Patriotic Music for America

I think Ronan Tynan has to be the most powerful and inspiring singer of "God Bless America."

When I was 14 (30 years ago), I was in the Miss Rhode Island Teenager Pageant. (And, YES, you CAN have brains and be in a pageant! It was a great experience - I highly recommend it!) "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood was part of the Pageant. To this day, I still get goosebumps when I hear it.

My speech entitled "What's Right About America" won the speech competition. I guess I was patriotic even way back then.

by the US Navy Sea Chanters, performed on September 14, 2001 at the National Day of Remembrance Service, as televised by ABC. I still think this was THE perfect song for the service. The US Navy Sea Chanters are beautiful.

Frankly, I don't know how those people in attendance at the service are actually singing, I was too choked up in my living room watching it on tv to even breathe.

Performed by the combined Academy Choirs at the XXXIX Super Bowl - with fly-by.

Here's the thing, if you haven't visited Fort McHenry yet, you should.
If you haven't seen the Star Spangled Banner flag (the one flown at Fort McHenry when Francis Scott Key wrote our National Anthem) at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in DC, you should.

At Fort McHenry, you glimpse the true concern and trepidation of that night as you look out into the bay and imagine yourself on a ship questioning whether our Nation still exists.

At the Smithsonian, you are forever impacted by the size and power of seeing that American flag up close. As I walked through the exhibit with my daughter, I was explaining about the battle, and a war that no one studies, and how the lyrics to our National Anthem came to be.

Then I turned the corner.

And there, behind the protective glass, it lay. And I couldn't speak. And my daughter kept saying, "Mom, Mom, go on" and all I could do was nod. I think she got the point.

If you've never heard it before, you'll be stunned. It's so poignant, so packed with meaning. And this US Marine gives a stunning rendition of the 2nd verse of our National Anthem.

Here are the lyrics to the 4th verse of The Star Spangled Banner:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

These 5 little girls have voices that are amazing.

A capella.

In harmony.

At half-time, center court, of a professional basketball game.

The American Spirit right here before your eyes.

I know a certain radio personality that plays this at the end of his show every Friday.

I've gotta say, Ray Charles' version is my favorite rendition of America the Beautiful. It's all heart.

Performed by James Cagney in the movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) (which is about George M. Cohan).

Thank God for Darryl Worley. This song reflects my sentiments - those that I felt "That Day" and those that I feel every 9/11 and every day that I think about 9/11. Of course, his authentic voice makes the song perfect.

On 9/11, I lived in NJ (and still do). Until 1999 (when I opened my own law firm in NJ), I commuted to the World Trade Center (2 WTC 59) (from here in NJ and prior to that, from our apartment in mid-town Manhattan) where I worked for Morgan Stanley on the 59th floor (and then the 65th floor). From my office, I looked out over the East River and the three bridges. I ran a unit of about 5 attorneys, many whom I had hired, and their support staff, and an older secretary who was on the verge of retirement and who had lived through the 1993 WTC bombing. I had friends there in other departments.

On "That Day" I was getting coffee at my local deli when the owner shouted from the kitchen in the back, "They hit the Pentagon too!" He came out and I criticized him for making (what I thought at the time) was such a tasteless joke. When he told me that he wasn't joking, it was then that I felt what almost every American felt that day - completely vulnerability. I just kept thinking, "But that can't happen - I mean, it's the Pentagon!" I sat watching the tv with my baby daughter on my lap, holding her close as if we both might evaporate if I let go, and with my husband by my side.

I spent the next 5 days calling and waiting for phone calls from my friends and former staff. I had been the one who had brought some of the attorneys in the group into the firm, and I still felt responsible for their well-being. (When I had gone on vacation, we had discussed what to do in the event of an attack or emergency - of course, prior to 9-11, we thought it might be gas through the ventilation system.) I spent the days endlessly calculating how long it would take my former secretary to climb down 65 flights.

Of course, Morgan Stanley as a firm was "lucky" in that it lost only a handful of people - and those that I knew all survived "okay" - and I was very grateful, even while I mourned the loss.

For three years, I commuted into and through the World Trade Center. It would take me 15 minutes to get from the Path train level (5 levels below the building) up to the 59th floor. That's where I did my Christmas shopping - at the Warner Brothers store. It's where I got all my reading - at the bookstore in the corner of the 1st Tower. It's where my colleagues and I would travel the 2 elevators down to the lobby and halls of shops to our favorite healthy juice bar and tell them what type of extra "shot" we wanted in our strawberry banana smoothie that day. It's where my bank and my post office were. Even though I had been in the brokerage business for 10+ years, it was still my first job as a lawyer right out of law school. It's where my mentor taught me things that I still use to this day.

A year after 9/11, I had to travel to court in lower Manhattan. I had to take the ferry because the Path train no longer had a WTC station to go to. I remember the seething anger filling me the entire ferry ride from the NJ to the Manhattan shore, as I thought, "This is just wrong."

I believe (and think that I always have) that the getting and keeping freedom requires both prayer and action. Only a good sense of discernment can tell you which you are here to do and at what time. On D-Day there was both fighting and praying happening - and it's a good thing that those who did each didn't try to do the other's job.

Toby sings of the action part of the equation. Want to know more details of how Our Country's freedom was hard-won? Read David McCullough's "1776."

It's not technically music - but it is music to the ears of those who love America and who love freedom.

made in 1993

And, hey, if they never taught you in school about what happened in Montezuma and Tripoli, just remember, it's never too late to learn!


The Marine's Hymn Lyrics

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.


Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job --
The United States Marines.


Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

[Courtesy of USA Flag Site.org.

Vintage Americana.

"We still wave Old Glory down at the Courthouse."

Released in 1971, this version is from a 1972 concert. Want more info about the interpretation of the lyrics? Get it here American Pie (song) on Wikipedia.

I grew up thinking that memorizing the lyrics by age 15 was a necessary right of passage.

BTW, if you haven't heard it before, be sure to listen to "Starry Starry Night" about Vincent VanGogh - absolutely beautiful.

A beautiful memorial.

Documentary of the history of Taps The Bugler's Cry. First played in 1862. [Story of Union officer finding his Confederate son is a myth.]

Taps - lyrics

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

Fading light, dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.

Thanks and praise, for our days,
'Neath the sun, 'neath the stars, neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.

Sun has set, shadows come,
Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds
Always true to the promise that they made.

While the light fades from sight,
And the stars gleaming rays softly send,
To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend.

[Courtesy of Scout Songs].