If W. had to choose a new national anthem, what would it be?

[Fenris]

With apologies to HypnoToad.

Personally, I think if El Presidente had to pick a national anthem he'd probably pick something he heard off of an FM Classic Rock station. I have compiled a few picks I think he'd be pleased with.

"Feel Like Makin' Love" by Bad Company
"Rock You Like a Hurricane" by Scorpions
"Animal (F**k Like A Beast)" by WASP
"Dr. Feelgood" by Mötley Crüe
"Holy Diver" by Dio

Please add to the list of potential songs Shrub might choose if he were in charge of picking a new national anthem.

[noonwitch]

1. The Dukes of Hazzard theme song

Or some other red neck song.

[Fenris]

3. That song is by Waylon Jennings

And you're right, it would be perfect.

[JVS]

17. Hey that's a good song! How could Bush be like a "modern day Robin Hood"?

Let me recite it from memory.

Just the good old boys
Never meaning no harm
Beats all you never saw
been in trouble with the law
since the day they were born

Straight'nin the curves
Flat'nin the hills
some day the mountain might a get em
but the law never will

Making their way
the only way they know how
that's just a little bit more
than the law will allow

Just the good old boys
wouldn't change if they could
fighting the system like a real modern day Robin Hood
Yeeeeehaaaaw!

[eyesroll]

2. I like Ambrose Bierce's take:

A RATIONAL ANTHEM

My country 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of felony,
Of thee I sing--
Land where my fathers fried
Young witches and applied
Whips to the Quaker's hide
And made him spring.

My knavish country, thee,
Land where the thief is free,
Thy laws I love;
I love thy thieving bills
That tap the people's tills;
I love thy mob whose will's
All laws above.

Let Federal employees
And rings rob all they please
The whole year long.
Let office-holders make
Their piles and judges rake
Our coin. For Jesus' sake,
Let's all go wrong!

[Enraged_Ape]

4. "Oops I Did it Again"

by Shrub apologist Britney Spears.

[Maple]

5. Hail

to the Chief.

[nannygoat]

6. "Get down on it" by Kool & the Gang? n/t

[qb]

7. Amerikkka Uber Alles

[MisterP]

8. oo ee oo-ah-ah...

[Kamika]

9. Flight of the valkyries

By Wagner

[ixion]

10. All my ex's live in Texas

:evilgrin:

[LynneSin]

11. What was Hitler's national anthem?

That seems more appropriate

[supernova]

14. Deutchland Uber Alles

which was actually a nazi rewrite of the Austrian national anthem played for the Hapsburg monarchs. Forget the original name, but it's on par with "God Save the Queen".

[JVS]

18. That song, "Das Deutschlandlied" goes back to 1848

It was based on the Austrian "Gott erhalte Franz, den Kaiser" But the lyrics were changed to reflect the popular desire for a German national parliamentary state, rather than a collection of dynastic states. The goal was a German republic modeled on the French republic, but with a semi-figure head monarch, like England at the time. They asked Friedrich IV (I think 4, maybe 3) king of Prussia to be their monarch, but he refused to "accept a crown from the gutter" and sent troops throughour what would become Germany to crush the movement during the 1848 revolution. Wilhelm I later unified Germany in 1871 and the "Deutschlandlied" was adopted as the national anthem, remaining the national anthem until 1945. After the war it was decided to adopt the 3rd verse of the song for the West German national anthem. The East went with an entirely new song.

The Nazi's had another song which was something like the party anthem called the Horst-Wessel-Lied. It was about a party member who had been killed back in the early days and how the spirit in which he sacrificed continued, or something along those lines. This song was on an equal footing with the national anthem between 1933-1945. Kind of like "God Bless America" was here for a while after 9/11

[recidivist]

22. Correct about the words. The tune, by Haydn, is even older. (1797)

Anyway you slice it, the Germans have got one of the best national anthems around. The music, by Haydn, is commonly used in this country as a hymn. The "Deutschland uber alles" words -- these are the first words of the first stanza, which is not used today -- were written in the 1840's during the struggle for German unification.

There is an historical irony here. Originally the words "uber alles" had nothing to do with any notion of German imperialism or national superiority. The song was about GERMAN unification, and the anthem meant you were German first and foremost -- not Bavarian, Saxon, Prussian, Austrian, Wurtemburgian, Pomeranian, etc. Allied propaganda during WWII put a sinister twist on the words, which is too bad because it's a great song.

The first stanza of the historical tune is still touchy today, quite apart from the misunderstanding about "uber alles," because it references several areas of Germany that were stripped away after the war. The Germans have bent over backwards to avoid any appearance of longing over the lost territories, and rightly so ...

(... Although Silesia still ought to be German; Gdansk is really Danzig, an old Hanseatic League city that was German for 800 years; and Kaliningrad is Koenigsburg, the capital of East Prussia.)

[buff2]

12. The" YELLOW" Rose of Texas?

:7

[Caution]

13. One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer

Let's Get Drunk and Screw - Jimmy Buffet
Cocaine - Eric Clapton
Fuck Authority - Pennywise
All Good Soldiers - Bad Religion
One - Metallica

[Japhy_Ryder]

15. Maybe he'd misinterpret Born In the USA like Reagan did.

Or else Jesus is just alright with me, by the Doobie Brothers.

[KittyWampus]

16. I'm A Little Teapot

for some reason that's what popped into my head. :)

[Champion Jack]

19. Theme song from "Merry Melodies"?

[MoonGod]

20. "God Bless America" or "Let the Eagle Soar"

Those seem like the obvious choices to me.

[Rick Myers]

21. Rem--The End of The World

[regnaD kciN]

23. "Money (That's What I Want)"...

...but not the Beatles version, since they're furriners.

[matcom]

24. What If God Smoked Cannabis

the Joan Osbourne parady :P

[bbernardini]

25. The guy that wrote that...

...came in to talk to my students about performing and songwriting. He's a member of The Hooters as well.

[bbernardini]

26. Frank Zappa's version of "America The Beautiful"

From the 1988 tour. Never officially released, but amazing.

[Booberdawg]

27. Cocaine

[Fenris]

28. Oh Oh! Sanford and Son Theme Song!

Or Benny Hill!

[Forkboy]

29. Stars and Stripes of Corruption

by the Dead Kennedys.