After just seeing Patti Labelle try to put her own "stamp" on the national anthem, I was just curious....."Who would you like to see perform it at a big event?" (On a sidenote, I understand that artists want to put a little bit of their own flair into it, but i tired of seeing it being BUTCHERED. It's not that i'm offended, but damn, people oversing it, drag it out, screw up the words, everything.....) On that note, I think i'd like to see....hmmm....CARL LEWIS give it another try.....
America the Beautiful was also horrible. I liked Martina McBride's version. Nsync's was pretty good as well.
Hammer and Vannila Ice in a duet, just because I think it would be funny to drag two bankrupt rap stars out and make them sing for free.
I wasn't too happy with Patti LaBelle's butchering of the national anthem. Maybe she didn't think she could hit the notes accurately, and had to make a bunch of weird noises to make up for it? It was hard to pick out the melody. If I had a dog, I'm sure it would have come in the room to see what was going on, and if there was another of its species in there making noises. Maybe it's supposed to be artistic... and at least she got rid of that huge hair that looked like a trimmed piece of shrubbery... but if you're going to put your own stamp on the National Anthem, do it right. Myself, I believe that you should pick some other song to fool around with. (I did like the version of "O Canada" today - who sang that?)
I get tired of seeing "artists" butcher the national anthem. It's become more about the singer showing off all of the neat little things they can do with their voices than about what the songs are supposed to be about. I was particularly distressed to find out Mariah Carey was to sing the anthem at the Super Bowl. "Great," I said, "now we can listen to that cow twitter like a freakin' parakeet in what will probably be a ten-minute 'artistic' rendition." (not a Mariah Carey fan ) Remember when Whitney Houston sang it before the Super Bowl? Wasn't that nice? Gosh, that seems so long ago..... Ya know what made it nice? She did something revolutionary. She decided to go ahead and sing the damned song. She said, "Oh, look at this. There are already notes written into this song. Maybe I'll just use the voice God game me and just sing the damned song." And it was great! Today, though, everyone has to put their stamp on it. And what's really funny about that, is that they all start sounding the same after a while! No recognizable melody, a bunch of spotlight hounds riding the scales up and down like they are sitting on hot coals and can't seem to find a comfortable place to rest. Pick a note and stick to it. It's really not that complicated. I didn't care for the O' Canada number either. The duet sucked, too.
Americans!!!!!! I love to hear the crowd sing it. It would kick so much butt to have 80,000 people sing it at Royal Memorial Stadium together. ComedySportz (called something else now, National Comedy theatre or something like that at Northcross mall in Austin) is an improv comedy show where they split their company into two competing teams. Like any good "sporting" event, they sung the National anthem with the audience. The show rocked and this was a nice touch.
