Though he may have won all the battles / We had all the good songs

French National Anthem easier to sing??? It’s not even in English!

This makes it easier rather than harder to sing. Viz: “Tom tom tee tom tom tom tom TOM tom tomtom, La la la la la, dee dee dee.” Etc.

Tongue in cheek, but Lehrer’s right – the folkies do have all the best songs.

As regards the worst National Anthem, I think Advance Australia Fair wins hands down. Reputedly written as a training exercise, the only distinctively Australian feature to which it refers is the fact that “our land is girt by sea” (not very distinctive I admit, but more so than “golden soil, and wealth for toil”).

And there I was thinking the English national anthem is “Three Lions”!

Speaking of (unofficial) national anthems and songs about exhausted and enslaved peoples, I hereby claim for the left the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco.

Elsewhere in the operatic tradition, both Fidelio and Das Rheingold are clearly left-wing operas, and for classical music generally, we can claim the whole of Beethoven (why not?) and especially the final movement of the 9th with Schiller’s Ode to Joy. I’m tempted to throw in any settings of works by Heine too (after all he was Karl Marx’s friend and correspondent).

As regards the worst National Anthem, I think Advance Australia Fair wins hands down

For an embarrassingly long time, I believed that Waltzing Matilda was the national anthem of Australia. Australian friends were content to allow me to continue in this error because the truth was more embarrassing.

Chris wroted:

Elsewhere in the operatic tradition, both Fidelio and Das Rheingold are clearly left-wing operas, and for classical music generally, we can claim the whole of Beethoven (why not?) and especially the final movement of the 9th with Schiller’s Ode to Joy.

In fact, Mr Beethoven’s stirring tune has been well-and-truly anthemed, although without Mr Schiller’s words, which are considered rather too German for some tastes:

In 1972, the Council of Europe (the same body that designed the European flag) adopted Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” theme as its own anthem. The well-known conductor Herbert Von Karajan was asked to write three instrumental arrangements – for solo piano, for wind instruments and for symphony orchestra. Without words, in the universal language of music, this anthem expresses the ideals of freedom, peace and solidarity for which Europe stands.

All together now:

Laaa la la LA la la la,
La la la la LA la la…

Marvellous.

Further to Chris Bertram’s insight into Beethoven, I’d have to prefer his (LvB’s) assessment of the musical merits of God Save the Queen to Kieron’s. The words, ofcourse, are quite another thing.

Noting in passing that a national anthem played on kazoos (or electric guitars with massive feedback) is self-evidently brilliant (and much more what America is all about), I’ll add that the right only likes Born in the USA because they don’t read the words. Scratch country just a little bit and you’ll find old-fashioned populism, which will be lefty if the lefty folks don’t look down on the country people.

Viz:

The old man turned off the radio, said:
“Where did all of the old songs go?
“Kids sure play funny music these days.
“They play it in the strangest ways”.
Said: “It looks to me like they’ve all gone wild.
“It was peaceful back when I was a child.”
Well, man could it be that the girls and boys,
Are trying to be heard above your noise? …

A young man sittin’ on the witness stand,
The man with the book says: “Raise your hand.
“Repeat after me: I solemnly swear.”
The man looked down at his long hair.
And although the young man solemnly swore,
Nobody seemed to hear anymore.
And it didn’t really matter if the truth was there:
It was the cut of his clothes and the length of his hair.
And the lonely voice of youth cries:
“What is truth?”

The young girl dancing to the latest beat,
Has found new ways to move her feet.
The young man speaking in the city square,
Is trying to tell somebody that he cares.
Yeah, the ones that you’re calling wild,
Are going to be the leaders in a little while.
This whole world’s wakin’ to a new born day,
And I solemnly swear that it’ll be their way.
You better help that voice of youth find:
“What is truth.”

http://www.coquet-shack.com/lyrics/Cash/What_Is_Truth_0329.htm

That’s Johnny Cash.

john isbell writes about the right wing: “And of course they have Born In The USA, lucky them.”

Wow, John Isbell, prepare to sputtered at at length by Bruce Springsteen fans. Born in the USA was never a right-wing song, although it was appropriated by right-wingers who were, typically, too stupid to listen to the lyrics outside the chorus. It’s a really, really left wing song. A partial quote:

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just covering up

[chorus:]
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

[chorus]

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said “Son don’t you understand”

[chorus]

I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go

[i]Apparently, you’ve not considered O, Canada [/i]

Hah! I’d almost agree…..

I’m rather partial to Isreal’s. Both the lyrics and the tune are very beautiful. I sometimes miss the days when I used to sing it in the mornings.

Rush shmush!

Orrin rocks like Slayer!

:-)

I am pleased to say that I live in the only U.S. state whose state song advocates the overthrow of the federal government.

Sadly, I’ve lived here for three years, and have never had the opportunity to join in a public singing of the line “Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum!” Mostly they just play the music.

in re ex-anthems, I do agree that the USSR’s takes it, but Austria’s erstwhile, Haydn-penned anthem was pretty darned good once. then the Germans stole the tune and stomped all over it with their “Uber Alles” lyrics, the thieves, which is probably why you don’t think of it any more.

