Nick left a long, rambling comment under my Super Bowl post (but that’s what I love about Nick – when he writes a comment, he WRITES a comment :)), where the Billy Joel/Star-Spangled Banner issue was discussed. And I agree with Nick – Billy didn’t seem to sing the anthem with any feeling or pizzazz… he just sort of SANG it (and not even very well) and that was it. In fact, I didn’t really have a problem with the “lack of pizzazz” – because I’ve heard too many people completely butcher the national anthem by elaborating on what was written to a much-too-extreme degree. It was more the “lack of feeling” that seemed to be the problem.
And I wonder if that was the result of something I’d heard the day before the Super Bowl. I saw a clip of someone interviewing Billy Joel and asking him how he felt about being asked to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. And he actually seemed rather distraught about it, talking about what a “tough” song it is, and how “the melody is difficult,” and how nobody can remember the words because they were written so long ago that no one knows what they mean anymore. So when I actually heard him sing the anthem before the game, I could almost see those gears in his head spinning around, reminding him not to forget the old, meaningless words, and to bear with the incredibly difficult song to the end. In other words, he completely psyched himself out with this nonsense about the anthem being “tough” and apparently incomprehensible.
I’m not sure I understand how anyone with a musical background can think the Star-Spangled Banner is a difficult song. I can understand how someone who is NOT musical would think it was difficult – everyone does seem to get tripped up on that F at the top of “land of the free” – but if it’s too high for your voice, you can simply transpose it to a lower key. But the melody itself seems pretty darn easy to me – I mean, if you want to talk about high notes and a difficult melody, try the Queen of the Night’s aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Now THERE’S a difficult song (where the highest note is a full octave higher than the F in the Star-Spangled Banner… I can’t imagine what a stadium full of people attempting to sing the F above high C would sound like… dogs would be howling… cats would be running for cover… glass would be breaking… it would be chaos…).
And as far as the old, outdated verbiage – I can’t say I agree with that, either. Is it really that hard to understand the lyrics? Perhaps I shall translate into “modern speak”:
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Yo, dude, it’s like way too early to get up… but look out the window and tell me if you can still see that thing we saw last night.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
You remember? It was like a flag with stripes and stars all over it, and there were a bunch of people yelling and shooting at each other, so we were hiding behind a wall and watching the whole thing.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
And there were all these bombs exploding, and the fire would light up the sky, so we could look over at the flag and see it even though it was dark.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
So, like I asked before – is it still out there?
Now was that so difficult? The whole song seems very simple and straightforward to me… but if you start convincing yourself that it’s a super-hard song that nobody can understand, you might end up playing it way too safe when you sing it for the Super Bowl audience, and give a less-than-impressive performance.
But obviously Faith Hill didn’t have that problem. (And don’t worry Nick, I’m sure Cindy is well aware of your admiration of Faith Hill and her lovely outfits – just like Rick is well aware of MY admiration of Derek Jeter and his tight pinstripe pants… :))
2 comments:
Yeah Lisa, I do like to spin a good comment now and then, don't I? :-) You're probably thinking I should poor those creative commenting abilities into my own blog, but I don't know, I kinda like just commenting on your topics. You come up with all the interesting and random topics and I enjoy just making a comment or two, or three, or four…four pages…yeah. So you’re saying I have a problem? Maybe I do. BTW, I loved your “modern speak” translation of the Star-Spangled Banner. That was funny. Good stuff.
Yeah, I’m with you on people butchering the National Anthem. There are those famous people we’ve all heard of (Carl Lewis / Rosanne Barr) that butcher in one kind of way – a horrifying, embarrassing way that would have likely caused Simon Cowell to bleed from his ears…and…then there are those who butcher in another kind of way – elaborating vocally to the degree that the song passage is entirely unrecognizable. Too many vocal runs, licks, turns, jumps and slides – things which I actually like in moderation – become overused and can ruin the song because it’s the only thing you end up hearing. This happens a lot when Pop stars sing it and when I hear that sort of stuff, Cindy will find me yelling at the TV…things like…”Oh my gosh…where’d the melody line go?” and “Just shut up and sing it normal for pete’s sake.” So yeah, I hate that stuff but a little bit is nice and maybe with some revoicing of the chords behind the vocal line (sparingly in a few places) make for a nice refreshing arrangement which is exactly what Faith Hill brought to the table…that and some very nice black pants…can’t forget those black pants…trying to delete the image and can’t of those black pants…
I did not know that about Billy Joel and the comments he made in that interview. That actually explains a lot about his performance. I think he wigged himself out about it.
The words are pretty trippy because the same or similar musical phrasing is used with different sets of words which always leads to the hilarious but classic mistake of “At the Twilight’s last STREAMING.” That happens a lot as well as similar sounding but wrong words like blare instead of glare, blight instead of night, grave instead of brave etc…yes, I’ve heard these before. People get really nervous singing this song and the nerves and lack of preparation lead to all sorts of strange word concoctions. It’s hilarious. I do disagree about one thing though, Lisa. The Star Spangled Banner isn’t the easiest song to sing. It’s covers about an Octave and a half in scale and if you sing it a-cappella and start off too high…you’re pretty much dead meat by the time your loft your way towards “red glare” and “of the free.” Just ask Carl Lewis about that…of course…he modulated where he shouldn’t have too…ugh…awful.
Well, I guess that’s all I have to say for now...oh look…another marathon comment from Nick. Nice….!
You're right -- it's not the easiest song in the world, but I don't think it should be terribly difficult for a professional musician, either (now, Carl Lewis is a different story, I'm sure -- I've never heard the Carl Lewis debacle, but I can imagine it was "interesting," to say the least... :)).
But you said the exact same thing I was thinking: that pop stars, especially, try to add so much of their own "style" to the national anthem that it becomes an entirely unrecognizable song sometimes. It's fine if you (to borrow an American Idol cliche) "make it your own" when you sing it, but if you elaborate TOO much, the original song just kinda disappears...
And I agree that Faith Hill did a very nice job when she sang it... although I can't remember the pants... those must've been some really great pants... :)
Post a Comment