Monthly Archives: July 2014

Fourth of July.

I love our national anthem. I used to think that “America the Beautiful” would have been a better choice, because it’s a much simpler song. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a wonderful song, but it is a regal bitch to sing. Very few people can pull it off (how many recordings are there of professional and talented singers just botching the thing?). And it seems that even fewer people can remember (or have ever learned) all the words.

But as time has gone by, I’ve decided that we made the right choice with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” if for no other reason than it’s got both bombs and rockets right there in the song. It’s wonderful. Go listen to “Oh Canada.” Lovely song for a lovely country, but you get to the end of it and you really do feel like you just heard an Anne Murray song. There is something incomplete about it to the ear. There is not one bomb or rocket or anything else cool in “Oh Canadia.” And that is why Canadia will always be America’s hat. (We kid, of course….love to all my Canadian friends).

Okay. Time to go make things explode and strike blows for freedom via whiskey. Enjoy your freedoms, thank a vet, and God bless America.