Comments on: National Anthems

By: Dingodan

Dingodan — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:16:34 +0000

As i recall America the Beautiful uses the tune of God save the K/Q. The tune Banjo used was an old Brit March “Who’ll come a’soldiering with Malborough and me?” (The Low countries Campaign)

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:39:08 +0000

Wow….I don’t think I’d heard that stupid song since I was in Disney Land when I was just knee high to a pig’s eye. Thanks >:P

By: Nathalie

Nathalie — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:52:53 +0000

I always knew we had a reference to god in the Dutch anthem but until I read this article today and decided to look up the entire anthem (it’s 15 verses long, virtually no Dutch person knows the entire thing) I never knew how many times the bugger creeps up. To be fair though he’s not in the first verse which is usually sung (although there is a lot of referencing to German blood and being loyal to the Spanish, it’s quite schizophrenic actually). Then if the occasion warrants it and we like to drag the anthem a bit on we also sing the 6th verse which unfortunately has us picking up our shields and trusting in god to remove tyranny. But then again we hardly ever sing that verse and most of our soccer players don’t even seem to know the first one.

By: spinetingler

spinetingler — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:33:09 +0000

Oh you suck so hard!!!

I’m going to need to bleach my ears out!

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:29:46 +0000

Christians and other of the religious ilk remind me a little bit like those people who have to put salt on everything, you know even watermelon. No matter how good something is they have to add their little bit of God to it, they don’t even taste it first.

By: Admiral-Bell

Admiral-Bell — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:44:45 +0000

Meh. I never really understood national anthems. They seem to be silly little songs fit only for sporting events. I don’t care if they have “God” in them.
The Pledge of Allegience on the other hand…

By: mandrellian

mandrellian — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:42:15 +0000

I’d much prefer Matilda to Advance Australia Fair (even though AAF is about as secular an anthem as you can get). Matilda has nice irreverent lyrics by Banjo Paterson (Oz’s best-loved colonial-era poet) and is developed from an old folk song about a homeless bloke who steals for food and would rather die than go to jail – it tells you a lot about our notions of a “fair go” and our natural suspicion of cops, especially in the state of Victoria It also speaks volumes about our convict past.

However, AAF is totally secular and free of any sucking up to fairies:

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history’s page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
We’ll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands,
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

Apart from the utterly naff & uninspiring melody, it’s completely free of toadying to God to keep our prime minister safe, free of the guns n’ dicks n’ explosions militarism of “The Star Spangled Fuck You King George” and has nice messages about wide open spaces and welcoming hugs for immigrants (which, by the way, our conservative party like to ignore, especially when there are desperate refugees daring to try and float to our northern coasts). While it does have bits about nature’s gifts I just wish it had a cautionary verse or two about the fact that most of our wildlife WILL KILL YOU if you let your guard down. We’ve lost too many good tourists and conservationists that way.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:44:35 +0000

You cold, inhuman bastard!

“It’s a small world”?!?

At least have the decency to rickroll us next time!

By: Ron Britton

Ron Britton — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:01:46 +0000

McShag:

You’re right. That’s really bad. Another thing I find interesting about the Canadian anthem is they have it not only in English and French, but Inuktitut. Those folks have their own mythology. How can they even relate to that song? (I know, they’ve all been “saved” and are now good Christians.) This just shows how inappropriate it is for a multi-cultural democracy to officially sanction and approve a religion.

Don’t get too depressed over it. Have a Scooby snack!

By: I am me

I am me — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:59:54 +0000

I’ve always found “God Save The Queen” to be an odd choice of words in a national Anthem. It’s as if we recognise that our monarch is in some kind of constant danger and we need to constantly ask God to keep them safe.

By: Father Shaggy

Father Shaggy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:43:42 +0000

The French version of O Canada contains this line (except in French, obviously):

As in thy arm ready to wield the sword,
So also is it ready to carry the cross.

Is that better or worse than:

God keep our land glorious and free!

Worse, I think. It’s Crusader-y.

And Canada’s has four verses, too, and God’s in all of them (in addition to the preamble of the Charter of Rights), and the last vese gets really goddy:

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our Dominion, in thy loving care.
Help us to find, O God, in thee,
A lasting rich reward.
As waiting for the better day,
We ever stand on guard.
God keep our land, glorious and free.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

We might actually be a theocracy.

By: Parrotlover77

Parrotlover77 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:41:17 +0000

Christians love to contaminate traditional songs. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realized that “Greensleeves” existed LONG before “What Child is This?”

Remember, the best way to get people accept your mythology instead of their traditional mythology is to steal their traditions and claim it for your own! Why else would God Bless Australia steal Waltzing Matilda’s melody? It was familiar and stood a chance for winning with a catchy melody most Australians already knew.

As for most other national anthems… I can probably give a lot of them a pass since the anthem was likely chosen when most of the populous was more dogmatic and “god fearing.”

But the question now is… how do we get it out?