What is your favorite patriotic song?

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

[freetobegay]

1. Other, as I duck from the chairs being thrown at me

Battle Hymn of the Republic.

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

3. interesting choice

I would have included it had I thought of it.

[DivinBreuvage]

66. Lots of good choices here already, I'd add "War" by Edwin Starr

"Battle Hymn of the Republic" gets my vote though.

[ugarte]

2. 'We Shall Overcome'

It moves me more than any of the nationalistic anthems.

[Maple]

4. The Maple Leaf Forever

....er, sorry.

[HEyHEY]

19. Damn you! I was gonna do that!

[LaPera]

5. Eve of Destruction.

[Zinfandel]

6. Hendrix version of The Star-Spangle Banner!!!

[Longhorn]

7. This Land is Your Land

by Woody Guthrie.

[AverageJoe]

10. Yes!

The best ever...

[senseandsensibility]

11. My favorite

as well. It's a beautiful, liberal song. I sing this with my elementary Hispanic and Vietnamese students, and they love it. I hope it gives them some sense of what our country has been and can be.

[TahitiNut]

17. Ubetcha! Best anthem of any, by far.

[dogtag]

20. Absolutely the best!

My second choice and the one I plan to sing on November 3 is:

"Happy Days Are Here Again"

[proud patriot]

27. Yep that's the one "This Land is Your Land"

:hi:

[Longhorn]

33. A refresher on the lyrics:

This land is your land,
This land is my land,
From California
To the New York Island,
From the redwood forest,
To the Gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking,
That ribbon of highway,
I saw above me
That endless skyway,
I saw below me
That golden valley.
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled
And I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

The sun comes shining
As I was strolling
The wheat fields waving
And the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

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!

In the squares of the city
In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office
I see my people
And some are grumblin'
And some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking
That freedom highway
Nobody living can make me turn back
This land was made for you and me

Doesn't that last verse describe all of us? Woody Guthrie was a genius!

[Hog lover]

49. A smart Longhorn - only time I ever agreed with one

Woo Pig Sooie!

[Z_I_Peevey]

67. Woody Guthrie was an Okie!

We have so little to be proud of here, politically-speaking. Please don't take Woody away from us!

And I love This Land Is Your Land too, of course.

[Longhorn]

76. Um, I could be wrong but I think I'm the "smart Longhorn"

that Hog Lover was agreeing with.

Oklahoma's claim to Woody is still intact! :D

[Z_I_Peevey]

77. Oops!

That'll teach me not to look at user names. <returns to ribbon of highway>

[murdoch]

41. That's mine too

[JI7]

53. YESS

[RedEarth]

73. Agreed....

[HootieMcBoob]

74. This Land Is Your Land!

I'm voting with you guys. That is my favorite patriotic song of all time :)

[starroute]

75. Gets my vote

I've thought for years that ought to be our real National Anthem.

[minkyboodle]

80. without a doubt

A patriotic song that knows no boundaries.

[nonconformist]

83. A big DITTO for that!

My all-time favorite, written in protest of God Bless America.

[Zero Gravitas]

88. Agreed

This machine kills fascists

[fishwax]

89. THAT should be the national anthem

I couldn't agree more with your choice.

[TlalocW]

8. Deutschland ueber Alles

Just kidding.

Fortunate Son by CCR.

TlalocW

[Zinfandel]

14. Yes great one, Fortunate Son by CCR!

[Burma Jones]

24. California Uber Alles....n/t

[LuCifer]

59. I'll 2nd that!

Hail Jello Biafra!

[Cobalt Violet]

9. I don't think God Bless American is patriotic.

I think it is religious.

[Zinfandel]

12. Also, Ray Charles version of America.

[Ready4Change]

25. Exactly what I was going to post.

.

