March 3, 2026 • 33 mins
Let's be honest: national anthems are cool... but definitely propaganda, and often objectively weird. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max explore some of history's strangest national anthems. Some are inspiring, some are plain odd -- and, as the guys learn, a lot of national anthems change over time.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show,
(00:27):
fellow Ridiculous Historians. Oh say, can you see in your
podcast feed our one and only super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh say, can you see in your podcast feed? Are
we there?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We are?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's mister Noel Brown. They call me Ben Bullen. In
this neck of the woods, that would be the United States.
We have been fascinated for a long time about how
countries always pick space things to coside, right, Like, countries
(01:02):
have an official animal and official flag, and they also
have official songs.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
They do called national anthems. And that's that's they're talking
about today. The the the world's most ridiculous national anthems.
I love the word anthem, though again it's one of
those chicken or the egg things. Something being anthemic, you know,
(01:30):
means it's kind of epic, and I guess an anthem,
a national anthem, is meant to be epic. And it
also goes back to you know, they call certain big
church pieces anthems, you know, as part of a church service.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And one of my favorite, one of my favorite British
insults that I've ever heard, just off the cuff, because
we know the British cousins are way better than Americans
at insults. I was walking around our old office in
Pont City Market here in the fair metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia,
(02:10):
and someone was telling a kind of I'll say the
guy was being kind of a dick about how there
was a line for one of the restaurants, and a
person working at the restaurant started telling them, you know, okay,
the weight's going to be about twenty five thirty minutes
something like that, and this British guy that I've never
(02:32):
seen before or since, he said, oh, spare me your anthem.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I don't know that one, Ben, that's good. I'm sure
he brought it off. Yeah, yeah, maybe he might have
coined it that very minute, but yeah, I guess an
anthem is also kind of in that context, sort of
a something that's a little bit like a saga, you know,
like a wordy perhaps.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Propaganda the oh good point. The Reeks have a national
anthem that is so long they don't speak or they
don't sing most of it. It's got like one hundred
and fifty eight verses.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
That's another thing about those church anthems that you know,
you have the hymnal, I guess they've got the hymn,
but then there's the anthem, which is like the big
kind of show piece, the centerpiece of the servant.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So many verses, so many verses, so many churches, so
many verses. Let me stop freestyling and acknowledge our research
associate for this episode, Max the Madman Williams or Max
Foster Key Williams, and we get to go into it,
you know, with clear eyes and open minds. If you
(03:42):
are listening to this podcast and you're not from the US,
first off, thank you. Secondly, we know our national anthem
is not the best.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Song and did jump in real quick, just as the
research associated on this. I want to come out and
say this that even though these are ridiculous, because especially
the backstories and some of these, yeah, none of these
anthems are bad. Actually, these anthems are pretty awesome in
my opinion, especially the third one. The second one is
kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
They're still all better to sing than the US anthem.
And I don't want to sound unpatriotic, but I'm just
thinking of like, no, you're my music guy, so what
do you think about the national anthem? I find it
off putting. I mean, I'm curious about that. Ben, I
(04:32):
don't mind it. I think we maybe get a little
overexposed to it. Maybe it's sort of like a hotel
California or something. You know, maybe I never need to
hear it again, but it's sort of foisted upon us,
especially if you find yourself attending a sports game. One
thing I do love about the national anthem is really bad,
historically bad Rose Ambar. There was one recently that was
(04:57):
like Fergie I think historically did a really bad one.
And then there was some singer recently that did one
that was so bad. I think she was really drunk
or something, but now I can't remember the details about.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You cheat, Yeah house drunk National Anthem rehab. Country singer
Ingrid and Dress checked into a rehab facility after a
widely criticized intoxicated performance of the national anthem at the
Major League Baseball home run Derby. She admitted to being
a little tipsy and aangized to fans.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Okay, well, I haven't heard of her, but wish her
well on her journey.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We all do.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But also we we have to confess to your point
about overexposure.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
There Noel.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
The national anthem of the United States is almost always
hung at the beginning of a sports game, right, U
and everybody, if you're respectful, you stand up. You might
take your hat off, you might put your one of
your hands over your heart, and then you have to
just stand there while you hear the rockets, red glare,
(06:08):
or whatever the current current public consumption version of it is.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It is called the star spangled banner, if I'm not mistaken.
