Pace on Earth

The Anthem

This past week both Canada and the US celebrated their respective births as nations. In the spirit of these celebrations I give you my favourite versions of each of our National Anthems.

Big Sugar does a great version of O Canada but this one was really a no brainer. These days national anthems are most often seen preceeding a sporting event and the treatment that the song gets in Edmonton before a playoff game is urivalled. Having a star dress up the anthem is fine but what could possibly match 18 000 Canadians belting it out like their lives depended on it; which, not surprisingly, is how the Oilers tended to play after hearing it. Check it out:

Spine tingling...

As for the US, well, the Star Spangled Banner is actually a poem that was sung to the tune of an old British drinking song. Moreover it was written as the poet watched the aftermath of a battle in the War of 1812. That war was fought between the US and the British in North America. The British army was made up largely of Canadian militiamen and fought largely in the Great Lakes. The war ended in a stalemate with no land actually changing hands. The British (and therefore the Canadians) did indeed invade Washington and burn the White House though.

So the song truly is a fight song and that may explain, from the very depths of their national character, American foreign policy. Then again maybe that's a stretch. Anyways, given the background my (by far) favourite take on the song is Marvin Gaye's soul version that he did before the NBA All-Star game in 1983 just before his death. You decide for yourself:

Makes you want to groove and not much else. What a voice...

So as an aside to the anthem talk; I was told yesterday that 4 of my Loyalists teammates were selected to play in the NA4 tournament. The tourney is comprised of four teams; US East and West and Canada East and West. Jebb Sinclair, Adam McCluskey, JB Watson and Pemelika Fiaui were all selected for the Canada East team. They will be travelling to Ohio in a couple of weeks to play three games. They will get to wear a shirt with a maple leaf on it and stand arm in arm and sing O Canada on American soil. It will be a huge rush for all of them and I am envious. I have had the honour of being in that situation a couple of times and nothing in my athletic career comes close to matching that singular emotional moment of pride and respect.

Unless they got Robert Goulet to sing it...then I would have been laughing.

O Canada

Si

Labels: The Anthem

posted by Vitamin S @ 11:42 a.m.