My older daughter loves watching NASCAR. She's been a fan since she was a baby. She will sit and watch every race. While the race is on, she'll do her nails, work on homework, do crafts, whatever...all the while paying attention to the race. I don't mind that.
At the beginning of every race, they have an Invocation and the singing of the National Anthem. When it starts, she will call me into the living room and we'll stand & bow our heads during the Invocation, then put our hands over our hearts for the singing of the National Anthem. I don't mind that, either.
It's the actual singing of the Anthem that makes me grumpy.
Some of them will sing it straight, or close enough. Sometimes a person can't help a natural vocal slide on a note. Some of them are nervous and a little shaky, some of them full of confidence. Sometimes a cappella, sometimes with full instrumental. I actually enjoy those. (I LOVE the strictly instrumental ones!)
Some of them sing it like a combination of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, adding notes all over the place, doing full octave jumps where there usually isn't one (most notably on the "land of the free" line). I don't like those, but at least they're consistent.
It's the "inbetweeners" that drive me crazy.
They will start the song straight. Very little embellishments. Strong, yet subtle. Then, all of a sudden, they hit the "bombs bursting in air" and they start feeling their oats. Then their inner Diva comes into play and they're all over the map, vocal-wise. After this, there are a few guarantees:
- "That our flag was still there" will go up instead of down;
- "Banner yet wave"...the "wave" will do just that...wave all over the place;
- "The land of the free"...do they REALLY have to jump an octave (or two) for "Free"? What's worse; most of them who do it, really can't, and it comes out screechy.
Those were bad enough. Lately, however, there is a whole new level added: repeating "of the brave" in various different styles! It's fine when you have a wonderful vocal quartet when one singer is holding the "brave" and the other three add an echo "of the brave", but a soloist tacking it on? It normally comes out pretty bad.
I really wish that more people would see the honor that singing the National Anthem is at an event, and make it more about the Song and the Event...and less about their vocal prowess.
For the record, I HAVE sung the National Anthem at an event. Solo. A cappella. I sang it straight. I knew it wasn't about me.