I had to search for I had to dig deep
for that one, because people usually just call it the
national anthem, which is funny. I do love the idea
of something being spangled. Nobody uses that word enough.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I know, why didn't that British guy who was mad
about waiting in line, why didn't he say spare me
or spangled anthem?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Here you go?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
That would have been cooler. But what we found here
thanks to Max, is that national anthems are very much
a thing. Some of them are written by terrible people.
They're often going to be a product of their ridiculous time.
Some are written by lawyers, some are written by musicians.
(06:59):
To be fair, and a lot of times people are
cribbing notes and songs from one another and putting their
own spin on it for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, why don't we just jump right in to this
is sort of alistical episode. Max is fond of those,
and we're fond of them as well. So we're going
to start off. First entry in today's episode of ridiculous
national anthems that are also good is the Czech Republic
and Slovakia. Who go in have these on a national anthem.
You will probably still hear people refer to this part
(07:32):
of the world as Checklesslovakia. That's because before Slovakia the
Czech Republic split were they were the same country. It's
pretty recent split, actually, about thirty three years ago. And
it's funny though, because if I'm not mistaken, then oftentimes
a shorthand for people from this region is just Slavs
(07:57):
or checks dang it, don't know which. Which are the
ones that squad in tracksuits? All of them men, all
of them do. Do check out squatting Slavs in tracksuits.
If you want a fun Instagram.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Follow absolutely because they'll get there. If we go to
our friends at Britannica, we'll see that Czecholeislovakia was a
former country in Central Europe and it took in the
land of other previous countries or regions Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia.
I'm falling into Dracula voice flat Tepe.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You got the hands and the voice, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So the Empire of Austria Hungary collapses in nineteen eighteen
at the close of World War One, Czechleislovakia gets formed.
Out of all of this, the political union of the
Czechs and the Slovaks after World War One. It worked
(08:54):
out kind of at least in the bigger picture, because
these are two different ethnic groups, but they have a
lot of similarities in religion, culture and language. And for
a while, between World War One and World War Two,
this was, no kidding, the most politically stable state in
(09:15):
Eastern Europe. Again, the bar is very low.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well yeah, I mean they often hear this part of
the world referred to as a powder keg, and I
think it's not too hot of a take to say
the history of this part of the world is a
little fraud, a little complex. Hence, things like Austro Hungary
and and you know Czechoslovakia, which now is of course
the Czech Republican Slovakia strange bedfellows. And I think it's
(09:38):
because of the border. They're all so close, they're all
packed in together, and yet they all have distinctly unique
national identities and cultures. And sometimes, what do they say,
been good fences make good neighbors, and maybe the fences
aren't high enough. But these borders are so close, you know,
it's like living in one of those like a condo situation,
(09:59):
where everything is packed right next to each other, and
it can sometimes cause beef.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah. Yeah, And I love the point you're making about
the combination of these various unique ethnic groups into a
larger nation. One thing that's always fascinated me and probably
all of us is the existence of countries that are
named two countries like Ostia and Herzegovina.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's right, that's another one. So is Slovakia the same
as there's also Yugoslavia. Yes, there was also Yugoslavia, but
it's in the region.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's in the region. It's not a thing anymore.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Nineties that fell apart.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, So if we look at the nineteen thirties,
as you said, the powder keg begins to you know,
begins to get a little sparky. There's this guy that
hot take I think is kind of a drip, kind
of a pill and a fink. His name is Adolf Hitler.