[Window]

78. Also, Ray Charles' version of "God Bless America Again"

God bless America again
You see all the trouble that she's in
Wash her pretty face, dry her eyes and then
God bless America again

(Recitation)
Dear God, I sure do wish you could bless America again
Well, you know, just like they did way back when it all began
you know, you surely blessed it once and we just took it for granted
and never bothered to ask again
So just hold her hand God, that's all
And if she should stumble,
Please don't let her fall

God bless America again
You see all the trouble that she's in
Wash her pretty face, dry her eyes and then
God bless America again

(Recitation)
You know God, There's so much I don't understand
About what I read and hear is wrong in America
But I suppose if you don't have a lot of learnin'
There's so much you can't understand
Ahh but let me say this
God she's like a mother to me
And everything I am or ever hope to be
I owe it to You and to her

(Abbreviated chorus)
Wash her pretty face, dry her eyes and then
God bless America again

[kokomo]

13. Hate that many singers feel they must "style" the National Anthem.

You never hear "Oh Canada" or "God Save the Queen" trashed but why is it that so many here feel they must sing our anthem "their way" to the point that it sounds more like they are just playing around with their voices for their OWN entertainment. The National Anthem is not jazz, hip-hop, or country and I wish folks would just sing it the way it was written...for me that's when the song is it's most beautiful.

[thanks jon]

47. Jack Straw

gives me a warm fuzzy patriotic feeling. :kick:

[Rjnerd]

52. Well the tune started out as

a british drinking song, to be sung by serious amateur vocal societies. The melody is pretty beastly, in terms of the range it needs. Given that the tune was written by Purcell, who was a counter-tenor to the royal court, requiring a wide range is to be expected. (a counter-tenor is a male singing in semi-falsetto, to be used where we would now employ a female alto. No, they are still "intact", the "modified" usually wound up as second soprano's)

I suspect that some of the "styling" you hear is mostly an attempt to cover up the singers inability to stretch their instrument far enough to get it right. (most "pop" singers that get invited to perform it, never went thru the years of scale work needed to stretch their range wide enough to do the original tune justice.)

The words are interesting, but he should have picked a less ambitious tune to set them to.

[Bunny]

60. Yes! Just sing the damned song!

"O say, can you see". Each of those words has only one syllable! ONE!! That's it.

I love the Star Spangled Banner. It's the perfect national anthem. No one can sing it, and that's the beauty of it!

[reprobate]

92. It's because the tune is so damned hard to sing.

And not many know that the anthem was written to match the old English drinking song "Anacreon in Heaven".

[goforit]

15. I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandee........

I'm a Yankee do or die!!!!!

Toooo appropriate!!!

[Bluebear]

16. Toby Keith....

sucks. Just for the record. :)

[stevedeshazer]

18. Stars and Stripes Forever

John Philip Sousa. Real marching music.

[TahitiNut]

21. I also get goosebumps from "La Marseillaise"

Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé ! (bis)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Egorger nos fils et nos compagnes !

Refrain

Aux armes, citoyens !
Formez vos bataillons !
Marchons ! marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !

2

Que veut cette horde d'esclaves,
De traîtres, de rois conjurés ?
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés ? (bis)
Français, pour nous, ah! quel outrage !
Quels transports il doit exciter !
C'est nous qu'on ose méditer
De rendre à l'antique esclavage !

3

Quoi ! ces cohortes étrangères
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers !
Quoi ! ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fiers guerriers ! (bis)
Grand Dieu ! par des mains enchaînées
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient !
De vils despotes deviendraient
Les maîtres de nos destinées !

4

Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides,
L'opprobre de tous les partis,
Tremblez ! vos projets parricides
Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix ! (bis)
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre,
S'ils tombent, nos jeunes héros,
La terre en produit de nouveaux,
Contre vous tout prêts à se battre !

5

Français, en guerriers magnanimes,
Portez ou retenez vos coups !
Epargnez ces tristes victimes,
A regret s'armant contre nous. (bis)
Mais ces despotes sanguinaires,
Mais ces complices de Bouillé,
Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié,
Déchirent le sein de leur mère !

6

Amour sacré de la Patrie,
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs !
Liberté, Liberté chérie,
Combats avec tes défenseurs ! (bis)
Sous nos drapeaux, que la victoire
Accoure à tes mâles accents !
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire !

7

Nous entrerons dans la carrière
Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus;
Nous y trouverons leur poussière
Et la trace de leurs vertus. (bis)
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre
Que de partager leur cercueil,
Nous aurons le sublime orgueil
De les venger ou de les suivre !

