star spangled banner original lyrics drinking song

Certainly club members drank at meetings, and jolly good fun was vital to the society’s fellowship and success. This was the “Constitutional Anthem” of the Anacreontic Society, a convivial amateur music and supper club that operated in London from 1766 until the early 1790s. The Banner-as-drinking-song claim is based on the notion that the melody used by Key for his 1814 lyric is taken from the “old English drinking song” called “To Anacreon in Heaven” (AKA simply “Anacreon” and, most precisely, “The Anacreontic Song”). Mythology is most resilient when it has a grain or two of truth, and that is indeed the case with the tale of alcohol and “The Anacreontic Song.” Such postings rehearse a fun but irreverent reputation and one that cuts along but-in my view at least-ultimately across historical evidence. Francis Scott Key’s lyric may well be the nation’s most frequently performed song, yet the remarkable and rich detail of its history is largely forgotten.Īn internet search of the phrase “the Star Spangled Banner is a drinking song” offers some 50,000+ hits. Such replication in the case of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is encouraging, but it also raises a concern when the sheer volume of information obscures reliable information. As we approach the September 14, 2014, bicentennial of the United States national anthem, online resources about the anthem’s history are multiplying.

Star spangled banner original lyrics drinking song