In celebration of Independence Day, 2015,here is perhaps the most famous of John hilip Sousa's marches, "The Stars and Stripes Forever", written in 1896 and named the National March of the United States in 1986. Having played this March many times myself, like many of Sousa's works, it is NOT and easy one to perform!
Performed here by the President's Own Marine Band.
Note the use of reversed colors for their Dress uniforms! :-)
Sousa wrote lyrics to the March itself, of which only the words for the familiar Trio section is widely known:
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever!
Finally, we have my own take on Old Glory...
I have more bag tops than you do. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSo do I!
DeleteIt was Joe that made me start saving them back about 10 years ago...
DeleteHe walked up to Russ Dunaway at the Old Glory booth at Historicon, plopped down a bunch of OG "box tops" as a testimony to his financial support of the company over time, and asked Russ about casting about 40 or so 28mm Buffalo for a Buffalo Hunt game he had in mind (IIRC, the Buffalo were a part of some othwer set, but he didn't need all the other parts, just the "meat on the hoof". Russ thought about it for a bit, said, Yep, we can do that", and IIRC, he did! Not sure if the Buffalo Hunt ever took shape, though.
If I had started collecting them earlier, I' sure I'd have at least twice as many... all my OG French troops, My Italian Wars armies and Hussites, HYW figures, Gauls, and even most of my Egyptians are conspicuously absent - probably even Round One of the Prussian Army back circa 2002. Of course, I'm not really sure *why* I should continue to hold onto them, but...
You are a patriot and clever fellow, for sure, Peter!
ReplyDeleteI am partial to those Old Glory's as well!
Thanks, Jon. The Old Glory sculpts vary a bit from OK to excellent, but for US purchasers, their value is unbeatable!
DeleteWithout getting into specific politics (having been fairly conservative growing up, I'm at least as much a liberal now, in contrast to the old saw about politics and age that runs the other way, LOL) there are so many things we could and should do better in the US, and things we shouldn't be doing at all, that it makes me frustrated quite often. Still, I have faith that we will do better in the future, even if it might be in the Winston Churchill sense:
"You can always trust the Americans to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else!" :-)