[Jack from Charlotte]

82. I was in Paris in May at the Arc de Triomphe

It was a Friday afternoon. They were having a ceremony there and a military band came marching up the Champs trailed by a few military people and old guys of WWII age, with military medals and ribbons.

Many laid wreathes at the flame...... When the band struck up,
"La Marseillaise"... it was so stirring I choked and felt a tear.

Now, I have no idea the reason behind the ceremony and wouldn't know one word in that song.... (I googled it when arrived back home and read the translation) but the emotion was amazing.

I'll never forget it.

[TahitiNut]

84. That's an awesome place.

I'll never forget my first foray into Paris one evening for dinner, parking, walking around the corner, and seeing the Arc de Triomphe for the first time in person, with the huge tri-colour hanging spotlighted in the arch. I froze on the sidewalk and just teared up with goosebumps all over. Indescribable.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

85. Slightly off-topic,

but on my list of reasons why Casablanca was the best. movie. ever., that song is right at the top.

[TahitiNut]

90. Well, Major Strasser was a lousy singer, too.

:silly:

[ghostsofgiants]

22. Sam Roberts - "The Canadian Dream"

Patriotic isn't exclusive to America.

[bemildred]

23. Battle Hymn of the Republic.

It rocked 150 years ago, it still rocks.

[kimchi]

28. I have a strange fascination with that song.

It really does rock, although the words are overtly Christian and waaaaaaaaay too violent for my earthchild sensibilites. It really freaks me out that I'm so fond of it.. Past life or somethin'?

[bemildred]

31. I'm not religious myself, but you have to take things in context.,

The context of that song is the American Civil War, and the battle to
end slavery, and within that context it rocks.

[freetobegay]

32. The words are overpowering for why it was written

That truly was a war for freedom, unlike today's Iraq.

[murdoch]

43. That song was originally called John Brown's Body

From what I understand, that song was originally "John Brown's Body" and was an abolitionist song. John Brown was a radical abolitionist, so it was something of a radical song.

The tune was then used for the words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Ralph Chaplin later used the tune for the union song Solidarity Forever.

[kimchi]

48. That is part of why it creeps me out.

I had nightmares as a child after seeing a very realistic wax exhibit in Harper's Ferry. I associate tension and bloodshed with the song, as if I'm stuck in the past. Such a divided nation back then. Hmmm. Kinda like now.

[Burma Jones]

26. For a couple of months, my 4 year old daughter liked to hear

America the Beautiful as a lullaby. She's back to either Moonshadow or Ripple now..............

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. The Internationale

"Patriotism is the the most foolish of passions and the passion of fools." Schopenhauer

[Zinfandel]

30. Any song by Bob Roberts...And remember "Don't do crack, it's a ghetto drug"

[LiberteToujours]

34. O Canada

[AmerDem]

35. Ray Charles, America the Beautiful

Is a nice rendition.

[coreystone]

56. No one could sing it like Ray... he gave the song "soul"...and, that's ...

a good thing!

:-)

[KellyPaDem]

36. Proud to be an American

I think that's the title. Lee Greenwood sings it and I know Republicans think its there personal song but I still like it. Gets me choked up every time.

[Zinfandel]

37. Yellow Submarine!!

[OneBlueSky]

38. "This Land Is Your Land" is the only real patriotic song . . . n/t

.

[Crago]

39. Imagine. By John Lennon

Imagine
John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

[stanwyck]

63. Love this song

second you on this choice. Plus, Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World".

[FrankenforMN]

40. Keep On Rocking In the Free World -Neil Young

more of a protest song though..

[prairie populist]

42. My Country Tis of Thee

sweet land of Liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my Fathers died, Land of thy Pilgrims' pride, from every mountain side let Freedom ring.

We sang this song every morning at our little 3-room schoolhouse when I was growing up in the 1960s, and considered it our national anthem.

[kokomo]

45. But that's really a rip off of "God Save the Queen" the anthem of the U.K.

[prairie populist]

46. right you are

[mr blur]

64. Which is the most ignorant, out-dated piece of crap

that we could possibly have. Jingoistic, racist, xenophobic garbage. I cringe every time I hear it played. When I was younger they still played it in cinemas at the end of movies. The trick was to see if you could get out before it started, thus being able to avoid the hateful glares from the few people who actually stood to attention while it droned on and on and on.

