America--history of the anthem

 

June 14 commemorates both the founding of the American Army and Flag day. The 2^nd Continental Congress approved an Army on June 14, 1775 to defend the 13 colonies against British abuses.  Through reorganizations of the Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution, the Army continued and is the oldest branch of the Department of Defense.  Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. But the era which brought these dates to prominence were enormously celebrated was a period after the War of 1812, called The Era of Good Feeling.  The name is an understatement. Americans had just won a war against the greatest power on earth, unassisted by allies, and it was a crazy win.  Ft. McHenry of Baltimore had held against all odds and Francis Scott Key had written his stirring poem that would later become the national anthem. Disease and a hurricane had driven the British from Washington. Jackson had made a defense near New Orleans with mostly 4000 common citizens and a few pirates and beat back an invasion fleet with 10,000 British regulars fresh from defeating Napoleon.  And it came as the 2^nd Great Awakening of Christian faith thanked God’s unbelievable grace for leaving USA independent, the only republic in the world. When Jefferson and Adams died the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50^th anniversary of Independence, it was hailed as providential.  Daniel Webster spoke in Boston commemorating their lives as “an American Constellation in the heavens.”

            Rev. Samuel Francis Smith heard that speech.  He was a seminary student at Andover Theological Seminary.  He was later reading some German patriotic hymns and got the idea to compose one for the United States.  “Seizing a scrap of waste paper I began to write, and in half an hour, I think, the words stood upon it, substantially as they are sung today.”  The tune of the Royal British national anthem, “God Save the King” was impudently appropriated for America.

1.“My Country! ‘tis of thee,                     4.Our fathers’ God! To Thee,

            Sweet Land of Liberty,                           Author of Liberty,

            Of thee I sing.                                       To Thee we sing.

            Land where my fathers died,                  Long may our land be bright                 

            Land of the pilgrims’ pride,                    With freedom’s holy light;

            From every mountainside                       Protect us by Thy might,

            Let freedom ring!                                   Great God, our King!

Part of the magic of this song is that Smith wrote it in first person singular, “my country”.  A classmate of Smith’s at Harvard, Oliver Wendell Holmes, went on to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Years later, he wrote, “What is Fame? It is to write a hymn which sixty million people [then US population] sing, like Samuel Smith did.”

            Jackson’s victory day, January 8 was commemorated Second Independence Day and singing of America became the common practice.”When you hear it played on the piano, it feels like a hymn…with an orchestra it becomes regal and majestic. ” ‘My Country ‘Tis Of Thee’ is really about putting, not a monarch, but the nation itself and God’s guidance at the center of our imaginative lives.”—country music artist, Tim McGraw.  At the Union Camp Saxton, 1862, Smith’s hymn was the first thing sung by freed slaves when Emancipation was proclaimed. It was the last thing sung to dying soldiers among TR’s Rough Riders in Cuba, 1898.  It gave Martin Luther King his peroration at the March on Washington, 1963. But best of all, it’s a reminder to all who sing it, that USA was born of ideas, chief among which was dependence on God’s Grace.

Plenty of Okies in the Music Industry

No one can seem to figure out why Oklahoma produces so many top-name musicians.  There have been 8 times as many Billboard artists as any other state except Tennesee.  Ballerinas, songwriters, music promoters, Broadway stars, conductors and classical music performers abound. The Tulsa Philharmonic organized a documentary on this and it is estimated that OK has grown10 times as many well-known performers in their history as an average state.

             Take a look at Country Western/Folk Music alone. Gene Autry of Chelsea started his singing career as a 5-year old soprano in his grandfather’s church choir.  He bought a Sears guitar and became the premier Singing Cowboy of Hollywood. Will Rogers encouraged him, KVOO of Tulsa sponsored him, Ken Maynard got him a job in a movie after hearing him sing on WLS Chicago. The singing cowboy genre was created for his talent by MGM.  A wise money manager, he went on to own a major league baseball team and establish Los Angeles’s Western Heritage Museum.

            Uncle Wallis and Aunt Minerva Willis from Doaksville started the popularization of negro spirituals in the 1830s (Yes, before Indian Territory!). “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Steal Away to Jesus” and “I’m A-Rollin’” were their compositions. In the 1920s Jimmy Wilson and the Cat Fish String Band were a musical group of Rotarians from Sapulpa who raised money for charity. They practically invented charity fundraisers over radio.  Disaster relief and church enterprises were their specialties. Albert Brumley, dean of the gospel songwriters, was raised on a tenant farm near Spiro. “Turn Your Radio On,” “I’ll Fly Away” were among hundreds of gospel songs he wrote.  Smithsonian Institution labels him the “The greatest white gospel songwriter before WW II.”

            Many greats are still alive.  Wanda Jackson of Maud became popular in Oklahoma City, hired a mixed race band and became a pop-country (rockabilly) star.  But later she turned primarily to religious songs.  Joe Diffee sang with a gospel group before he turned to bluegrass then to C/W.  Ronnie Dunn, Tulsa, of Brooks and Dunn fame studied theology first.  He won a Marlboro Country talent contest along with Kix Brooks and they began to sing together.  Roy Clark of Tulsa was hired by Wanda Jackson to help with her faith songs in 1960, then began a career as actor and comedian (Clean Jokes!) as well as C/W song.  Do you see anything faith-wise in common with all these people?

