A follow-on to yesterday’s post about the superiority of ‘O Canada’:

I was not surprised to read that there are official lyrics in both English and French for the anthem. I was surprised a bit, though, at the stark difference in the message of the two versions.

First, the familiar English version:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

But compare that with this English translation of the French lyrics:

O Canada!
Land of our ancestors,
Thy brow is wreathed with a glorious
garland of flowers.
As is thy arm ready to wield the sword,
So also is it ready to carry the cross.
Thy history is an epic
Of the most brilliant exploits.
Thy valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights
Will protect our homes and our rights.

A very different flavor to those, eh? An “arm ready to wield the sword”, but also “ready to carry the cross”. And rather than the English version standing on guard for the country, the French version stands in protection of “our homes and our rights”.

Fascinating how they’ve chosen to keep the tune and meter the same between both versions, and accepted the inevitable difference in lyrical content.

Watching the winter Olympics over the past two weeks, I caught at least a few of the medal ceremonies, including at least a couple (including the one after the amazing hockey game yesterday) where the Canadian anthem was played. Each time I was struck with the same thought, which I finally voiced on Twitter yesterday: that the Canadian national anthem is highly superior to ours. One friend expressed the same thought, but another quickly disagreed. So, let me offer a few thoughts in defense of my assertion.

Reasons that ‘O Canada‘ is superior to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner‘

• Singability. The purpose of a national anthem is to be sung, right? ‘O Canada’ has a nice, singable melody, and a total range of just one octave, suitable to most voices. ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, on the other hand, has a range of an octave and a fifth, which is a range typically only well-handled by professional singers. Live performances should be opportunities for national pride, however, when the US anthem is involved, they are more often adventures in vocal torture.
• Inspiring Language. ‘The True North strong and free.’ What a marvelous turn of phrase. And who can fail to be moved when singing “God keep our land glorious and free”? The Star Spangled Banner is just about a flag, with the bit about the country being sort of tacked on at the end.
• Using words that people actually are familiar with. With exception, perhaps, of the old English “thy” and “thee”, “O Canada” is composed entirely of words that one might use in everyday writing or conversation. “The Star Spangled Banner”, by comparison? Spangled. Perilous. Ramparts. Gallantly. Ugh.
• Actually mentioning the name of the country. “O Canada”: 4 mentions, not counting the title. “The Star Spangled Banner”: 0.
• Not beginning and ending with a question. Questions typically belong in plaintive, whiny songs, not broad anthems. Starting off “O say can you see?” and ending with “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?”, while presumably intended as rhetorical flourishes, doesn’t impart the same sort of solidarity as “O Canada, we stand on guard for Thee”.

Sadly, any attempt to change the US anthem at this point would only result in choosing something worse. “God Bless America” is too overtly theistic to get official sanction; “America the Beautiful” has many of the same issues as the current anthem (hard to sing, odd words). There are occasional odd choices proposed, too, similarly troublesome. For instance, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”: written by a communist sympathizer. And who wants to hear a folksy protest song played at the beginning of every sporting event and solemn political occasion?

Being a loyal American I will continue to honor my country by standing when the national anthem is played. But I will at the same time regret that our inferior anthem ensures that we will never have a scene like the one that played out in the Canadian hockey arena yesterday, with 18,000 victorious fans singing the anthem at the top of their lungs.

My friend Dan’s greeting on Twitter this morning brought this song to mind – it’s a witty, punny little two minutes that’s completely worth your time.

The Muppet Show doing “Going To Morrow”.

I met Nick Flora a few years back when he came along to play guitars with Andy Osenga at a little show in Omaha. They played Andy’s “When Will I Run” and every time Nick sang the line that Derek Webb sings on the CD, he held in front of his face a copy of a magazine that featured Derek on the cover. Cracked me up.

Anyhow, enjoyed meeting Nick that night, but didn’t really get a chance to hear much of his music. Earlier this week, though, I was able to download Nick’s latest, Great Escape, from Noisetrade. What a fantastic record. Nick has a good acoustic rock sort of sound – there are times he reminds me of Dave Matthews, other times of a cranked up Bon Iver, but mostly he finds his own unique sound, and makes it highly enjoyable.

I don’t know how long his record will be available on Noisetrade, but I highly recommend you go check it out. Click on the widget below and you can download the record by either paying what you want or recommending it to five friends. You won’t be sorry.

It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks, but this does make the day cheerier: I just firmed up plans to road trip to Nashville on April 27 (less than two weeks from now!) to meet up with some friends (Geof Morris, Mike Terry among others) and see Andy Osenga play a show with full band at 12th and Porter.

Yeah, who care if it’s a 10-hour drive each way. I can’t wait.

[Oh, and also: I completely have the best wife in the world. Thanks, Becky, for being supportive of this.]

Normally when we think about musicians and “their music”, we think about the music that they write, perform, and record. But author Ben Ratliff (jazz critic for the New York Times) decided to ask a different question. What do these musicians listen to and find influential? What are they thinking and hearing as they listen to the music? So Ratliff met with a dozen or so noted jazz musicians, asked them what tracks they’d like to listen to, and then relates to us the experience and conversations of listening to the music with the musicians. The result is The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music. It turns out to be fascinating stuff.

