February 2, 2009

New Fangled Spangleds

I flicked on Animal Planet last night in time to catch Pepper the Parrot sing the National Anthem at Puppy Bowl V. His performance has broken into my list of the "Star Spangled Banner" versions. Everyone's always talking about Whitney's version. Fuck that. These are the best.

Here is Pepper the Parrot's graceful rendition.

Enrico Pallazzo aka Lt. Frank Drebin aka Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun. This is version of the lyrics that I most often choose to sing.



Roseanne got a lot of shit for version, but at least she knows the words. She never claimed to be a singer. This audience was full of assholes.



I've never heard Marvin Gaye sing a bum note. He could do whatever the fuck he wanted with any song and would always kill it. I get chills by the end of this version when the audience finally warms up to it.



Carl Lewis had all the confidence of Marvin Gaye, but very little of the musical talent. I wish I could find a full version of this. I'll make up for it now.



I remember En Vogue doing an awesome version at one of those MTV Rock N Jock shitz back in the early 90's. This one is probably a little faster than that one, but still insane:



Radiohead made their own unique version of "The National Anthem" where they changed all of the lyrics and all of the music. Ok, so it's not "The Star Spangled Banner" at all, but it's an awesome song from Kid A. And here's a fun amateur video to go along with it:



This version is actually very faithful, except for when the announcer adds his own harmonies at 1:05 that accidentally go out over the air.



Speaking of hockey...



And finally, Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. I wanted to present the Liquid Television's Stick Figure Theater version, but all traces have been removed from EVERYWHERE online. So enjoy the original.

3 comments:

100monkeys said...

Outside of Aeon Flux and Frog Baseball I think all traces of Liquid Television have been destroyed. Which sucks.

Anonymous said...

Damn i didnt realize you posted this blog before i sent u that txt the other day.

Ro-Beast Rollie said...

Doug - I see that there was a "Best of" DVD released, but it's out of print, and most people are complaining that all the good stuff was left off anyway. I bet someone's got a good collection on Ebay. I miss "Dear Mum" and "Stick Figure Theater" badly.

Jimnonymous - I had the idea for this entry in mind after I heard the parrot singing at the Puppy Bowl, and whatshername at the Super Bowl, but your timely text inspired me to put the pedal to the metal. Gracias.