Welcome to the re-education.

Today's show is a little shorter and a bit different than past episodes.

I'm just offering a monologue, and it's a bit of a bonus for our July 4th weekend

because I wanted to share my thoughts on the National Anthem.

To a Nacreon in Hen, where he sat in glee,

A few sons of harmony sent a petition

That he there inspirer and patron would be

When his answer arrived from the jolly oldish, voice fiddle and glute no longer be beautiful.

What you've just heard is the original version of our national anthem.

It's the music to our national anthem.

It was written as the theme for a private club in London in the 18th century called the Anacreonic Society, which

itself was named for a bard in ancient Greece who loved poetry and wine. The Anacreonic

Society served as a kind of glee club for the barristers and doctors who like to drink and sing

together. It became popular in the United States and in the

colonies before there was a United States. So in 1814 on September 14th, a Baltimore lawyer who

liked that song named Francis Scott Key decided to write new lyrics to it as he watched Patriots

defend Fort McHenry from the British Navy. And ever since, it has been

the Star-Spangled Banner. So to recap, the melody of our national anthem was a drinking

song for London Gentleman, and its lyrics were written by a Baltimore attorney. I don't know about you.

I just think we can do better. You know, part of this is because music got much better in the 20th century.

It's not to say that there were no good music in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Much of the classical canon was written then.

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