Given the time of year, I imagine you’ve already heard this one once or twice in the past few days…
“Does England have a 4th of July?”
Answer:
Of course.
Everyone has a 4th of July.
It’s just not everybody’s Independence Day.
Ar-ar.
Speaking of England, check out this little tidbit from CNN.com:
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A rare and original manuscript of one of America's most patriotic songs has been discovered in a flea market bargain.
A shopper browsing through the market in New York bought a framed picture of a flower for $10 and found handwritten manuscript of "America" (My Country 'tis of Thee) tucked behind the picture, the manuscript's owner said Thursday.
The manuscript of the song whose lyrics were written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 could be worth tens of thousands of dollars, said the owner, art collector Keya Morgan. He said he bought it from the flea market shopper, who has asked not to be identified.
The song was intended to be played in schools to inspire and teach children and was first played in public on July 4, 1831, in the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, Morgan said. The song is written to the tune of "God Save the Queen," the national anthem of the United Kingdom.
The authenticity of the document was confirmed by Morgan, a handwriting expert who has been authenticating historical documents for nearly a decade, and Diana Yount, an archival specialist at Andover Newton Theological School.
Unless you’re the kind of guy who doesn’t like to be dragged by the missus to flea markets, in which case, this story will only give her ammo to come at you next time you balk.
But the fantastic flea market find isn’t what caught my eye.
It was the last sentence of the next to last paragraph.
As a songwriter of some accomplishment (Conway Twitty, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Don Ho {yes, THAT Don Ho}), I’m always fascinated with the origin and/or inspiration for great and/or hit songs (not necessarily the same thing as a lot of my peers will testify).
In this case, though, its not so much about the inspiration as it is the apparent lack of motivation.
Admittedly, this is, by anyone’s standards, a poignant, moving, dare I offer, brilliant piece of lyric writing.
I just wondered why it is the guy who wrote them couldn’t come up with an original melody to match it.
So I did a little checking.
Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" in 1831[1], while a student at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts. His friend, Lowell Mason had asked him to translate the lyrics in some German school songbooks or to write new lyrics. One melody in particular caught his attention. The German lyrics were a German patriotic hymn of some sort. Instead of translating it, Smith decided to write an American patriotic hymn, so he sat down and in thirty minutes had written My Country, 'Tis of Thee, to go along with the melody. He had never heard the tune before and had no idea of its derivation or associations with the British national anthem, "God Save the King."
So, if I’m reading this correctly, the song that many of us would like to see replace “The Star Spangled Banner” as our national anthem (we’ve all secretly bitched at one time or another in our lives about how hard it is to sing and how none of us remembers more than some or most of the first verse) is actually the melody of the British national anthem which was the melody of a German patriotic hymn.
I think there’s two way to look at this.
First, it is, to be sure, kind of cool because it symbolizes that underneath all the political and social havoc that we wreak on each other, we are, at the end of the day, all inhabitants of the same planet.
We are the world and all that.
On the other hand, it’s pretty lame that this guy couldn’t either come up with an original melody or, at least, put an ad in the music trades for a composer who could do the lyric justice.
I’m sure that the early 1800’s had its share of Burt Bacharachs and Elton Johns and Andrew Lloyd Webbers wandering around the biz ready and willing to put snappy tunes to the lyrics of the Hal Davids and Bernie Taupins and Tim Rices of the day.
Seems a little like Mr. Smith took the easy way out.
Just like those guys who wrote the Ronnie Milsap song “Smoky Mountain Rain”
Fun lyric.
But next time you hear it, try and convince me that the melody isn’t “Mr. Lonely” by Bobby Vinton.
And let’s not even get started on the whole George Harrison “My Sweet Lord”/ Chiffons “He’s So Fine” fracas.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m as flag wavy, sing the anthem patriotic as the next guy underneath it all.
It’s just that I find singing sweet land of liberty lyrics with visions of Queen E and her brood popping up to be a bit distracting…mate.
My issues aside, allow me to offer you and yours a safe and happy holiday on this most American of holidays.
And thanks for indulging my wish that if he had it to do over again, Mr. Samuel Francis Smith might have given the project just a wee spot more effort.
Like maybe tracking down the great grandfather of those guys who wrote “Smoky Mountain Rain”.
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