So, what have you been listening to lately?

[uwe]

I've always said this: The Stars and Stripes Forever should be your national anthem. More than any other "official state song" it sums up American spirit. No other melody captures it as well and the music would fit with no other nation on Earth as well. With even its slight influences of what later on became Jazz, it is an amazing piece of music.

[Pilgrim]

Sousa was a wonderful composer. His work beginning in the 1890's captured a spirit which reflected the country in a way that might not be possible today. There are a number of his works which I think would be worthy of becoming the national anthem, but "Stars and Stripes Forever" would certainly be up front in that list.

[Basvarken]

[Dave W]

No giant foot

[uwe]

That's a bit too college marching band for me with its shuffle rhythm.

The Stars and Stripes Forever is like a complex red wine to me, though a marching band song in nature as well, it elicits all these additional flavors. I even hear elements in it that would later become familiar from Bernstein and Gershwin, even Broadway musicals. That is why I deem it so American, it could only have been written by one of your very own. It sounds "red, white & blue" in an enchantingly optimistic way.

[uwe]

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, liebe Amerikaner:



Just like one famous Limey once said, I paraphrase: You can always be trusted to do the right thing in the end - after having fastidiously exhausted all other available options, of course. 

[Pilgrim]

That's a bit too college marching band for me with its shuffle rhythm.

The Stars and Stripes Forever is like a complex red wine to me, though a marching band song in nature as well, it elicits all these additional flavors. I even hear elements in it that would later become familiar from Bernstein and Gershwin, even Broadway musicals. That is why I deem it so American, it could only have been written by one of your very own. It sounds "red, white & blue" in an enchantingly optimistic way.

What a lovely comment. Thank you. I can only agree with this analysis.

[Dave W]

That's a bit too college marching band for me with its shuffle rhythm.

The Stars and Stripes Forever is like a complex red wine to me, though a marching band song in nature as well, it elicits all these additional flavors. I even hear elements in it that would later become familiar from Bernstein and Gershwin, even Broadway musicals. That is why I deem it so American, it could only have been written by one of your very own. It sounds "red, white & blue" in an enchantingly optimistic way.

Mitch Miller ruined The Stars and Stripes Forever for me.

OTOH The Liberty Bell March has a special place in my heart.

[Dave W]

[uwe]

Mitch Miller ruined The Stars and Stripes Forever for me.

OTOH The Liberty Bell March has a special place in my heart.

I had to listen to the Mitch Miller version first, it's friggin' awful!!!   

I never gave it a thought before, but I now realize why The Star-Spangled Banner reflects so little of the dynamic American spirit for me - it's a waltz! Very few national anthems are 3/4, I can only really think of God Save the Queen - and I never liked that either and wondered why the hell the Limeys had not chosen Land of Hope and Glory instead.

[Dave W]

Mitch Miller hated rock & roll. His awful TV show Sing Along With Mitch was an attempt to counter it.  He was also an A&R man for Columbia Records and resisted signing rock acts.

[westen44]

Mitch Miller was a scourge upon humanity.  From the first moment I encountered him I hated everything that he did.  I was a kid and didn't know much, but I knew I simply could not stand Mitch Miller and whatever it was that he was trying to do against music. 

[uwe]

I didn't know you had a Joe McCarthy against rock'n'roll too!

Did he ever, uhum, concede he was wrong? That used to be good American practice.

[westen44]

If you can access it, this New York Times obituary offers a lot of info about him.  He said rock wasn't music, but a disease.  LOL.

I think these excerpts are particularly good.

*******************************

The ratings were good, but the critics were mostly unimpressed. Brooks Atkinson, writing in The New York Times, suggested in 1962 that "Sing Along With Mitch" might best be viewed with the sound turned off.

Even at the singalongs' height, many Americans considered them hopelessly corny. That sense only intensified as a younger generation came of age in the 1960s and musical tastes changed. There were news reports that shopping malls had begun piping Mitch Miller music on their sound systems as a way to discourage teenagers from congregating. Years later, in 1993, when David Koresh and members of his Branch Davidian cult were holed up in their compound in Waco, Tex., F.B.I. agents tried to flush them out by blasting "Sing Along With Mitch" Christmas carols."

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html

[slinkp]

Just heard this original. My band has been covering the J JGeils version for a few years, I never heard the original Philly soul version until now.