Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition

[sagehen]

 James A. Landau  asks:
A couple of ADS-L members have said they don't like "God Bless America"
that much.  I am curious whether they dislike the music, the words, the
sentiments, or the contexts in which it is encountered.
~~~~~~~~
In my case, I find it hard to disentangle these elements, but I can
remember  when GBA was introduced by Kate Smith whose program we liked well
enough to listen to pretty regularly.  Even though, as a kid I was
well-imbued with patriotic war fervor, I still felt there was something
rather embarassing about the tripey verse.  Like Larry, I preferred
"America the Beautiful" to most of the other marches, songs & hymns of that
ilk that we sang in school. GBA seemed a pale imitation of that.  It left
out the people & any sense of community. The punch line (?),  " my home
sweet home"   rang about as falsely as, say, "thank you for shopping at
Kmart." "This land is your land, this land is my land" strikes me as miles
better and more stirring. As for the tune, the bridge has a little pizzazz,
but on the whole I find it boring & obvious.
Alison