To Anacreon In Heaven

COLUMN: We the very special American people

In answer to Armed & Angry of Monticello: Affirmative, old boy, I am very much an American chap, by jove, even though I speak funny and write funny like this, and even though I don’t believe in all the gubbins you believe in. My president, George W. Bush, assured me I’m every bit the Septic* you are, squire. [* Septic tank: London Cockney rhyming slang for Yank.]

Hundreds of millions of us are native born, some with foreign ancestors going back to 1776 and many before 1492. But there are millions of new Americans. Apart from the indigenous tribes, we’re originally from all over, which makes us such a special nation. It’s our diversity that unites us. 

The Irish Americans, I’ve noticed, are just that. They make no distinction between northern and southern. While back across the water these two “brands” have been killing each other for centuries, here it’s beautiful: they’re all just Irish.

Nonetheless, not many Americans, I’ll wager, come from the following place...

It’s a little Viking island in the middle of the Irish Sea that has its own stamps, coins, tail-less cats and the oldest continuous parliament in the world, the thousand-plus-year-old Tynwald. It’s the Isle of Man, and those born there, as I was, don’t have Manx citizenship per se, they’re just common-or-garden British. 

I did have German nationality once as well, because the rule there is that if your father is from the Fatherland then you, too, are a Kraut. My cousin Horst would often lecture me: “If an elephant ist born in a lion cage zet dussent make him a lion.” Noteworthy that he would equate his dumpling-eating countrymen with elephants and the British with lions.

But when I went to the German embassy to have my passport renewed they just snatched it out of my hand with a curt  “Senk you!” in which the “you” was at least an octave higher than the “senk.” They refused to issue me another.

All this bypasses the fact that my forebears way, way back came from Koenigsberg in East Prussia, now absorbed into Poland. And that some drunken New Yorker with one of those ten-foot Polish names once told me: “Szcwzkrzcvw brczwkrkzski cie!” Such a wit. Very droll. I laughed at that one till I cried. And then he sank another slivovitz and said: “Two hundred years ago, buddy, we whupped you.” Whupped, you say? Did you really! Two hundred years ago we were probably neighbors, my fine inebriated przyjaciel (przyjaciel means “friend”), and most likely you were just as obnoxious then.

Fun Tuna: The Star Spangled Banner Music

The Star Spangled Banner Music. This melody was first published in England circa 1780 as To Anacreon in Heaven. The melody was probably written by British composer John Stafford Smith. The words to that song were written by Ralph Tomlinson. Both were members of the Anacreontic Club of London. To Anacreon in Heaven was their theme song. The Anacreontic Club was a group of wealthy men who met to celebrate music, food and drink. While aboard an English ship trying to secure the release of a friend, Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry. When the bombardment was over, the American flag was still flying. He wrote a poem The Defense of Fort McHenry, which was first printed anonymously on a broadside in 1814. On September 20 it was published in The Baltimore Patriot. Key's brother-in-law suggested he set the words to the tune To Anacreon in Heaven. When the sheet music was published in 1815, the name was changed to The Star Spangled Banner. The song was first adopted by the army and navy as the national anthem. It was officially recognized as the American National Anthem in 1931 by an act of Congress.

The lyre: a collection of the most approved Scottish, English, and Irish songs. [2 vols., with cancel title-leaves. Both vols. are described as A collection of ... English, Irish, and Scottish songs, and are without a vol. statement. Vol. 2 is reissued for A. Stewart. Vol. 1 wants the index].

Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia

RECORDS OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA

Report on "The Star-Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "America," "Yankee Doodle"

Report on the Star-Spangled Banner, Hail Columbia, America, Yankee Doodle