Though I am a musician and fancy myself a fan (though not a hardcore aficionado) of jazz, it quickly became clear to me that the plane these guys think on is just incredibly high. It is fascinating in its own way, though, listening to serious jazz players talk about how they think about jazz. My favorite part of the book, though, was the reference list at the back, where Ratliff lists each recording that he listened to with each of the musicians. It has been a great input for my personal playlist… so much to explore.

If you’re a musician, like jazz, or just want to explore the minds of some great musicians, I’d recommend picking up The Jazz Ear. It’s a short read, but quite worth it.

[You can buy The Jazz Ear from Amazon.com.]

OK, I know I’ve been tagged on this one multiple times. Let’s see.

What does your music library say about you?
————————–
1. Put Your iTunes/MP3 on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Tag at least 10 friends
————————–

[Note: I reserve the right to skip classical music, christmas music, and sermons.]

What do your friends think of you?
“Oh No” – Hem [hehehehe]

If someone says, “Is this okay?” You say?
“Dream Awake” – The Frames

How would you describe yourself?
“Beautiful Sorta” – Ryan Adams & the Cardinals [I swear I'm not gaming the system.]

What do you like in a guy/girl?
“Give Me Some Room” – Michael O’Brien [meh]

How do you feel today?
“Scared” – Waterdeep [HA!]

What is your life’s purpose?
“Cheers Darlin’” – Damien Rice

What is your motto?
“Things Have Changed” – Bob Dylan [niiiiiice.]

What do you think about very often?
“Happy” – The Frames

What do you think of your best friend?
“Real Good Thing” – Newsboys [Again, I swear I'm not gaming the system. AWESOME.]

What do you think of the person you like?
“Night Must End” – Sleeping at Last

What is your life story?
“Yawny at the Apocalypse” – Andrew Bird [ROFL]

What do you want to be when you grow up?
“Valerie” – The Zutons [????]

What do you think of when you see the person you like/love?
“The Grace of God” – PFR [Aw yeah.]

What will you dance to at your wedding?
“Once” – Harry Connick, Jr. [Good song.]

What will they play at your funeral?
“Your Own Private Love” – Harry Connick, Jr.

What is your hobby/interest?
“I’ve Just Seen A Face” – The Beatles

What is your biggest fear?
“Always Returning” – Brian Eno

What is your biggest secret?
“Light In Your Eyes” – Sheryl Crow [or maybe people finding out I have Sheryl Crow in my music library]

What do you think of your friends?
“Mothers of the Disappeared” – U2 [um, OK?]

What will you post this as?
“I Still Miss Someone” – covered by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash

Songwriting, you ask? Yeah, if you missed it, I was invited to attend the Iowa Songwriter’s Guild meeting last month and they planted the bug again. So I’ve been keeping the songwriting idea in mind, looking for and writing down ideas, phrases, and so on. I have at least one idea that I really like as a concept; now I have to find a way to put actual words to it.

As a worship leader and accompanist for many years, one of my greatest gifts has been that I have an immense capacity for remembering music and lyrics and then playing them back. I could sit down with nothing more than a list of song titles and play and sing you songs for hours and hours. That skill, though, seems to become a curse when it comes to songwriting. Because I have trained my brain for so many years to remember and replay other people’s melodies and lyrics, now when I try to create my own phrase, I write down two words and it makes some other song lyric pop into my head. Play a couple of chords and it pops a song into my head. And once it’s in my head, it’s hard to banish.

I’m going to keep at it, though, and hope to attend January’s Guild meeting with at least something to show for my efforts. I may not ever turn out a great song, but it’s at least worth the effort to try.

I’ll work through that title backwards. How do you know when you have some musical kinship with someone else? How about when they pull out that obscure song that they really like and want you to hear… and it’s a song you’ve been playing on repeat on your iPod for weeks?

That very thing happened last night at Nick and Allie’s house. After the Iowa Songwriter’s Guild house show I hung out for a while to hear some of Allie’s new hymntunes and to generally talk music with Nick, and he pulled out The Khrusty Brothers’ Sympathy for Jesus. What a great song. That provoked a discussion on Don Chaffer and Waterdeep, and ended up with Nick lending me all of his Waterdeep CDs so I can take a listen. So far, so good.

Earlier in the evening Nick & Allie hosted the Iowa Songwriters’ Guild monthly meeting, which this month was a special house show. Each of the writers played a couple of songs, and I quite enjoyed hearing folks share their talent. I was motivated to try to dust off my long-neglected songwriting chops; what remains to be seen is if that motivation will last long enough to actually write anything. Nick did send a book on songwriting home with me, though, so I’ll have to take a look at it. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

When Andy Osenga’s The Morning came out two and a half years ago (to much fanfare on this blog) I would not have predicted that New Beginning would become the signature track off the record. Early In The Morning would’ve been my bet, with then either House of Mirrors or Marilyn next on my list.

Thirty months later, though, New Beginning has become the most durable track, evidenced by, if nothing else, the fact that Andy is performing it almost every night this year on the Behold the Lamb Christmas tour.

The bridge of the song still gets me every time:

I can feel a prayer rising
And I don’t even know the words
Still the groaning is the postage
And it will not be returned
Though we’re living in this rubble
Of our reckless plans and games
We are reaching for the promise
That we will not stay the same…

Thanks, Andy, for a great song.