the history of the star spangled banner song

The raucous lyrics and memorable tune were soon well known throughout both England and America, with various tweaks to the words, especially in America where the resulting composition was used as a patriotic song under the titles ‘Jefferson and Liberty’ or ‘Adam’s and Liberty’. The following year, a teenage composer and organist called John Stafford Smith (1750–1836) wrote the tune (now known as ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’) to fit Tomlinson’s words and the popular song was first published in 1778. I’ll lend you my name and inspire you to boot.Īnd besides, I’ll instruct you like me to entwineĪnd so on it went for five more verses, each one encouraging the members to drink more heartily. ‘Voice, fiddle and flute, no longer be mute, When this answer arrived from the jolly old Grecian:, That he their inspirer and patron would be To Anacreon in heaven where he sat in full glee,Ī few sons of harmony sent in a petition, The president of the Anacreontic Society, Ralph Tomlinson (1744–78), wrote the words to a drinking song that he called ‘The Anacreontic Song’ and which was soon adopted as the society’s official anthem. The membership was known for its ‘wit, harmony and love of wine’. The Anacreontic Society was a gentlemen’s club formed in London during the mid 1700s, in honour of the Greek poet Anacreon (570–485 bc) by a group of amateur musicians attempting to promote their craft. That should warm up a few baseball games down at the Hidden Shamrock, now that they know that. Which is why it will please my Irish friends in Chicago no end when they find out that ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ started out as a drinking song in eighteenth-century London. O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?Īnd the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, This is the national anthem of the self-styled greatest nation on the planet and one of the better-known tunes in the world, the lyrics bursting with national pride and staunch heroism in the face of danger.

The history of the star spangled banner song