(11:00):
He is rising to power in Germany in nineteen thirty
three and the people of western Czechoslovakia start to buy
into his pitch of national socialism.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
M YEP national socialism aka the Nazis, and with the
acquiescence of Britain and France, Hitler did a bit of
a power move, a lot of a power move, and
annexed the German speaking part of Zudutan which means southern
areas of Czechoslovakia in nineteen thirty eight. By thirty nine,
(11:37):
Germany had occupied Bohemia and Moravia further and turned the
two regions into a protectorate of Germany right, which means
in this context these people were under the leadership of
Nazi Germany, but they did not have the same rights
as German people. Slovakia, it gets autotomy on paper, but
(12:03):
still Germany and German corporations are running the game. In
nineteen forty five, and we'll get to the anthem here,
Czechlislovakia is quote unquote liberated by the Soviet Union, but
they're not really liberated.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
They just have new masters. Because the Soviet Union takes
this land into the USSR and they rule there in
all but name from nineteen forty eight to nineteen eighty nine.
We're talking puppet government's vassal state stuff for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
By the Soviets. You know, iron fisted grasp did eventually weaken,
and when that dominance broke, the Czechs and the Slovaks
began to kind of realize that they didn't particularly care
for one another.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
They might not be the best roommates, or they might
need to Fleetwood max style go their own way. So
just Hollywood Mac did, just like Fleetwood back did. Yeah,
And so when the Communist rule ends due to the
Velvet Revolution, that sounds nice. It does sound nice. It
(13:13):
sounds like an album from the seventies.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, there's that band, Velvet Revolver that that's like the
supergroup from the Guns and Roses and what was it?
Oh gosh, Tommy Lee was in and I want to say,
and I think the singer was the dude from Stone
Temple Pilots.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'm thinking of Velvet Underground.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Vell Underground much much superior group to Velvet Revolver. But
we're talking about the Velvet Revolution, which sorry, it just
sounds really soft. They had some serious disagreements and that escalate.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, the Slovak part of the population is saying, you
guys got to stop privatizing everything, you dirty checks. And
they have these parliamentary elections in June of nineteen ninety
two that really put a spotlight on these stark political differences. Eventually,
(14:07):
because of these disagreements, the leaders of the Czech and
Slovak factions decide to peacefully dissolve the idea of Czechoslovakia.
And so as part of this we see something called
the Velvet Divorce and two.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
New Yeah sounds nice, dude the follow up.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Album, and two new countries are created, the Czech Republic
or Czechia and Slovakia. This occurs on New Year's Day
nineteen ninety three. This is where our national anthem comes in.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
That's right, because even the you know, most amicable of
divorces still involve breaking up your stuff, and sometimes that
can include a song. So when Czechoslovakia split in nine
Zine eighty three, Eben Discan writes for Matador Network the
following more than just land was divided between the two countries.
(15:06):
Czechoslovakia's anthem where my Home Is was originally written in
nineteen eighteen. By combining verses from a Czech opera and
a Slovak folk song, makes sense, gives a little taste
of both the national identities in that national anthem. When
the country split in two, so did the anthem hull.
The Czech Republic adopted the first verse as its new anthem,
(15:27):
also called where My Home Is, and Slovakia adopted the
second verse as its new anthem, now called Lightning over
the Tatras, which is clearly a more badass name than
where My Home Is. And then they add an additional
verse because you know, they only had one verse, so
they had extended a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, there we go, so amicable breakup and everybody wants
to keep at least a piece of the song. And
so that's why those that's why that anthem is going
to be so similar here. Don't worry, folks, it gets
(16:09):
weirder if we go over to Chuka. Juannazia, writing for
Dutch Review, will see the story of the vill Helmos,
which is regarded by the Guinness Book of World Records
as the oldest national anthem in the world.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That's right, and the Dutch Review piece goes on to
say that the Wilhelmas only became the official anthem of
the Netherlands in nineteen thirty two. However, as the writer
points out, things are a little bit off kilter with
this anthem. While reciting the anthem, you start to ask
yourself a few questions. What inspired someone to write this hymn?
