“Renditions” of the Star-Spangled Banner

White people love the Star-Spangled Banner but they hate “renditions” of the Star-Spangled Banner.  We prefer a clean, controlled, note-for-note, word-for-word, straight, traditional Banner.  Our national anthem doesn’t need “flavor” or “twang” or “soul” or “rock.”  Nor does it need runs, scatting, improvisation, belting, yodeling, beat boxing, humming or sprechgesang.  It just needs to be sung the way it was intended to be sung, with patriotism and national pride

We owe the never ending parade of ridiculous Banner renditions to one man: José Feliciano.  The year: 1968.  The place: Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan.  The occasion: game five of the 1968 World Series between the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals.  Feliciano, a young Puerto Rican guitar player, takes the proverbial stage and shocks America by giving the national anthem a slow, bluesy treatment.  To make matters worse, his controversial rendition inspires Jimi Hendrix to perform a solo version of the national anthem on his guitar at Woodstock the following year.  The national anthem has never been the same.

It’s understandable that singers want to take a song and make it their own—that’s what singers do—but the Banner is not that song.  Make “Camptown Races” or “My Old Kentucky Home” your own song but not the Star-Spangled Banner.  In fact, the Banner isn’t really a song at all, it’s an anthem.   It’s the national anthem.  Therefore it shouldn’t be treated like just another song.  It should be treated like the national song of the United States of America.  The most played song in Uncle Sam’s Ipod.