Views From the Back Row: Stars and Stripes HNT

I may not get terribly patriotic during most of the year, but I love the Fourth of July! Aside from the drinking and eating and partying and fireworks, I LOVE the patriotic music (except the slower ones, and the Star Spangled Banner sung by vocalists who add their own "flair" to an already exceedingly excruciatingly bad song. Actually, I hate all patriotic songs that are sung by soloists. A stadium of drunks singing "God Bless America" is OK. But in general, patriotic music should be strictly instrumental if it's going to get the blood stirring. But I digress...). Of course, I get a little stirring in my loins for the music of John Philip Sousa, and his best-known and best-loved march, "The Stars And Stripes Forever" (referred to as SSF for the rest of this post).

SSF is recognized by the U.S. government as the official march of the United States (U.S. Code, Title 36, Section 304). It even has original lyrics by Sousa:

The Stars and Stripes Forever!

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
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.

Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation,
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free.
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 might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

In spite of it's popularity as a march written for band, there are a slew of variations. (Let me interject here that I get highly depressed watching YouTube videos of musicians that have more talent in their pinkie than I'll have amassed in my entire life.) This is Chet Atkins, one of the finest guitarists of all time. Be sure to listen for the piccolo solo!:

This is an excerpt of the second half of the song by an all-female trombone quartet called Bones Apart. There is nothing sexier than girls who play low brass. Especially as well as these ladies do it! (you KNOW I get a boner (hehe) every time I hear this...)

There's got to be a way he's going to bring this around to HNT, right? Well, I got to thinking of one of my high school sweethearts. Her name is Suzie. We were pretty much inseparable during my last two years of high school. We did everything together. She was in the band, so we were at all the games together, as well as concerts. And a couple of those infamous band bus trips! (never went to band camp with her though...) I'll say it now--she was a little on the large side, definitely curvy, but it didn't matter to me. In fact when we were together, she was pretty well wrapped around me. And I was damned proud!

When summers came around, it wasn't easy to get to see each other much, though we'd get together for the municipal band and play concerts in the bandshell. So we didn't have the chance to drift apart or anything. Our favorite concert was always the patriotic concert around the Fourth. And because of what must be a national law, we always ended that concert with "Stars And Stripes Forever" (a portion of the original manuscript is shown below). So the march and the memories have always been something I look back upon with fondness. And it was with that same bit of fondness that I met up with Suzie recently. She's still big and curvy, and is showing her age a bit. But some nekkidness ensued! Damn, I love the Fourth of July!

Takin' it off for HNT,
Helps me see a different me.

When I'm feelin' down and frumpy,
Focusin' on my lumpy bumpy,

Gettin' nekkid makes me smile,
So I think I'll hang awhile!

Can you guess my identity?
Here am I, this is me.

This week's MG is our favorite chameleon-like hippie-chick, boo(duh)! I swear to God, she doesn't look the same in any two pics! Stop by and say hi if you haven't already!

Well, after 27 months, it's happened. "...the Other HNT" got one of these:

Content Warning

"Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable...."
Frankly, I'm a little surprised it's taken this long. I guess you can't please all of the people all of the time... Interestingly, we have more participants than we've ever had for one week! Be sure to stop by and check everyone out! And let them know you stopped by! As the Warning implies--NSFW!

I was more than a little surprised at the results of the poll about how to pronounce Osbasso! Mostly by the relatively equal voting among the top three options. Sixty people responded to the poll. Twenty-three people (almost 40%), thought it was pronounced like oz bosso. Nope. No 'Z' sound.

The first two syllables sound the same: Osbasso rhymes with bossboss-o. Everybody? Repeat after me: