‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is now well-known as the USA’s national anthem - but when Francis Scott Key wrote the words on 14th September, 1814, it was merely the latest in a series of patriotic poems he’d penned; this one concerning the British assault on the coastal fortification of Fort McHenry.

It was only when - bizarrely - it was set to the tune of an old English drinking song, ‘To Anacreon in Heaven’, that it began to gain traction - and another 119 years before it became the nation’s official ‘choon.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly learn what a ‘contrafactum’ is; explore why the US national anthem is so notoriously tricky to sing; and question what meaning ‘the land of the free’ held for Baltimore’s enslaved Africans… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Francis Scott Key - National Anthem, War of 1812 & Facts’ (Biography, 2021): https://www.biography.com/writer/francis-scott-key

• ‘To Anacreon In Heaven’ (Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine):

https://www.nps.gov/fomc/learn/historyculture/to-anacreon-in-heaven.htm

• ‘Top 10 American National Anthem Performance Fails’ (Watch Mojo, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XffxvV1PAEI

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.

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