I think when it comes to music, the left wins that battle about as often as the right does the fight actually to wield political power. what does the far right have — Das Horst Wessel Lied? Skrewdriver? save me. the left can plausibly claim everything from ‘Die Gedanken Sind Frei’ to ‘California Uber Alles’ and a whole lot in between.

fascists don’t make good songwriters.

Is Janet Greene forgotten?

Be careful of the commie lies,
Swallow them and freedom dies.
The USA may must realize
That she’s the biggest prize.

Let’s not forget Joe Hill and Woodie Guthrie, either.

I think one reason for the difference here between conservatives and liberals is that good music rises out of suffering and pain; not that all of us liberals have suffered, but at least when our cause is equality and social justice, we can justifiably appropriate the music of those that have. The conservatives have to make do with the music of the rich and complacent, and in the case of the worst Country Western hackwork, the stupid.

And Rush? Preachy screeching. Horrible stuff, as far as I’m concerned.

Speaking of cultural conservatism, here’s Blind Alfred Reed’s “Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?”

Why do you bob your hair, girls?
It does not look so nice;
It’s just to be in fashion,
lt’s not the Lord’s advice.
And every time you bob it
You’re breaking God’s command
You cannot bob your hair, girls
And reach the Glory land.
I know this from a Mainer’s Mountaineers recording, and I can’t tell whether they mean it.

America the Beautiful contains some really sinister lines, though:

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

Any city undimmed by human tears is uninhabited by humanity.

Bah. You’re all wrong. The single greatest political song ever is “Strange Fruit.” I know of no other song that reduces any person with a conscience to unutterable, inconsolable grief. Don’t ask me for the lyrics, ’cause I’m at work, and I don’t want my colleagues to see me weeping uncontrollably.

Lots of songs work as politics but fail as music, and vice versa. But “Strange Fruit” works on every level: The politics are direct, the poetry is powerful yet naive, and the music transcends jazz and blues to reference everything from European hymns to 19th c. “coon songs.”

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Star Spangled Banner, on the basis of how intolerable would Americans be if they could sing their national anthem as well as doing that insanely annoying “USA! USA!” chant.

There’s a terrific garage-punk band in Chicago called the Goblins, who could arguably be called center-right, at least for a punk band. They’ve extolled the deliciousness of beef (“Mr. Beef”), warned about the horrors of cloning (“Dr. Clone”), and written the only pro-police punk song I’ve ever heard, “The Cops are Just Doing Their Jobs”:

My apartment got robbed
Cops are doing their jobs
I called the police
And the robber got caught
Cause they were doing their jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (they’re doing their jobs)
They were doing their jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (they’re doing their jobs) (etc.)

Also, Dr. Frank wrote “Democracy, Sexy, Whiskey”, which was a pro-invasion of Iraq song.

the star spangled banner gets bloodthirsty in the third verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

but nothing tops the Marseillaise:
Let us go, children of the fatherland
Our day of Glory has arrived.
Against us stands tyranny,
The bloody flag is raised,
The bloody flag is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The roar of these savage soldiers
They come right into our arms
To cut the throats of your sons,
your country.

Chrous

To arms, citizens!
Form up your battalions
Let us march, Let us march!
That their impure blood
Should water our fields

(if a BBC sport translation can be trusted, that is. “La Patrie” as “Fatherland” makes me suspicious, but the rest looks accurate.)

On Strange Fruit, I just did a google search on the lyrics. I found them on UB40’s lyrics page of all places. I’ve never heard their recording, obviously, but I don’t think that can possibly be a good idea.

Wow, those Janet Greene lyrics make almost me appreciate Clint Black:
http://www.poofcat.com/iraq1.html

Now it might be a smart bomb,
they find stupid people too.
If you stand with the likes of Saddam,
well, one might just find you.
Iraq, I rack ’em up and I roll,
I’m back and I’m a hi-tech GI Joe.
I got infrared, I got GPS,
I got that good old fashioned lead.
No price too high for freedom,
so be careful where you tread.

I’m not certain one should want to have the best songs, at least when it comes to national anthems. Back in pre-CT days Tom Runnacles posted some ludicrous praise of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ as music. The shock led me to my greatest scientific discovery. (Comments lost when I imported from Blogger, so Tom (if he can be arsed) will have make his rebuttal anew.)

Matt Weiner wrote: That Maryland song is really weird. Didn’t Maryland fight with the union?

Maryland didn’t secede, but only because it was occupied by federal troops and because Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and arrested half the state legislature. During the Civil War, Baltimore was such a hotbed of pro-Confederacy activity that the guns on Federal Hill and at Fort McHenry – normally there to defend the city – were pointed at the city.

You’re not the Matt Weiner who went to Reed College in the early 90s, are you?

I’m rather partial to Isreal’s. Both the lyrics and the tune are very beautiful.

