On Shaman's Rock

Star-spangled boozing

No word yet that country singer Ingrid Andress has actually checked into an alcohol treatment centre following her drunken performance at baseball’s annual Home Run Derby.

She said she would after rattling tens of thousands of eardrums with a wildly off-key drunken version of the U.S. national anthem. 

“I’m not gonna bullshit y’all, I was drunk last night,” she wrote on her social media accounts. “I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need.”

Fans at the event were stunned; some saying the performance left their ears bleeding.

Much fuss about the revered anthem being blurted out with alcohol-stewed vocal chords. It’s not the first time, however, that the melody has been sent floating on waves of alcohol.

The Star-Spangled Banner music was first composed in the late 1700s and became the tune for a drinking song titled “To Anacreon in Heav’n.” Anacreon was a Greek poet known for his drinking songs and erotic poems. 

The song was the constitutional anthem of the Anacreontic Society, an elite London, England-based amateur music society. I’m assuming the singers were well oiled with alcohol when singing the club song because back then water was not safe to drink. Even children drank beer to avoid the bacteria, parasites and other bad stuff in the water.

Th tune later drifted across the Atlantic to become a popular American drinking song. Then in 1814, as the British-American war raged, someone noticed that after the bombardment of Baltimore “our flag was still there.” 

Words were put to the tune, and the sheet music was printed in the September 20, 1814 edition of the Baltimore Patriot. However, it wasn’t until 1931 that the song officially became the U.S. national anthem after Congress received a five-million signature petition saying the country should have a national anthem.

Other singers have struggled when singing the anthem. Christina Aguilera forgot the words at Super Bowl XLV. Michael Bolton wrote some words to the song on his hand so he wouldn’t forget them.

Music experts say the song originally was meant to be sung by a group. It’s a difficult solo because of the range of its notes, some of which are very high.

So, I guess you really can’t blame Ingrid Andress for climbing into her cups before picking up the mike.                     

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