At the recent State of the City Address in Denver, jazz singer Rene Marie got up to sing the national anthem, and did -- kinda. She actually sang James Weldon Johnson's Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, the black national anthem to the tune of Francis Scott Key's The Star-Spangled Banner. I guess she felt she was being creative, but I didn't really dig it and neither did some other people who she later said "oops, my bad" to. ...
I really, really like Lift Ev'ry Voice because when I hear it, I can visualize the dignity of my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents and every black person who stood up and built a life for themselves in America despite the adversity they faced. It is a true nationalistic sentiment. And there's some amazing versions of the so-called Black National Anthem, like the one NPR News & Notes found from the 70s (video below).
To me there's no need to mix it with Key's tale of the British shelling of Fort McHenry, which only discusses one obscure incident in American history. Besides, I've always felt Katharine Lee Bates' America the Beautiful would make a better national anthem -- especially when sung by Ray Charles.
I remember having to memorize Weldon's lyrics when I was a kid, and it was a standard at any community function I went to. Funny thing is there's lots of people who have never heard of the song until now.
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A local man throws rocks at South African police in the Reiger Park informal settlement outside Johannesburg Monday May 19, 2008. Mobs rampaged through poor suburbs of Johannesburg in a frenzy of anti-foreigner violence over the weekend, killing at least 12 people, injuring dozens and forcing hundreds to seek refuge at police stations. The attacks capped a week of mounting violence that started in the sprawling township of Alexandra. Angry residents there accused foreigners, many of them Zimbabweans who fled their own country's economic collapse, of taking scarce jobs and housing. . (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
An unidentified woman looks through the shattered rear window of the car after it was hit by bricks outside a church in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday May 18, 2008. Mobs killed at least five people and injured 50 in anti-foreigner violence Sunday that has spread through poor suburbs of Johannesburg, police said. Foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, were targeted, police spokeswoman Cheryl Engelbrecht said. More than 300 had sought refuge at the local police station, she said. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Women from the Pro-independence Polisario Front rebel soldiers are seen during a military parade in the Western Sahara village of Tifariti, Tuesday May 19, 2008 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Polisario Army. After Spanish colonizers left Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco and Mauritania went to war over it. By 1979, Mauritania had pulled out and Morocco had taken over. But fighting continued between 15,000 Saharaui's Polisario guerrillas and Morocco's U.S. equipped army. A U.N. negotiated truce in 1991 called for a referendum on the region's future, but that vote never happened. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
An unidentified man buys cooking oil on the streets of Highfileds in Harare, Zimbabwe Tuesday, May, 20, 2008. The cooking oil is made affordable by repackaging into smaller bottles and containers. A third of the population has fled Zimbabwe in recent years as the country confronts chronic shortages of food, medicine, fuel and cash precipitated by the government's seizure of white-owned farms that once produced enough to feed the country and export to neighbors. The government this month introduced a half-billion Zimbabwe dollar note in efforts to deal with runaway inflation that unofficial estimates put at 700,000 percent a year. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Sen. Barack Takes a break on the campaign trail before giving a speech. (AP)
Actor Shia LaBeouf and a fan take a self portrait at the premiere of his new movie "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull",Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)
GRESHAM, OR - MAY 18: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is hugged by his wife Michelle Obama before he speaks during a campaign event at the Huntington Terrace Senior Center May 18, 2008 in Gresham, Oregon. Obama is campaigning through Oregon and Kentucky ahead of Tuesday's primaries. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan holds the ball near the start of the Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference semifinal basketball series against the New Orleans Hornets, Monday, May 19, 2008, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Comments: (15)
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By: Kecia on 7/14/2008 11:33PM
Oh, I learned the black national anthem as a child attending SCLC conferences with my folks. For those of you not familiar with "the movement" that's the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I was amazed in the early 1990s to attend a Black History program in New York and folks didn't even know to stand out of respect for OUR anthem! When I stood, folks actually looked at me as if I was insane. I was asked recently by a co-worker, why was there a black national anthem. I calmly replied that when slavery was abolished ex-slaves were given handouts with the U.S. national anthem lyrics and might have even gotten lynched for thinking they had a right to sing the song. Although I feel we shouldn't live in the past - we must continue to educate our young of their past. They need to know they are the descedents of a strong people that have overcome so much adversity. Without the knowledge of the past - our children are doomed to have no respect for they're future. As my grandfather used to always say, "you are SOMEBODY, baby." NOW, ACT LIKE IT!
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By: p.g. hudson jr on 7/08/2008 4:16PM
NOT ONLY WAS THE CONCEPT OF RIPPING OFF THE WORDS FROM ONE GREAT SONG AND GRAFTING THEM ONTO A GREAT MELODY A BAD PARODY; THE PERFORMANCE ITSELF WAS TIRED SOUNDING AND TACKY. MS. MARIE SOUNDED UNSURE, HER VERSION HAD NO GENUINE EMOTION, SOUNDED LIKE ACTING,NOT MUSIC,AND LACKED SOULFUL FEELING.JWJ's COMPOSITION OF GREAT LYRIC AND MELODY HAS BEEN A TRADITIONAL HYMN TO BLACK PEOPLE, AND IT STANDS ON ITS OWN
AS A HISTORICAL ODE TO THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA. IT IS A BEAUTIFUL MELODY, NOT TO BE SUBJECTED TO A DEMEANING RIPOFF. THE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE DEPICTED IN THAT SONG,THE DESPAIR, THE DETERMINATION, THE HOPE, TYPIFIES EVERY BLACK PERSON'S FEELINGS IN THE STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN THIS GREAT LAND OF OURS AND THE LEGACY OF THEIR EXPERIENCE SHOULD NOT BE DILUTED OR CONFUSED IN ANY WAY. FRANCIS SCOTT KEY HAS BEEN IMMORTALIZED BY HIS INTERPRETATION OF THIS NATION'S STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY, SO TOO SHOULD JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, FOR HIS VERSION OF THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IS TO BE REVERED AND ADMIRED AS IT STANDS. ALL WHO KNOW THAT ACHIEVEMENT OF SUCCESS IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY HAS NOT BEEN EASY WILL APPRECIATE THIS GREAT WORK OF ART.