I have the same partiality. Unfortunately, I think it will ultimately have to be changed for something that Arab Israelis can also consider theirs. Hopefully, when the time comes, somebody will be up to the job of writing a song that is as beautiful as Hatikvah while expressing an Israeli national consciousness rather than an exclusively Jewish one.

For best political song I nominate Brecht/Eisler, Das Lied von der Moldau. Sung by the demonstrators who helped bring down the DDR in ’89, if I remember my Timothy Garton Ash correctly.
rivka–
no, that one’s a new one to me. there was a Matt Weiner a year behind me at Harvard–I was ’92–who now sometimes plays bass for the Asylum Street Spankers sometimes, one an undergrad at Pitt when I was a grad student, and much to my chagrin involved in the Pitt Libertarians, one who was involved in an early internet thing called the Brahms Gang, and one who died as an undergrad at Princeton in the late 90s, which has led to some interesting comments on my blog.

Not sure if anyone’s got round to mentioning it, but I’m told Henry Rollins (of Black Flag fame, among other things) is an Ayn Rand fan.
As far as best political song goes… tall order. Strange Fruit is a great song, but in the later 20th/early 21st century it’s not really staking out any particular ideological ground. Billy Bragg’s There is Power in a Union and Woody Guthrie’s The Ballad of Tom Joad both come to mind (hey, the Folk Song Army has had some great generals, you have to admit). Or there’s Concrete Blonde’s classic anti-gun anthem God is a Bullet, or Cat Power’s homage to Third World youth in Cross-Bones Style, or Rage Against the Machine’s cover of Maggie’s Farm (they were tolerable when doing other people’s songs, oddly enough). All contenders. Right now, though, I’ll go with Mos Def’s New World Water — not only does it have the unusual distinction of being an environmentalist rap song, but it’s also intelligent and un-kooky (unlike so much “conscious” rap music).

As far as national anthems go, first I’ll say that I’ve had to sing O Canada and God Save the Queen back to back, and for my money GSTQ is definitely worse. If only by a smidge.

If Nkosi Sikelele alone had been adopted as SA’s national anthem, I would rank it above any contender. (You can’t beat an anthem that features call-and-response shouting at the end. “Amandhla! Ngawetu! Amandhla! Bayete!”) With that one out of the running, though, I have to concur with the nomination of the Russian anthem — from a different, but similarly stirring, choral tradition. think the Irish national anthem deserves a mention. I do think the Irish anthem is a very close contender, though.

And that Maryland anthem. Yeeesh. “Remember Howard’s warlike thrust”? Well, I suppose sometimes an anthem is just an anthem, just as a cigar is just a cigar…

Matt,

I can’t vouch for what your friend may or may not have heard in 1943 (I was born in 1941; did you misinterpret the reference to “63”?), but I can assure you that I have never heard anyone being asked to “speak white” — outside of obligatory readings of Michèle Lalonde’s poem at nationalist events. Any more than I have ever encountered that apochryphal “fat English saleslady” in Eaton’s despite having shopped regularly at their Ste-Catherine street store in Montreal from the mid-1940s (with my mother; she loved taking me for lunch at their splendid art deco dining room on the 9th floor) until the company’s demise several years ago. The unilingual saleslady, of course, is an outright fiction, a political urban legend. I can’t say that no one ever uttered “speak white”, but it just doesn’t ring true in an everyday context and the expression fits just a bit too nicely with the circa 1968 Nègres blancs d’Amérique interpretation of québécois history to be very convincing.

Luc, I’m not Matt. I took you to mean you were born like me in 1963, which would make oyur memory of the 60s limited. I can attest for strong French nationalism in Montreal by 1967, when I got beat up there at the age of four, by some 10-year-olds. I just know my friend visited around then, and he doesn’t lie to my knowledge. He’s quite religious. It was indeed in a Montreal department store, in his anecdote. But he didn’t live there. Mind you, he’s US so a shopkeeper may have objected to his insisting on French with a metropole accent. I just trust his story.
The Pogues, Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. Great album, almost all political. I once sang “And the Band” in Paris, with an Australian girl who was bemused that I knew the lyrics.

My understanding is that the tune that the Star Spangled Banner words are set to just wasn’t meant to be sung like it generally gets sung these days — faux operatic, soaring, sustained notes. It was a folk tune, meant to be sung a lot quicker so that the high notes go by faster and you just hit them, perhaps raggedly, and move on. I’ve heard it sung that way a time or two and it works.

The Haydn quartet is Op. 76 #3 (second movement). But the anthem came first — the movement is a set of variations on it. For me, clearly the best anthem of all, considered as a tune. And considered as a political utterance by Haydn, clearly conservative.

(One of the most striking things about the movement is that only the accompaniment is varied, never the tune itself. The effect is very beautiful, but it’s hard not to read politically.)

Vance

I’d have thought Beasts of England would replace GSTQ.

>I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned The Internationale.

I have a recording of the International sung by Tuvan throat-singers. Very cool.

Well, he was Welsh wasn’t he?