The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner ist seit 3. März 1931 die offizielle Nationalhymne der USA. Zur Entstehung des Textes, siehe Francis Scott Key. Die Musik stammt aus einem populären englischen Trinklied um 1800 von John Stafford Smith (To Anacreon in Heaven), das einst die Nationalhymne Luxemburgss unterlegte.Äußerst spektakulär war der Auftritt von Jimi Hendrix 1969 in Woodstock, bei dem er die amerikanische Nationalhymne mit verzerrten und jaulenden Tönen auf seiner Gitarre spielte und gegen den blutigen Krieg in Vietnam protestierte.
Bei offiziellen Anlässen wird normalerweise nur die 1. Strophe gesungen.
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Siehe auch: Liste der Nationalhymnen.The Star-Spangled Banner
What so proudly we hailed 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 rockets' 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?
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, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on 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!
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for 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!