(16:45):
There we go with him again, who wrote it? And
what is the hidden meaning behind the lyrics. I just
want to take a pause real quick because that word
him came up. There is a certain in a reverence
that needs to be conveyed a national anthem. It really
is kind of like you mean, even like what the
battle Hymn of the Republic is another big you could
(17:06):
say that's an anthem. It's not a national anthem, but
that's sort of the idea. It does have this sort
of biblical epic quality to it.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So we we see something really interesting here. As Juanasea explains,
the vill Helmas or Willhelmos I'm going to go with
vill Helmas was written about a guy named Villain von
Orange or.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
O r A in j E.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
We are not native speakers. This guy led a fight
against the Spanish for independence during the eighty years war.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
That's right, and some scholars believe that the author of
this piece of music may actually be a history mystery.
On the other hand, this is again from a Nuan
Nausea's piece. Some Dutch citizens, you know, and students of
(18:03):
history of their country, have always believed that the hymn
was written by Philip of Marnix of st Aldigonda. Of course,
he's got a couple of things, who is a very
important advisor to the aforementioned villem van Orange.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And a lot of people will still propose different authors here,
names of poets that were contemporarius to the rebellion, and
of course names of advisors. The issue is for people
like Dick Kornhert and I see you there, Max or
Phillips of Martix. Neither of these guys claimed to have
(18:45):
written this anthem, even though it was very popular during
their days.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So you'd think if if they, if credit was to
be claimed, they certainly would have done it right exactly now.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I realize, of course that often throughout history and anthem
will be propaganda that has new lyrics added to an
existing song.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
So there was traditional traditional him if. Yeah, a lot
of these things are kind of interchangeable irrespective of genre.
Perhaps might be some of the differentiating features. But much
like the oral tradition, you know, and the songs of
old like you know, think about tales of nights and
(19:30):
the songs that bards might sing, the original author of
those things can often be lost to history because they
just get repeated and tweaked and that historical game of
telephone that you're always talking about, Ben, So it does
make sense that a lot of these things could date
back to much more regional traditional tunes with lyrics that
(19:51):
are then kind of tweaked a little bit. So it
makes it a little bit hard to nail down a
single author.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, exactly, well said, we know. A lot of the
village bangers eventually, like the breakout singles of your favorite uh,
your favorite fair Carnival, they later informed national anthems. In
the case of this one, it seems that the music
itself can be traced back to a popular Roman Catholic
(20:19):
French song called Hanson de la ville de.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Well, certainly, we've got to put that into a little translator.
What the heck does that mean? Casey Pegron would be
able to help us with that. Let's see it appears
hold on to translate to well, it's so French that
the only results I'm getting are in French. Ben, Wow,
(20:49):
I bet I could tackle a little bit. I bet
you could. I here we are at the Dutch review,
which I think is the piece, the piece in question
here then, but it does not offer us the translation.
That is a bonker's long title for a piece of music. God,
if only casey we're here.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I believe it translates to outside the Chanson of the
sheltras via sailed by the Prince of Conde.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay, all right, well done, well done, Ben, I knew,
I knew you could do it.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Let's not stop there. Let's figure out what a chanson is.
A chanson is a musical genre spanning from medieval courtly music.
So this is outside of the song.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Very confusing, that's very.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Confus confusing, chass all, I have to imagine that it's pronounced.
