Hey, hey! A Super Bowl that was actually super! Pretty rare to have the big game end with the potential winning play unfolding after time has expired. This one was excellent sport all the way.
However the pre-game goings-on got me thinking once again. Would the typical football fan recognize Josh Groban? Probably not, but would fans have anything against hearing the Star Spangled Banner sung in its original form? Sure they would - they'd probably be bored.
And here I am, a devout progressive, spouting off in favor of doing something in the same old way! But don't assume I do so without a major twisting of my knickers and my psyche. In my real inner self, there is nothing that deserves being set apart as sacred or beyond the realm of progress and improvement. The National Anthem is not really an exception to that open-to-improvement attitude; the Anthem is merely something that rarely gets improved upon by any of those who attempt to do so.
At the beginning of the Super Bowl, I was again hopeful of hearing the anthem done with respect and simply a good sound. A slight bit of stylizing and a singer's personal decision as to how long to hold out a special note or whether to go for a high, harmonic extension note an octave above the line on the word free - these are all rather benign and add a touch of artistic flair without man-handling the music dramatically. But in the last few years, I rarely have heard a straight-forward singing of the song when it's performed at public events. I suppose most singers feel it is beneath their talent to simply sing the written notes. Perhaps they feel no one will remember their having performed if they don't somehow personalize the song.
Groban comes to mind as a fellow who probably would do a commendable job of producing great and even beautiful sounds in a stadium while actually hitting the original - and only the original - notes of the Star Spangled Banner. He has the total confidence in his own sound that allows him to just play it straight. No doubt he has performed this hard to sing anthem (I'm sure the song isn't difficult for reasonably talented singers) quite a few times, but these times were not at events I happened to catch. He might even have done it a Super Bowl in the past; as I admit, I am only a spotty spectator at these major national sports events.
Once again, the stylizing of a country singer was called upon for the big game on Sunday.
It is something of an unexplained phenomenon that American football, on the professional level, has seemingly become a basic property of the good-ol' boy in our country. And I emphasize here, country! The great fame of the American game called football clearly got its start on our nation's campuses, and for many decades it was played by men who worked hard on their academic pursuits and by-the-way, played some ball. I'm guessing that after the game grew to the point of becoming a main source of income for colleges and universities, those institutions that capitalized on the opportunity and grew large by scouting out high school players and strongly recruiting the best, took over the scene. And why did some campuses grow profoundly while others remained smaller and more committed to higher learning? Perhaps it's an over-simplification, but do we not all notice that the most highly respected colleges and universities (academically) are those that don't compete well at all on the gridiron? Even with the NCAA trying mightily to limit the influence of unethical recruiters and their unethical cohorts in athletic departments, there seems to always be a lot of questionable activity in the area of recruiting. It follows then that standards on the academic side over time became strongly influenced (down-graded, I suggest) as the institutions placed more of their financial futures in the hands of athletic department recruiters.
What does all this have to do with today's pro football dominance on our populace, the typical fan base and the choosing of anthem singers? Seems obvious. The bigger the campus that turns out great players ready for the professional ranks, the bigger influence money has been at that campus. The bigger the influence, the bigger the pressure on instructors to let some less-than-acceptable classroom work become acceptable for eligibility purposes. The better the player emerging from college, the better the pro team that drafts him. The better the team, the bigger the fan base. Again, follow the money!
Then predictably, the common folks on the street of this great nation rally 'round winners and elevate these teams to great status but feel no great need to respect the individual athletes themselves, many of whom cannot speak as though they ever attended a school. And since I'm already riding this horse of over-simplification, it appears to me that the common man in our country today is far less than well-off financially, so there's that odd compulsion to spend hard-earned money on something completely over the top with hoopla and without real meaning. The compulsion takes charge. (And I use the word charge advisedly!) He will buy tickets, almost going into debt to do so. He will make bets on "his" team. He will over-indulge in beer and other party essentials - anything to lose himself in the momentary thrill of the football game. He may spend a ridiculous percentage of his meager income to indulge in this form of escapism.
Guess what the wealthy are doing meanwhile. Many are enjoying the comfortable pastime of watching some football, but it costs them only pocket change. Many of these wealthier folks are those grads of Yale, Harvard, Princeton and other respected institutions, guys who may have played some ball there, while their minds were on succeeding in life outside of sports. Also many thousands of graduates of Oklahoma, Nebraska, USC, Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Alabama - and of other large schools, those former athletes who had placed their emphasis on learning over playing football, can enjoy watching sports in a casual way, spending a pittance of their income to do so. But what type of American makes up the typical fan base for the NFL? Your basic fellow just making a living, who eats meat and potatoes, manages to make car payments and cover the necessities of life, and enjoys his country music!
Don't get me wrong - I'm as entertained as the next hormonal male watching Faith Hill strut her stuff in a black rubber-like jumpsuit and singing before football games. That's just another form of the sex sells advertising method which we all enjoy even while being manipulated. But the predominance of country music linked to football gives me the impression - and again, this is my personal opinion here - that the game speaks to the common man who is more and more common and less sophisticated. The fanatical attention paid to the game speaks to the desperation that seems to plague the populace, the type of desperation which needs to break out from the quiet type so many endure. The occasional death-threat hurled at a professional player who seemingly blew the game speaks to a rank fanaticism that should be frightening to us all.
Bottom line is, I enjoyed the playing of this year's Super Bowl game tremendously. Well done, I say. It would have been more enjoyable the next day too if I hadn't had to hear of the hot anger by fans against Wes Welker for dropping a pass. The same Wes Welker who made some amazing plays earlier that kept his team within reach of a potential win. Similar troubles followed the games two weeks earlier when fans (fanatics, remember) wanted to do harm to players from other teams that lost play-off games. You know, it's a lot like Christianity and Islam! Things would go along peaceably if it weren't for the lunatic fringe. It seems there always has to be someone who gets pissed off and wants to kill somebody.
Oh - well - I guess it's a lot like families too! Excuse me!
I wonder if anthem singers ever get death-threats. They might if John Stafford Smith were still around.
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