            The list becomes enormous. Reba McEntire, Chockie, grew up on a ranch with her rodeo champion father and sang for rodeos.  Red Steagall heard her sing at National Finals Rodeo in OKC, hired her on the spot and she went on to be a successful soloist.  Toby Keith, Clinton and Moore, taught himself to play guitar at age 8, played semi-pro football and worked in the oil fields, before he began doing platinum records.  Roger Miller, Erick, was raised by an uncle and became a local traveling musician.  Nashville was a stop where he collected 6 Grammys.  Garth Brooks was born in Luba, raised in Yukon, schooled in Stillwater and now resides in Owasso.  Three of his albums sold over 30 million copies. Tommy Allsup, the guy who flipped a coin with Richie Valens to get on Buddy Holly’s plane and lost (but thereby won!) became a country music producer, promoter, and artist. He now leads the senior Texas Playboys.

            Those guys aren’t retired yet. But the old-timers were live performers on radio before there were records.  Hank Thompson spent 30 years in Tulsa and performed over a record 7 decades. He had 42 #1 recordings, was the first to take C/W overseas, first to record a live album, and first to do stereo. Bob Wills, another transplanted Texan, did not invent but popularized the genre of Western Swing at KVOO.  Leon McAuliffe, his lead guitarist went on to a C/W career, then returned to lead the Texas Playboys when Bob could not continue in the 70s. Otto Gray and the Oklahoma Cowboys were first to feature genuine folk cowboy music. Byron Beline promotes the International Bluegrass Festival. Merl Lindsay went on television with his music, 1947. Collins Kids, Al Clauser and the OK Outlaws started on KTUL, Tulsa. Conway Twitty, Willie and Gene, Jimmy Wakely, Vince Gill, Willis Brothers—the list is long.  Stoney Edwards an Afro-American became the first black C/W star in the 50s. Woody Guthrie sang folk/protest songs.

            So why is OK so musical?  Tulsa Philharmonic thought it was the rural life and hard times before WW II making your own entertainment, and so many cultures mixing, C/W competition by Tulsa radio stations aided—but then Okies just like to have fun.  As upbeat Western Swing star Bob Wills would say, “Take it away, Leon!”

Woody

July 14 is the 100^th birthday of Woody Guthrie and as we go into this Memorial Day-to-July4 time you are likely to hear about this repeatedly in the media.  Moreover, Guthrie is likely to be treated as heroic, which leaves me a bit bemused.  Born in Okemah in Okfuskee county (You’re a true Okie if you can pronounce that quickly and show it on a map.) He died of untreated Huntington’s disease in 1967, which causes dementia and absurd behavior.  An avowed communist, the Communist Party USA wouldn’t accept him since he was a loose cannon.  He became famous as the “Troubadour of the Dustbowl” when he went on a cross-country trip with some Oklahoma farmers trying to relocate in San Joaquin Valley and wrote many songs about it.  Because of his music, the notion was encouraged that Okies fled in mass to California during the dust bowl (an enormous factual error), but with Steinbeck’s book it became ingrained in the national consciousness and if you try to argue the facts people will dispute you like you are a traitor to Well-known Facts About America.  He went on to produce ballads full of blues for the FDR propaganda films that were used to argue that Western Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas  should be made into a national grasslands and the people run off the land.  Such was progressivism.  But I could never understand where progressivism had any progress. Woody also wrote 174 columns for the communist party newspaper, Daily Worker.  Later he sired 8 kids from 3 women and had a terrific wanderlust leaving families behind. He eventually went to New York City where he was heralded as a true down-to-earth American from Oklahoma, unlike most of the other communists there. 

He is best known for ‘This Land Is Your Land’ a catchy tune and I-love-America lyrics.  The story of how this song came about is an eye-roller of irony.  Woodrow Wilson Guthrie wrote the song in 1940 as an asinine  spoof of “God Bless America”.  A communist atheist, he naturally hated both the lyrics and Kate Smith, the Songbird of the South who later sang it as a patriotic moment during World War II.  So he wrote a sarcastic cynical ballad in which he borrowed the tune from a popular Christian gospel song sung by the Carter Family at the time.  To which he wrote lyrics about how awful capitalist America was and then ended with the refrain “God blessed America for me.” They were lyrics of how common people were routinely exploited and the system was rotten.  Not exactly a good song for the patriotic nation in WW II.  Finally in 1944 he published it and no one noticed.  After protesting the draft, then serving a short stint in the merchant marine, he returned from the war and found his dust bowl fame had disappeared.  His career started going downhill. 

Then in 1951 he got a chance to do a gig on a children’s television program.  Television was a fledgling industry.  And Guthrie wanted to sing God Blessed America for Me.  The producer of the show listened and gagged.  How could he sing lyrics like this for children?

 As I went walking, I saw a sign there,

And on the sign there, It said "Private Property."

But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!

That side was made for you and me.

(You can see how ole’ Woody loved property rights.)

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;

By the relief office, I'd seen my people.

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,

Is this land made for you and me?

The show director demanded Guthrie change the refrain.  Change it or don’t do the gig.  Woody needed money so he changed it.  In keeping to those verses above he changed it  to “This land is made for you and me” as a postive expression. But the director still choked over the lyrics  continued to press Woody to change verses until, with the above two verses deleted, it sounded like an inane song of love of country.

This land is your land

This land is my land

From California to New York Island

From the Redwood Forests, to the Gulf Stream waters

This Land was made for you and me.

            Guthrie recorded it that way but hated it. It caught on, made him famous, but he hated performing it. For he was a writer of protest songs.  Today it stands as his singular work, a song with lyrics he was forced to write and tune set to a gospel song he plagiarized and detested. 

            I keep thinking irreverently, “maybe that’s what drove him crazy.”