But this was actually a pretty controversial pick for a
national anthem at the time because it was considered a
little too kind of of the upper class and a
national anthem supposed to be for everybody. So at the
(21:57):
beginning of the nineteenth century, this piece of music, the
Wilmus was considered unworthy of being the national anthem of
the Netherlands. That was because it was regarded as a
song specifically for the Orange Royalists, who many folks were
not a big fan of.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Right, Yeah, a lot of people were not a huge
fan of the royal family at the time, so they
didn't want to have anything to do with this. Until
the Nazi occupation of World War two. That's when you
see cities like Rotterdam completely get their bells rung. And
that's when you see absolute innocent civilians getting sent wholesale
(22:37):
into the horrors of concentration camps.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Because of their religious faith. And there you know, obviously,
and everybody knows about this stuff, and it's every time
you read about it. It just really that happened. It
wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, let us not forget the Jewish people. Let us
not forget the Roma people, the people of same sex orientation.
Folks are getting rounded up and they're sent to death
in hellish ways. And the Dutch are trying as a
culture to find national pride, right to identify in some
(23:15):
way that has passed this slavery and horror occurring in
their homelands. So they look to their old symbols and
they say, ah, right, the vill helmets is maybe not
that bad?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, yeah, apparently. Can I say, Ben, I got a
call back to a thing that you said off Mike
when we were looking up something a little peak behind
the curtain. The idea of ball with Taba by Kid
Rock kind of becoming a new de facto national anthem
for us here in the United States, I non consensually
(23:52):
I would argue, and in that context, boy Ol Boyd,
is that star spangled banner look pretty just.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Like a banger? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Absolutely sorry, it gave you a hard time history.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So where is Kid?
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Where is job rule?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
As well? You've seen that video of Kid rocking the
RFK gets. I don't love it.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
It's still it's a little uncomfortable for me.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It's a lot uncomfortable. They thought it was cool. It
is still right?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Is it not still unusual for us to realize that
a hymn can be a national anthem? Japan, the nation thereof,
has a bone to pick about the idea of oldest
national anthem, because Japan has used a poem which is
quite short but also older for its anthem, The melody
(24:44):
just wasn't recorded or wasn't documented until the eighteen hundreds.
So it depends upon how we define an anthem. Is
it the poem first, the music first, or is the
time the lyrics and the music come together. I think
it's the third one.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I would agree with you, Ben. Moving over to South
Africa and what Max described as probably the most creative
and definitely the hardest national anthem to learn, because it's
got those cliquies, it's got those those yeah, those little sounds,
(25:25):
which are not particularly easy. God Bless Africa, writes Jackie
Bischoff for q Z. The title and first lines of
Enoch Son Tonga's hymn Nkosi Sikeli e Africa may appear
simple to some, but one hundred and twenty years after
it was written, it has become one of the most
powerful tunes in Africa's history, a symbol to the post
(25:47):
colonial liberation movement used in the past and present post
independence national anthems of South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, this is a fascinating and inspiring story because Sintaga
initially wrote this hymn this zilk to him for his
school choir in eighteen ninety seven. And I want to
pause there, because, as we have pointed out earlier, it
is quite difficult for us to pronounce this language. If
you want to look it up, you're going to look
(26:19):
for a language spelled Xhosa.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So he writes this him for a school choir eighteen
ninety seven. It's inspired, probably in part by the work
of a poet named Joseph Perry from Wales. This hymn
becomes popular, other choirs start performing it. Fast forward nineteen twelve,
it is sung at a meeting of the South African
(26:45):
Native National Congress, which we now call the African National
Congress or a n C.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
That's right. The A and C adopted the Him as
an official song in nineteen twenty five as an act
of defiants to the South African government's racist policies towards
Black Africans, apartheid. This is what we call that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, and now it becomes a unifying liberation anthem, right,
a hymn to an anthem again, and a lot of
communities that might not have otherwise unified, they agree on
this song and they we see the streisand effect the
apartheid government tries to ban anybody from singing this anthem,
(27:36):
so naturally everybody wants to sing it. Fast forward nineteen
ninety four, then President Nelson Mandela says, hey, can we
get a modified version of Sontonga's original hymn and can
we combine it with the old afrikanor hymn the Call
(27:57):
of South Africa or dies Steve Vans Africa.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So interesting Afrikaan language, so much in common with German.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, very much so. And they say, Okay, We're going
to use these two sources to make a unifying thing,
a unified national anthem. If you go to the boffins
over Michigan State, like David Copeland and Benetta Jules Rossette,
you'll see that they describe it as being composed in
(28:27):
the form of a blessing offering a message of unity
and uplift to act morally and spiritually on behalf of
the entire African continent.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So it's a beautiful idea, right it is. It really is.
