Mid-Week Music #1 - Star-Spangled Banner

Hello again, readers! I’m posting on my blog--it’s like I’m going to be doing this all the time! And I’d like to introduce you to a new feature/blogpost-type. I’m calling it Mid-Week Music.

Every Wednesday from this point on, I will be putting up a Mid-Week Music post for you all. Even if there’s nothing else that week for the busy-ness, this will be there like clockwork. Basically, I post a video of a song--and it could be any random song, so be forewarned--along with the lyrics, and then I might say a little something about or related to the song. A very simple post, and gives all those lyrics written down on my computer something to do.

Today, I’m going to give you two videos of the same song--it’s the first Mid-Week Music post, after all. Today, we will have a very special song. Why? Yesterday, it was the Fourth of July. That song is--you guessed it!--The Star-Spangled Banner.

Pretty good singer--gives me chills every time I hear his version. I first heard it years ago, and it occurred to me (well, to my dad) that its minor key was somewhat apt for the times we live in. That is true. But times have changed, indeed. And the events that followed the next video are a big part of it.

Such a beautiful voice. And so proud to be a part of her country.

O, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner--O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto--"In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.