Hello Friends,
This morning after logging on to the internet the first things I saw was "Happy Birthday" from Atlas Shrugs in the updates I get on my Google home page. I was so damn impressed that Pamela was aware of my birthday and was congratulating me first thing in the morning (6 am here now). :)
Oh well, when I clicked on the link I found that I was almost sharing the day with Irving Berlin (b/d May 11th) and a few amazing videos of God Bless America sung by Kate Smith. Including the first time it was ever broadcast on radio and sung by Kate.
The article about Irving Berlin and God Bless America is about different times in our American history that the great pretender should learn about cos it's quite obvious he knows little about it and about the America in the song.
I learned something else I didn't know this morning. Woody Guthrie didn't like the song and wrote one to counter it, "This Land Is Your Land". Both songs were proposed as a United States National Anthem.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRVING BERLIN
Born May 11, 1888
It's an honor to almost share this day with you.
Shalom,
Peter
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Berlin originally wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside. The lyrics at that time included the line, "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America..."[1], as well as "Stand beside her and guide her, to the right with the light from above."
Music critic Jody Rosen comments that a 1906 Jewish dialect novelty song, "When Mose With His Nose Leads the Band," contains a six-note fragment that is "instantly recognizable as the opening strains of 'God Bless America.'" He interprets this as an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers."[citation needed] Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes.
In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938 sung by Kate Smith, on her radio show. [2] Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer."
More than just the dramatic words and melody, the arrangement for Kate Smith's performance was accompanied by full band, progressing into a grand march tempo, with trumpets triple re-inforcing the harmonies between stanzas: the dramatic build-up ends on the final exposed high note, which Kate Smith sang in the solo as a sustained a cappella note, with the band then joining for the finale.
The song was a hit; there was even a movement to make "God Bless America" the national anthem of the United States. In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical This Is the Army along with other Berlin songs. Manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. Berlin gave the royalties of the song to the God Bless America Fund for redistribution to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the USA.
Woody Guthrie disliked the song, and wrote "This Land Is Your Land," originally titled "God Blessed America For Me," as a response to "God Bless America." "This Land Is Your Land" has also often been proposed as a United States national anthem[citation needed]
Later, from December 11, 1969,[2] through the early 1970s, the playing of Smith singing the song before many of home games of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers brought it renewed popularity (as well as a reputation for being a "good luck charm" to the Flyers),[2] long before it became a staple of nationwide sporting events.[2] The Flyers even brought Smith in to sing "live" before the final game of Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 19, 1974, and the Flyers won the Cup that day.[2]
To honor the start of the United States Bicentennial, Kate Smith sang "God Bless America" for a national television audience, accompanied by the UCLA Band at the 1976 Rose Bowl.
Irving Berlin (b. Israel Isidore Baline in 1888) with George Gershwin (b. Jacob Gershowitz, 1898).
Atlas Shrugs
For your added enjoyment here is Bruce Springsteen singing This Land Is Your Land
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