But it does add a level of complexity to it
that you don't find in most national anthems because of
the absolute just cornucopia of languages that are spoken in
this part of the world.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, and we as knuckleheaded United Staters or Americans as
we're sometimes called, we have a hard time learning our
own national hymn that is just in one language. This
anthem has five different languages. English is one, but then
you have Jotsa, you have Zulu, you have Setoto, you
(29:18):
have Africaullans. If you're singing the full anthem, you're supposed
to sing all five languages because it is about unification.
Let's get your country singer pal to do that.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
One.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Gosh, that sounds that sounds a little painful.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
That's a tall milkshake.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I think, no Pal of mine. She's doing well.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So we've got a couple other things we wanted to
get to England's national anthem. We're not necessarily fans. There
are four nations who cut past vocals.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
In general.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Four nations have national anthems with no words. They are
San Marino, Coase of our guests from earlier in the episode,
Bostnia and herzel Viavina, and then of course Spain. I
don't know why I said of course Spain. I had
no idea.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, it's it's it's definitely a classy move It's like,
we don't need lyrics. We can communicate this national pride
with melody alone.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Just hear the chord progressions and you'll get what we're about.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I mean, it's funny, like a lot of really great
classical music is meant to paint a picture, you know,
without words. Like there's this piece called Themes from the
Maldao that is meant to be the you know. It
starts off with these happy sailors, you know, preparing to
go on a voyage, and then the next movement of
the seas begin to royal and get a little more intense,
(30:45):
and then the next movement it's an outright storm and
you can really feel all that stuff, even if you
don't really know that's what it's supposed to be about.
Pretty cool. I love that.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I love when bands do that as well, bands that
will ordinarily, you know, have vocals or have a lead vocalist,
but then there's one track on the album that is
purely instrumental. I think that's powerful. I'm thinking of, you know,
I'm thinking of the bands Beirute.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, I love I love fully instrumental bands. Explosions in
the Sky, Yeah, tortoise is one of my favorites. And yeah, no,
I think it's a cool it's a cool idea.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well, with this, I do have a question to pose
to you, No, and to pose to you Max before
we wrap today's episode.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Are you prepared? I am right, right, okay?
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Could the US change its national anthem? And should it
to Toba? I jumped the gut. I don't think that's
with the forties and the chicks with beepers. That doesn't
resonate you think with the common man. Is it possible
that we are in a situation I'm I'm going to
be very political here. Is it possible that we are
(31:59):
in a situation wah from where a president with a
predilection for naming stuff after himself would ask for a
new national anthem featuring him.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Let's just say, let's just change it to God Save
the King. Oh no, No. To answer your question, Benet,
it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yeah, I mean, I Francis Scott Keys is kind of
a pill, so I would not be against getting rid
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Just like as a dude.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Yeah, he's like not a was not a good person.
But I mean, in this scenario, it sounds like it
would be a downgrade.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
It is also true that forty eight of the fifty
states in the US Union have state songs, and some
of them have more than one state song. Can we
guess the state song of Georgia? It is a Devil
went down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels band.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
It better be Unfortunately, it's Georgia on.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
My mind, you know, Okay, look, excellent song. Heard it
too many times?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, because it's like the state song. I can't wait
to hear more about anthems. I know we are all
fans of seeing big public performances. Super producer, Max, thank
you so much for being our research associate on this one.
