The Star-Spangled Filk Song

[Caius Marcius]

On America's 228th birthday, it is an appropriate occasion to reflect 
on the fact that our national anthem is a filk song.  The melody that 
we all mangle at ballparks across America began as a "drinking song" –
 in many cases this is an inaccurate somewhat contemptuous 
description sometimes used to describe what is a popular song of the 
past– however in this case, the song, To Anacreon in Heaven, actually 
does celebrate the joys of both Venus and Bacchus – the verses that 
we sing as 

Oh say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Originally went


And besides I'll instruct you like me to entwine 
The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine

Both thoroughly admirable sentiments, IMO. 

Get the full story here:

http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm

And it's too bad that few of us ever get past the first stanza of 
SSB – the second stanza has always been my favorite – you may recall 
that on the evening of Sept 13, 1814 (during the misnamed War of 
1812) Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key was briefly held in custody 
on a British ship during their attack on Baltimore. All through the 
night, Key remained uncertain as to the course of the battle (after 
all, the Brits had just burned down our Executive Mansion and looted 
the Capitol a few weeks before) – but at sunrise he could see the 
American flag still flying over Fort McHenry. He wrote his filk 
immediately afterwards, which was first printed in a Baltimore paper 
on Sept. 20.

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Get all four verses here:

http://www.contemplator.com/america/ssbanner.html

    - CMC