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The Anacreontic Song

from Wanted: "El Jefe Loco" (2018) by Walls Of Genius

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As far back as the 70s, I had known the Star Bangled Banner was adapted from an older British drinking song. My old "Folksingers' Wordbook" indicated as much, but it didn't include the words to the older song, only the title "To Anacreon In Heaven". I forgot all about it for years and then one day last summer it occurred to me. The internet might have the words! Not only the words, but the history of it, too. The Anacreontic Society was a British music & poetry club (association?) dedicated to Anacreon, a Greek poet of wine and love. Thus the song asks Anacreon to bless their club's activity, even if Zeus looks down on it. This is such an unusual song that I figured performing it straight, with no funny voices or weird sounds or hollering, was sufficient to make the point. Ho odd is it that our national anthem was based on a song written in a London pub by drunken revelers? Myrtle of Venus! Bacchus' Vine!

credits

from Wanted: "El Jefe Loco" (2018), released November 1, 2018
(a/k/a "To Anacreon In Heaven" by Ralph Tomlinson Esq & John Stafford Smith, 1778, adapted by Francis Scott Key in 1812 as "The Star Spangled Banner")

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Walls Of Genius

Fried psychedelia, relentless experimentation, hunter-gatherer improv, space rock doom, heavy rock monumentalism and daffy cover tunes. Walls of Genius rips holes in the fabric of space and time, kicks you in the ass and leaves you smiling. 80s stalwarts of the cassette culture, they're back in the 21st century. The most unique band that ever was. Really! ... more

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