It sounded like a good idea at the time, but...

[lowend1]

Russia wins this one I'm sorry to say.

Except he has to play it on a beautiful Capitalist-Imperialist instrument.

[uwe]

"That was barley recognizable as ANYTHING."

Which still makes it infinitely better than Flea's abomination of a performance. I'm on record for thinking that your very dear national anthem is not the greatest melody on earth nor one that really echoes the dynamics of your wonderful country, but even it (the anthem, not the country, well, both ...) deserved better. Those horrible chromatic runs he did would get you kicked out of any decent Guitar Center. Keeping his hat on wasn't Flea's only insult nor the most severe one. Borat would have done better. Those poor athletes, they could barely wait for it to be over.

[Dave W]

Fans Bite Back

Best tweet: "I couldn't hear Flea over the sound of Francis Scott Key clawing at the lid of his casket" 

And Mr. Flea appears to be delusional.

[nofi]

i guess the most appalling part of this whole thing is flea's Monster ego. to actually think 20,000 basketball fans would enjoy any kind of bass solo he could spit out is nuts. i guess i'll have to listen to it now.

postscript. twenty seconds in and i had to stop. my sympathy to everyone who was there and everyone who has listened to this mess so far.
you were right about the russian 'version',uwe. much better entertainment  than watching this geezer deconstructing his abilities in public. is abomination too strong a word?

maybe i'll try again later.

[Pilgrim]

20 seconds is about as far in as I could stomach it.

What a crock.

[Highlander]

More than I did...

[66Atlas]

After this I think I would rather watch him act in movies than watch him play bass.

[Highlander]

Back To The Theatre...

[Alanko]

Flea seems a good percussive, rhythmic player. He doesn't seem to be such a good melodic player. His choice of notes for harmonising and fleshing out the little licks and runs he improvises on this video are fairly banal if not entirely wrong. His terrible on/off wah, fuzz and blended clean signal tone is really appalling as well. To use that much equipment to produce that bloodless quacking tone in the high register is surprising. Perhaps they simply used a DI off of his pedalboard and the stadium heard something much more bombastic?

Part of me says he messed up, and part of me thinks Americans take their national pride and national symbology scarily seriously for such an apparently free minded and independently spirited nation. It was a sports game, for crying out loud, and after years of saturated media coverage and faux-gravitas you need to dress up something as mundane as a sports game with all of this nationalistic tomfoolery and sideshow entertainment?!? 

[nofi]

for me its not about the flag per se. its about an endless supply of 'singers' putting their stamp on the song. it usually ends up badly for all concerned. you seem to think you know something about our country. you don't. do we have a 'shut your pie hole' emoticon?

[slinkp]

If anybody enjoys hearing a couple guys geek out about pop music and WAY overthinking disposable pop songs, I always enjoy the "Switched on Pop" podcast. They have an episode about the evolution of the Star Spangled Banner, with a focus on its interpretation at public events by pop divas, here: http://www.switchedonpop.com/?p=185

I'm curious what they would have had to say about Flea's rather dull attempt ...


And while I'm capable of tearing up at a particularly heartfelt rendition, I must admit that my favorite national anthem performance will probably always be this:

[Alanko]

...you seem to think you know something about our country. you don't. do we have a 'shut your pie hole' emoticon?

A bit tetchy, no? You can insult my country all day long and I won't take it as personally as that! You are sort of feeding my argument here. 

[nofi]

i would never insult your country out of respect for ken.

[Pilgrim]

In fact, kvetching about the performance of whoever sang or performed the national anthem before sporting events is a well-observed privilege of us 'Murricans. Few performers emerge unscathed from performing that rather difficult piece of music.  Best bet is to get a bunch of big-eyed kids to sing it, because no one will be mean enough to bitch about their tune-challenged performance.

[Highlander]

i would never insult your country out of respect for ken.

I pledge my allegiance to the 'Post... being married to one of you good folks I keep my feet firmly planted in both camps...