National Anthem: the contest

[ashling]

National Anthem: The Contest

I knew that this week would start out well when I realized that the last one ended with Naked Gardening Day.

On Monday we learned that the new president of France speaks better English than the president* of the United States. We also learned – or were reminded – that France has the best national anthem of them all.

[clip of Casablanca]

Which means that we have some catching up to do: USA! USA! USA! Well - not so fast - by composing the best national anthem. Now: USA! USA! USA!

DISCLAIMER: I fully realize that there are myriad more damning reasons that we should ditch the Star Spangled Banner, but I will not address them here.

So I have taken it upon myself to start a contest to create the best national anthem of them all!
(We’ll deal with Canada later)



Any good contest or board game has to have rules. Right?! I mean really unchangeable, verifiable, ironclad rules.



Ok, maybe not that ironclad, but at least rules.



DON’T MAKE ME STOP THIS CAR!

But first we need to settle on what makes a national anthem both national and an anthem.

1) It has to be inspiring, like

2) It has to be national like

3) It has to stand up for our shared national values like

To make our task easier USA! USA! USA! We need to start with music which is already out there.
There are a lot of songs which fit the bill in one category or the other, but seldom in all the right (or left) categories.

We just need to put the right musical pieces together.



If you think you are up to the task, follow (and I mean to the letter!) this format:

Pick ONE verse or stanza from a song for each category for inclusion into our composition. If you are a slacker USA! USA! … you may pick them all from the same song



Then post the song(s) and give the lyrics for each category.

DON”T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE!

OK, I heard that!

Without giving credence to the suggestions that some – if not all – of my categories are lame, Waivers will be granted for the categories, number of categories, and number of songs. So knock yourselves out.

One Caveat: Keep it clean folks. Now I realize that DU is split into three groups on this topic. The first group tends to slide into – well you know. The second has no concept of what clean is. And the third – well, USA! USA!

We will then proceed by regular order through the committee system, to wit:

The top three entrants will be sent to the music forum – if there is such a thing – where they will be thematically, theoretically, and otherwise composed into a single song – or more.

These will then be sent to General Discussion where the winners will be … uh, discussed, and the whole process totally destroyed.

Then we start over.