[jeffalanm]

Greetings:

I'm currently developing an album project that will profile the history of our flag through popular/patriotic song, and I'd love your input here at usa-flag-site.org.
My goal is to compile one/two dozen songs selectively representing the earliest point in this process(1880's?) to the present. I plan to do this in conjunction with the Library of Congress once I get more data.

I would appreciate your discussion on this topic in order to gain insight and wisdom in my research, some leads to chase and so forth.

- - JEFF

[Peter Ansoff]

Hi, Jeff! Welcome.

That sounds like a really interesting project. Here are two or three thoughts at random -- I hope that others here will have some too:

1. The history of flag-related songs is much older than the 1880s. A good starting point is the "Star Spangled Banner," written in 1814. If you include it, you might want to consider using the second or forth verses, which are not performed very often. The imagery of the second verse is wonderful:

Now it catches the gleam
Of the mornings's first beam
In full glory reflected
Now it shines on the stream
'Tis the Star Spangled Banner, and long may it wave
(etc.)

Although it's not directly flag-related, I also find the opening phrase of the fourth verse very moving:

Oh thus be it ever
When free men shall stand
Between their loved homes
And the war's deslolation

2. The Civil War was very much a flag-waving era, and produced lots of flag-related music. One interesting thing about them is that there were frequently different versions of the same song, one for the north and one for the south. A good example is "The Bonnie Blue Flag," which was the national anthem of the Confederacy. The chorus ran:

Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the bonnie blue flag that wears the single star!

The northern version was:

Hurrah! Hurrah! For equal rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the brave old flag that wears the stripes and stars!

The chorus of "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" also has a nice flag-related allusion:

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp the boys are marching
Cheer up, comrades, they will come
And beneath our starry flag we shall breathe the air again
Of the free and happy land we knew as home.

3. The classic flag-related march is Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever." Something I learned recently about this march is the symbolism of the main theme being repeated three times, each in a different setting. Sousa intended each one to honor one of the three regions of the post-Civil War nation: the north, the south and the west. The piece thus symbolized both the reconciliation between the two Civil War antagonists and the emergence of the west as a vital part of the nation, all under the national flag.

Please keep us posted on how the project goes!

Best,

Peter Ansoff