courtesy of Von Cello at a Yankees game. Not as good as Matt Haimovitz at CBGB on acoustic cello doing his version of Hendrix, but the best I could come up with on YouTube. Hope this works. I can't figure out how to embed the video the way everyone else does.
This is further to my prior post about cello playing; indulge me, it's a holiday. I too have an electric cello, with a synthesizer pedal and amp, and when no one is in the house I make a lot of noise. A lot of noise. Off and on (meaning when no one is in the house) I have been working on learning Carlos Santana's old standard, La Samba Para Ti, using a note by note transcription.
Actually, the Haimovitz interview linked here - though you don't hear much of his playing - is really very touching for the 4th of July - talking about the freedom that this country gives him to go around the country and play the Bach cello suites in little bars, cafes, and pubs. Vive liberty.
Great rendition, by the way.
I saw Robert Merrill, an opera singer, sing the anthem on opening day at Yankee Stadium back in the '60s. That was my personal favorite. Apparently, someone had given him the sheet music.
That's the closest I'll ever come to liking the yankers.
I know it's desperately politically incorrect, but I wish they would put the 3rd verse back in. It is a needed reminder that we were not always a superpower, and that we once fought wars that, had we lost, would have seen our home and country taken from us by tyrants and their hirelings. It helps put in perspective our current internal and foreign policy squabbles by reminding us what real tyranny and real danger is.
"And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
If you have a comment about spelling, typos, or format errors, please e-mail the poster directly rather than posting a comment.
Comment Policy: We reserve the right to edit or delete comments, and in extreme cases to ban commenters, at our discretion. Comments must be relevant and civil (and, especially, free of name-calling). We think of comment threads like dinner parties at our homes. If you make the party unpleasant for us or for others, we'd rather you went elsewhere. We're happy to see a wide range of viewpoints, but we want all of them to be expressed as politely as possible.
We realize that such a comment policy can never be evenly enforced, because we can't possibly monitor every comment equally well. Hundreds of comments are posted every day here, and we don't read them all. Those we read, we read with different degrees of attention, and in different moods. We try to be fair, but we make no promises.
And remember, it's a big Internet. If you think we were mistaken in removing your post (or, in extreme cases, in removing you) -- or if you prefer a more free-for-all approach -- there are surely plenty of ways you can still get your views out.