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14 Sep 01 - 01:38 PM (#550080) Subject: My Country Tis of Thee^^ From: Mrrzy Very startled not to find this in the Trad... MY COUNTRY TIS OF THEE My country, 'tis of thee, |
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14 Sep 01 - 01:39 PM (#550083) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Mrrzy If you sing this in honor or remembrance of 9/11, please omit the final verse. |
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14 Sep 01 - 04:13 PM (#550228) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) American words by Samuel Francis Smith, 1832. The English version is in DT, words by Harry Carey, 1740, but tune probably 17th C. I would like to hear some of the old Scottish tunes that it could be based on. |
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14 Sep 01 - 05:28 PM (#550296) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: The Walrus I have a "Canadian Soldiers' Songbook" published during the Great War by the YMCA which has "The Anglo-American Anthem", the first verse is verse 1 of "God Save the King" verse 2 is the first verse of "My Country 'tis of Thee" and the third verse runs; "Two Empires by the sea, Two peoples great and free, One anthem raise. One race of ancient fame, One tongue, one faith we claim, One God whose glorious Name We love and praise." maybe not singable these days, but worth mentioning I think. Walrus.
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14 Sep 01 - 09:06 PM (#550474) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Joe Offer Mrr - you bring up a point that I tried to address in the thread on America the Beautiful (click). Both are beautiful songs, songs that seem quite appropriate at this time. However, both make mention of God. If we sing them, does this exclude Americans who do not believe in God? Is it possible for nonbelievers to sing these songs and suspend their disbelief, sharing the sentiment without sharing the belief? Religious belief is pervasive in our culture and language - if we are to be inclusive, must we cleanse ourselves of mention of religious belief? Or, perhaps, is there another way, a way that would not involve cleansing our culture of what has gone before us? What's the solution? -Joe Offer- |
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14 Sep 01 - 10:42 PM (#550530) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: GUEST,Freedom For All Oh here we go again! Why do you people get so caught up in the "oh I don't wanna offend anyone" so let's stifle our own beliefs and freedoms so that others won't be offended. Give me a break! In the "Pledge of Alliegence" the words "under God" are not even in the original text but added later on - and we're still using them to this day. If non-believers don't want to use certain words - fine, but don't start the "oh how can we say this correctly for the non-believers". This is one reason we are becoming a Godless society - because the God believers are allowing it to happen. Don't let it happen! Everyone has different beliefs of course, but getting on the bandwagon to conform to others who I'm sure aren't willing to comform to you in any way is ludicrous. |
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14 Sep 01 - 11:14 PM (#550548) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Paul from Hull I see a much bigger concern in that those who pervert Islam to their own murderous ends may be able to point to the mention of God & say 'look what they are trying to do', to the gullible. They may see it as a greater 'blasphemy' then they already perceive in those nations that are nominally, or predominantly, Christian (in whatever form). Paul (an Agnostic) |
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14 Sep 01 - 11:32 PM (#550560) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: wysiwyg Joe, your question reminds me of the feelings and decisions I faced when I started going to church-- especially during the congregational recitation of the Creed. It starts "I believe...." and goes on to say a number of things that, at the time, I could not wholly and honestly say I believed. I think I learned something from being there every week, wondering what to DO about that. What I learned was that each week, I had to think flexibly and be self-aware about how I was responding to the words and the ideas behind them... I had to meet those words fresh, each time, and THEN decide what to do about them. One thing I could choose to do was wonder about them. In a state of wonder we can embrace the most foreign concpets long enough to see how they fit, and either keep or reject them. I still do that. I do it when I am confronted with anything of another culture or another way of seeing the world.... I meet it with as much openness to what will occur as I have within me at that moment, and then I see how I think and feel about it, and this goes into the process of how I might respond the NEXT time. I think we all have to live like that if we are to be honest that we are thinking, creative creatures. And I think we have to decide that someone else's words don't have more power than our own minds have. What did I end up doing about the Creed, then? I adopted a practice that may apply in the situation you asked about. I said what I COULD say and was silent on the parts I could NOT say. I did not tell people not to say them, or that they should edit out the parts I disagreed with. ~S~ |
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15 Sep 01 - 12:38 AM (#550590) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) I don't believe in any gods, but I don't object to placing these songs in DT. They are part of our culture. Some object to the IRA songs, but they are a part of history. The dialect of the old spirituals has been made "correct," I think removing much of their historical meaning (remember, at the time, poor whites didn't speak the Kings or New England Brahmin English either). I have a good collection of 16th-17th century polyphony, most of which is based on the Mass; I love its beauty and complexity although I dislike religion and blame it for much of the distress in the world. It is true, I dislike the addition of "under God" to the pledge of allegiance (I am Canadian now, so I am no longer faced with it), but no one is forced to sing these songs. I would like DT to remain open to them. Some mudcatters and others are covering Christian hymns in other sites, but songs about America (or Britain or Ireland or ...) have a meaning outside the church. |
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15 Sep 01 - 02:03 AM (#550625) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Banjer My belief is that those who believe in God should be allowed to express their beliefs. After all don't we allow those who believe in other dieties (or don't believe in anything, for that matter) to express themselves? I further feel that during this difficult time in our nation's history this type of discussion is totaly unecessary. Let our great nation with all its diversity act as one as was intended by our founders. How can we be 'one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all' if some of us are forced to give up or suspend our faith in what we believe in? |
