On April 4, 1818, the Congress of the United States adopted a new national flag which consisted of thirteen alternating red and white stripes (one for each original colony), and–at the flag’s upper left–a field of blue with a star representing each state. (There twenty of them at the time. Now there are fifty.)
The design has held up for over two hundred years. However, it was not the flag hymned by Francis Scott Key in what is perhaps the best known musical encomium to its country’s standard. That particular Star-Spangled Banner was the flag still waving over Fort McHenry on the morning of September 14, 1814, after a twenty-five hour bombardment by the British Navy during the War of 1812. That flag had fifteen stripes, and fifteen stars, both representing the number of states in the Union at the time.
Eventually, the words of Key’s poem were set to the music from To Anacreon in Heaven, and the rest–as they say–is history.
Lord. Who knew there were all those verses? Some of them have proven controversial in recent decades, not least the reference to “the hireling and slave” in stanza three. (Very recently, the tragic collapse of the Port of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge following a collision occasioned by a container ship that had lost its way, led to the unwelcome revelation that Key was–like many of his contemporaries–a slave owner himself. No matter his place in American history, don’t look for the rebuilt bridge, when it’s completed, to be named in his honor. )
Over the years, the “Star Spangled Banner” has been performed in just about every venue, from the smallest local stage to the largest global platform (although perhaps never more movingly than at Buckingham Palace’s Changing of the Guard on September 13, 2001):
Back “home” however, the annual dissection of the anthem’s performance at the Super Bowl probably surpasses all others for human and musical interest. Over the years, it’s become more a matter of “Look at Me!” performance art than heartfelt patriotism, although Reba McEntire did a respectable job last year. (I thank God that we have–to date at least–been spared the pole dancing versions, either by Jennifer Lopez or Shakira.)
For “best performance of the National Anthem by a global superstar,” most folks (including me) think the winner by a mile is the incredibly troubled, but incomparably talented, Whitney Houston, from 1991 at the height of the First Gulf War.*
Pure joy and love for her country. If I could ever–reliably–employ an American sports metaphor, I might say she hit it out of the park:
Old Glory.** Long may she wave.
*The late Mr. Right often said that the two proudest achievements of his life were teaching his (English) wife to drink American whiskey and watch American football. I simply do my best (on both counts) to bring his achievement forward to the present day.
**Legend has it that the name “Old Glory” was first applied to the US flag by Captain William Driver, on March 17, 1824. Driver’s original flag was presented to the Smithsonian Museum in 1922, where it lives under glass to this day.
Cross-posted from Ricochet, today.
