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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

pride

i remember having a conversation with one of my old work colleagues – like so many of the conversations we had it left me scratching my head. it must have been during a world cup campaign and we were talking about national anthems he was going through a list of all his favourite ones, it was no shock that “god save the queen” came bottom of the list. when it came to certain things he was very predictable and very conscious of what the “correct” and trendy view was.
in the conversation over the anthem he claimed that the british one was a dirge. i was flummoxed.

because of the olympics i am getting to hear the anthem more often than normal. now it may very well be an unfashionable thing to say but by golly i do love to hear it. it sounds even better when you can hear the feint sounds of the spectators singing along, it is not helped by my joining in, as i can’t carry a tune even if i am using a bucket.

long may the anthem be heard.

1 comment:

Joe said...

You're on your own there, mate, I think it is indeed a dreadful dirge of a thing too. And as a Scot it is highly insulting given the later verses, so I have refused to stand for the damnable thing for the last couple of decades. And those lyrics even in the first verse, eugh. Dreadful music, dreadful lyrics (at best), actually insulting to an entire nation of the UK (at worst). Now if we replaced God Save the Queen with Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls, that I'd stand up and cheer for.