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15 Sep 01 - 01:56 PM (#550839) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Joe Offer As far as the Digital Tradition goes, Dicho, there won't be any sanitizing. Dick Greenhaus has made that clear. If you want "politically correct" lyrics, you'll have to go to Rise Up Singing. Some people object to the posting of IRA and other songs here at Mudcat, and I think they miss the point. The Mudcat Forum was established for the collection of lyrics for the Digital Tradition. It has grown far beyond that, but that original purpose has not been abandoned. Songs tell us a lot about history, and it's important that we don't filter our parts of history that we consider objectionable. I can only suppose why "My Country Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful" aren't in the Digital Tradition. Perhaps they're too common, too available from other sources. As people post them, I've been harvesting them submitting them to Dick Greenhaus for inclusion in the Digital Tradition. However, I'm trying to ensure that the songs I harvest have songwriter information, publication dates, background information, and all the original verses. It also helps to have the tune, although I'm not sure how necessary this is for common songs. I don't know whether Dick will include them in the DT - but he probably will. Whatever the case, it's good to have them posted here in the forum, because then they're immediately available and searchable for all of us. But to get back to the question of mentioning God in patriotic songs - Most American patriotic songs that I know of, make mention of God. Some, like "America the Beautiful" and "My Country Tis of Thee," portray a God that fits my image of God, a wise, loving deity. Other US patriotic songs, mostly newer ones that tend to come from Country music, make me cringe a bit - they portray a God who makes us Americans powerful and self-righteous. They portray a God I can't believe in, and they also portray an all-powerful United States I can't believe in or support. WYSIWYG makes a good point in here analogy with the Creed. There's a line that says "for us men and for our salvation..." I can't quite handle that, so I say, "for us [pause] and for our salvation" - glossing over something I find needlessly sexist. I hope nonbelievers can do the same with patriotic songs. Many of these songs have been with us for generations and are part of our history and culture. I hope we're able to maintain our own beliefs (or unbelief), and yet sing together. -Joe Offer- |
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15 Sep 01 - 02:18 PM (#550861) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Ditchdweller Some (some???? That's a bloody understatement!!!) years ago I was part of an RE Squadron visiting a US Army base in Heidleburg, Germany. Some of us went a church service on the base where this hymn was played. As the tune is our National Anthem, I sung our words with my mates goining in. Apparently out of respect the American congregation, only a couple of dozen or so, stopped singing and allowed us to continue. That was the one act that has cemented my respect and love of the American people. Yes, you can be a big mouthed bloody agravating bunch, but I am glad we are still friends for all that. |
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16 Sep 01 - 01:39 AM (#551293) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: GUEST,Scorpio Mrrzy, I am glad you posted that song. May I offer two minor corrections? First, it should read "Land of the pilgrims' pride..." (plural) Second, the last two verses you posted are in reverse order to the way the song was written. ("Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong" is the last line of the song.) Again, thanks for the post. Scorpio |
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16 Sep 01 - 01:59 AM (#551305) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: catspaw49 I'm as agnostic as they get and I don't have a problem with this stuff as long as it isn't crammed upon me as a mandate. I think a lot of them have brought much of the country together. I think "God Bless America" is a little over the top and a ways down the "smite our enemies" road, but it's still a song. I personally prefer to sing Woody's response to it, "This Land"..but... One question.......What the hell is with the first lines........My country tis of thee......tis of thee what? Tis of thee sweet land? I don't get it. I mean it really makes no sense to me, but then again, I'm not real bright........... Spaw |
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16 Sep 01 - 03:14 AM (#551377) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country Tis of Thee From: Joe Offer You don't get that one, Spaw? If you had a little less hair covering that thick head of yours, maybe.... How about:
See, wasn't that easy? -The Balding One- |
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22 Jan 17 - 12:56 PM (#3834108) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country 'Tis of Thee From: oldhippie An old parody by H.C. Dodge (1889) that may make a comeback during the Trump era. My country 'tis of thee Land of lost liberty, Of thee we sing. Land which the millionaires, Who govern our affairs, Own for themselves and heirs Hail to the king. Land once of noble braves But now of wretched slaves Alas! too late We saw sweet Freedom die From letting bribers nigh, Our unprized suffrage buy; Anf mourn thy fste. Land where the wealthy few Can make the many do Their royal will, And tax for selfish greed The toilers till they bleed,' And those not yet weak-kneed Crash down and kill. Land where a rogue is raised On high and loudly praised For worst of crimes Of which the end, must be A hell of cruelty, As proved by history Of ancient times. My country 'tis of thee, Betrayed by bribery, Of thee we sing. We might have saved thee long Had we, when proud and strong, Put down the cursed wrong That makes a king. (as published in "For Democracy, Workers, and God - Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-95" by Clark D. Halker, 1991). |
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22 Jan 17 - 02:05 PM (#3834119) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country 'Tis of Thee From: Mrrzy I rewrote that final verse to: Each forefather, to thee Author of liberty To thee we sing Long may our land be bright With freedom's human light Thanks to thy great foresight We have no king. |
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22 Jan 17 - 11:54 PM (#3834210) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Country 'Tis of Thee From: GUEST,Gerry My country, 'tis of thee Sweet land of Germany My name is Fritz. I am a German spy Caught by the FBI Tomorrow I will die Oh, fiddlesticks. As learned from my peers in New York City, circa 1960. |