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By: Adlyn on 7/09/2008 8:14AM
though I apperiate the history of the song it was wrong of this woman to sing it at that particular time. This song is best song on the juneteenth ot when and if a civil rights leaders dies, we as a nation were getting ready for the 4 of july and everyone in the room was epecting the star spangle banner, no one was informed at all and it was rude and disrepectful. There is a time and place for everything and this wasn't the time nor place.
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By: DALLAS on 7/09/2008 12:18AM
I AIN'T mad at it. I thought it was creative.
Gurl had to have HEART to get up there & throw folks for a loop!! LOL!!
Isn't life GRAND!!??
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By: koko Essien on 7/11/2008 7:58AM
Tears dropped from my eyes when i listened to this anthem , ok yes its past,yes and young black americans dont identify with it , yes ; most ppl dont know it, well maybe, but one thing is certain , its relevant and imperative for evryblack person globally, to hear this and reflect what it took, and also why ppl had to resort to creating a different notional anthem from the existing one, its a lot to do that though, am a black man ,an African, i live in spain , yes but i can feel the same things that made those ppl did what they did, thank you so much Rene Marie for waking up some who are sleeping and probably slipping!! love you!!
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By: maz on 7/09/2008 7:32AM
PERPETUAL/PERPETUAL/PERPETUAL IT NEVER STOPS.OOPPSS THEN WE MAY HAVE TO SING ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT/HIGH CRIME/BLK ON BLK CRIME/EXTREMLY INORDINATE AMOUNT OF BLACKS IN JAIL(OPPS THEY WERE ALL ARRESTED BY RACIST WHITE COPS)YEAH THEN WE SHOULD ALL STAND AND SIGN A SONG THE IS SUPPOSED TO UNIFY BUT NOW THE CHINESE GUY WILL SING HIAS ANTHEM/THE IRISH GUY WILL SING HIS ANTHEM ETC.....WHEN IF EVER WILL I HEAR ONE JUST ONE AF/AMER SAY YEAH THIS COUNTRY HAD ITS FAULTS AGAINST THE IRISH/ITALIANS/JEWS/BLACKS BUT YOU KNOW WHAT ITS STILL MY COUNTRY AND I WILL STAND BY IT!NEVER HEAR THOSE WORDS,WHY?CAUSE WHEN YOU ALWAYS KEEP UP THE "WE ARE OWED SOMETHING BY SOMEONE WHO WAS NOT ALIVE DURING SLAVERY THEN YOU MAY HAVE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND ADDRESS TODAYS YES "TODAYS"ISSUES!WHITES ARE SO RACIST YET A BLACK MAN MAY VERY WELL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT!DIDNT WHITE AMERICA IN IOWA GIVE OBAMA HIS FIRST VISTORY????????PERPETUAL!THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING!REMEMBER HIM!TRY PROACTIVE
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By: Lisette on 7/09/2008 9:04AM
She claimed that artist take advantage of things to make a statement and she sure did...but she made herself look like a fool by feeling sorry for herself as a BLACK WOMAN living in America...same thing different day...yawn!
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By: RJ on 7/11/2008 10:18AM
Here is the issue: she was asked to sing a song and agreed to sign it. However, when she stepped before the mike she decided to become creative and emotional and changed the song for another. WRONG decision. You do as you are asked. This was not a time to make a political statement.
www.andwearenotsaved.blogspot.com
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By: LadyT on 7/11/2008 2:48AM
I'm a member of discussion website called MyLot, and was browsing through looking for interesting topics and saw one titled, "A Black National Anthem???", in which the topic starter made it seem as if she'd just learned there was one, and she went on about being upset by the fact that there is a Black National Anthem. She actually had me thinking there was a new Black National Anthem that I hadn't heard about! Once I discovered she was talking about the original song, I responded to her to let her know that the song was not new.
Needless to say it turned into a mini-debate (slightly heated on my part after reading some of the other responses to her post) about Miss Rene Marie's performance, which I hadn't seen or heard until now! And then she hit me with the "I already knew about the song, just wanted to see people's reactions" which made elevated my heatedness..it took me a few days of trying to calm down before making my last response but couldn't quite get there.
If you would like to see the discussion, it's here:
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1585786.aspx
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By: Pinkie on 7/11/2008 12:07PM
I do agree that she should have done the song she was supposed to do, however, there was an discussion on the FOX News network last night. One of the panelist (a Black man) said that she was wrong for not singing the song she was contracted to sing, however, if she had sang God Bless America, would it be so bad? The other guest (the Mayor of Denver) and the host (both White) said no. So the questions should really be (1) why would she apologize for something she apparently meant to do and (2) was it really that bad to sing the song? I mean really?
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