[stranger_with_candy]

44. anything not being sung

by Celine Dion

[Dangerman]

50. I don't feel patriotic...

As long as BushCo is in the White House!

Anyway, any traditional song seems inappropriate in these times, especially after we unwillingly invaded a defenseless sovereign country under false pretenses perpetrated by the Bush slime factory. I often plug my ears when somebody sings "God Bless America" and sang some alternative lyrics like "God Forgive America".

Personally, Ray Charles' rendition of "America the Beautiful" is my favorite patriotic song and, this is sounds crazy, but Edwin Starr's "War" is a good patriotic song to me. After all, peace IS patriotic.

[Rjnerd]

51. People don't recognize tunes without the expected words....

I have a recording of the original words to "The Star Spangled Banner", the english 18th century pop tune "To Anachreon in Heaven". (on a Hilliard Ensemble recording of catches and glee's, aka drinking songs).

I have played it for groups of people from time to time. Most stand around with a very puzzled expression on their faces. Something sounds familliar, but they can't identify what... I suppose it does make a difference that people have never heard Anachreon (if they were awake in Jr high history, they might have heard the title), and since the recording is voice only, it doesn't have an instrumental intro to cue them. I expect if I played God Save the King (aka: my country tiz of the...) some would start with the words they knew...

I have to vote for America the Beautiful. There have been times in the past, where it has literally brought tears to my eyes. (it was at closing ceremonies for a charity event (4 day bike ride to raise money for AIDS care organizations, I was one of the mechanics). James Earl Jones had just given a really moving speech, and the song followed it. Most of had managed to keep it together until then...)

[Quetzal]

54. Born in the USA

By Bruce Springsteen

When we discover the truth about our nation, we find a deeper patriotism.

[Piperay]

55. This Land is Your Land

says it all. :-)

[Laughing Mirror]

57. Living In America by the Godfather of Soul James Brown

[TXDemGal]

58. Another vote for This Land Is Your Land n/t

[Robeson]

61. America...

...written by Paul Simon.

[auburngrad82]

62. Eat the Rich, by Krokus

[flobee1kenobi]

65. Brother Ray!

America the beautiful by Ray Charles

[IrateCitizen]

68. This Land is Your Land by Woodie Guthrie

With "America the Beautiful" (especially performed by Ray Charles) running a not-too-distant second. You also can't help but love the fact that our national anthem was originally a British drinking song (To Anachron in Heaven).

I HATE the song "God Bless America". I find it to be overly jingoistic and nationalistic.

[Sabriel]

69. For this year, it's "Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over"!

Or perhaps, "Kiss Him Goodbye."

[Bucky]

70. She bang, she bang, bang-bang, she groove, she bang, she bang, bang-bang

[prayin4rain]

71. You're a Grand Ol' Flag

You're a grand old flag
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave
You're the emblem of
The land I love
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
under Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or a brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on that Grand Old Fla-ag!

I love this song...has a catchy beat.

[Forkboy]

72. Stars and Stripes of Corruption

by the Dead Kennedys

[lefthandedskyhook]

79. Woody Guthrie all the way! n/t

[dryan]

81. Several.....

America the Beautiful
This Land is Your Land
My Country Tis of Thee
and believe it or not "Overthere" by Cohan. This was my grandfather's favorite song. He was taught it by American doughboys fighting in Europe during World War I. Every time I hear it I get weepy.

[Spirochete]

86. Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

[Dinger]

87. This Land Is Your Land

Now, this will KILL me to admit, but I really like Lee Greenwood's version - it's awesome, really, even though he a bu$h buttlicker.

[drdtroit]

91. America the Beautiful!

No: perilous fight
No: watching ramparts
No: rocket's red glare
No: bombs bursting in air

Just spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains, fruited plains, BROTHERHOOD!

[reprobate]

93. I agree with America the Beautiful, with This land is Your Land

A close second. And in times like these This Land seems more appropriate.