[log in to unmask],.Internet writes:
>Talk about disrespect ...  how about the couple of "Robert Goulet's"
>pulled earlier this season at the Alfond when the performers shuffled
>phrases and plain forgot the words.  Add to that the performers that use
>the right words, but make up their own melody.  Give me Ms. Derringer or
>Mr. Zmistowski anytime!  Jeez, give me a scratchy vinyl record.  OK, so
>half of you have never purchased a 45 ...  shoot me.

Okay, Wayne, I have purchased more than my share of 45s and LPs
(there's another).  I'd love to get into an oldies credentials fight
with you!  :-)   NOTE: I would win!
        Just give me someone who sings the National Anthem properly -- haven't
heard that in many moons at Alfond Arena.  Perhaps, for starters,  we
need to go back to the infamous Super Bowl where Whitney Houston killed
the US National Anthem.
        An anthem is a song of praise, not a funeral dirge -- the singers now
not only sing it so slowly that we can get one period of hockey in
while they inhale between dragged-put phrasing, they also have to
"style" it.  It's the national song of the country, for God's sake --
what needs to be "styled"?  It just needs to be sung -- not breathily,
not Britney Spears-ly, not operatically -- just sung, on key, and with
as few vocal glisses as possible.
        Even my favorite Maine Steiners have taken to dragging it out more
than necessary -- but they still do the best job performing it.
Everyone else needs to listen to it being played or sung properly, then
try to emulate that.
Nonni

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