadows and the mountains and the sand
Walk thru the valleys and the rivers and the plains
Walk thru the sun and walk thru the rain

Here is a land full of power and glory
Beauty that words cannot recall
Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom
Her glory shall rest on us all (on us all)

From Colorado, Kansas, and the Carolinas too
Virginia and Alaska, from the old to the new
Texas and Ohio and the California shore
Tell me, who could ask for more?

Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of her poor
Only as free as the padlocked prison door
Only as strong as our love for this land
Only as tall as we stand

But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate
They twist away our freedom & they twist away our fate
Fear is their weapon and treason is their cry
We can stop them if we try

[DreamGypsy]

104. Yes. I was going to choose Phil's song as well.

A great song.

A couple notes: The video is from Phil's performance on The Midnight Special in 1974. This was after Phil was robbed and strangled in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1973. and his vocal chords were damaged. You care clearly hear the loss of range as he falters in a couple of verses of the song. The last verse listed in the lyrics "But our land is troubled ..." was not in the original version of the song; I don't know exactly when it was added.

Thanks for posting in, enigmatic!

[Arugula Latte]

72. I Like Big Butts

[applegrove]

73. "Ca na da" Bobby Gimby's Canada Song I loved as a kid. Don't quite know

why a hymn from France found its way into the song....though it was 1967 so someone was trying to be inclusive.

[Shandris]

74. No Freddie Mercury, no vote!

Seriously, isn't it about time We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions became the national anthem? If the point of an anthem is rousing emotion, can those other old songs really compete?

[kwassa]

90. Queen is not an American group.

[Shandris]

91. I find this to be wholly irrelevant. =) <n/t>

[adirondacker]

75. Fake Empire followed by Mr. November...

]

[Strelnikov_]

78. Hymn of the Russian Federation n/t

[Strelnikov_]

79. Testify n/t

[etherealtruth]

81. "Oh ... Canada"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XjiwBwBL4Qo

I actually love O Canada (one does not grow up watching Hockey Night in Canada ... and not have a fondness for the canadian National Anthem)

[Maedhros]

82. The Imperial March

There is no better invocation of American hegemony in the 21st century.

[XRubicon]

83. Anchors Aweigh

[bmbmd]

84. Hands down.

[link:

|

[Tikki]

85. X "New World" (1983)

Tikki

[countryjake]

86. My favorite "love of country" song...John Prine's The Great Compromise...

[Gravitycollapse]

88. National songs are unnecessary kitsch used to blind people to the ills of the state.

[JackRiddler]

89. Yeah, except...

not just unnecessary.

Actively toxic.

And objectively necessary -- to those who would ride the rest.

[kwassa]

92. "Stars and Stripes Forever" John Phillip Sousa

as someone with nary a standard patriotic bone in his body, this Sousa march can get me up and marching.

[AngryAmish]

98. Wiggle it, Just a Little Bit

[onethatcares]

99. "your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore"

thank you very much, John Prine

then there's

"This land is your land" Woody Guthrie

[cthulu2016]

100. "American Tune" should be our national anthem

[jberryhill]

102. Walk This Way

[yallerdawg]

103. Where y'all been? This IS our National Anthem!

&feature=player_detailpage

[craigmatic]

105. The Internationale

[MADem]

106. I love We Shall Overcome but I don't regard it as a "national" song. It's more of a "human" song.

For national songs, I'd say "Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean" is my favorite. It's easy to sing, and sped up, it was often the soundtrack of some of my favorite cartoons as a child:

I'm pretty sure there are children in school today who have never heard this song, never mind had the opportunity to sing the words.