More Words, Deeper Hole

America the Beautiful is a beautiful song. It's longer than we usually sing it, it praises what's actually beautiful, and though it has God in it and I can do without that, it asks for grace to be shed and good to be crowned with brotherhood.

It's not a good source for story titles, but I don't think that that is its primary purpose.

The best part about The Star Spangled Banner is its drinking song nature. If you go around listening to drinking songs of that ilk, you'll notice that quite a lot of them are a real challenge to sing: I think that's supposed to be part of the fun: the drunker you get the harder it is to make the note spread.

Emma and I have both tried to memorize the earlier song to the tune, "To ANacreon in Heaven," but as far as I can tell it's really unsingable, as oppoaed to nearly unsingable as The Star Spangled Banner is.

Even though "This Land is Your Land" in its entirety is a protest song against the private ownership of land, I think it makes a wonderful anthem. And it's singable.