And thank you, of course to Alex Williams who composed
the anthem of ridiculous history, which is instrumental and I's
(33:27):
just instrumental because we rule.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Thanks to Chris Frosciotis and the needs Jeff Codes here
at spirits U and man Ben you know, let's just
kut it sure. Thanks to you and with you as well.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen
(33:53):
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show,
(00:27):
fellow Ridiculous Historians. Oh say, can you see in your
podcast feed our one and only super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh say, can you see in your podcast feed? Are
we there?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We are?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's mister Noel Brown. They call me Ben Bullen. In
this neck of the woods, that would be the United States.
We have been fascinated for a long time about how
countries always pick space things to coside, right, Like, countries
(01:02):
have an official animal and official flag, and they also
have official songs.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
They do called national anthems. And that's that's they're talking
about today. The the the world's most ridiculous national anthems.
I love the word anthem, though again it's one of
those chicken or the egg things. Something being anthemic, you know,
(01:30):
means it's kind of epic, and I guess an anthem,
a national anthem, is meant to be epic. And it
also goes back to you know, they call certain big
church pieces anthems, you know, as part of a church service.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
And one of my favorite, one of my favorite British
insults that I've ever heard, just off the cuff, because
we know the British cousins are way better than Americans
at insults. I was walking around our old office in
Pont City Market here in the fair metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia,
(02:10):
and someone was telling a kind of I'll say the
guy was being kind of a dick about how there
was a line for one of the restaurants, and a
person working at the restaurant started telling them, you know, okay,
the weight's going to be about twenty five thirty minutes
something like that, and this British guy that I've never
(02:32):
seen before or since, he said, oh, spare me your anthem.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I don't know that one, Ben, that's good. I'm sure
he brought it off. Yeah, yeah, maybe he might have
coined it that very minute, but yeah, I guess an
anthem is also kind of in that context, sort of
a something that's a little bit like a saga, you know,
like a wordy perhaps.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Propaganda the oh good point. The Reeks have a national
anthem that is so long they don't speak or they
don't sing most of it. It's got like one hundred
and fifty eight verses.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
That's another thing about those church anthems that you know,
you have the hymnal, I guess they've got the hymn,
but then there's the anthem, which is like the big
kind of show piece, the centerpiece of the servant.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So many verses, so many verses, so many churches, so
many verses. Let me stop freestyling and acknowledge our research
associate for this episode, Max the Madman Williams or Max
Foster Key Williams, and we get to go into it,
you know, with clear eyes and open minds. If you
(03:42):
are listening to this podcast and you're not from the US,
first off, thank you. Secondly, we know our national anthem
is not the best.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Song and did jump in real quick, just as the
research associated on this. I want to come out and
say this that even though these are ridiculous, because especially
the backstories and some of these, yeah, none of these
anthems are bad. Actually, these anthems are pretty awesome in
my opinion, especially the third one. The second one is
kind of weird.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
They're still all better to sing than the US anthem.
And I don't want to sound unpatriotic, but I'm just
thinking of like, no, you're my music guy, so what
do you think about the national anthem? I find it
off putting. I mean, I'm curious about that. Ben, I
(04:32):
don't mind it. I think we maybe get a little
overexposed to it. Maybe it's sort of like a hotel
California or something. You know, maybe I never need to
hear it again, but it's sort of foisted upon us,
especially if you find yourself attending a sports game. One
thing I do love about the national anthem is really bad,
historically bad Rose Ambar. There was one recently that was
(04:57):
like Fergie I think historically did a really bad one.
And then there was some singer recently that did one
that was so bad. I think she was really drunk
or something, but now I can't remember the details about.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You cheat, Yeah house drunk National Anthem rehab. Country singer
Ingrid and Dress checked into a rehab facility after a
widely criticized intoxicated performance of the national anthem at the
Major League Baseball home run Derby. She admitted to being
a little tipsy and aangized to fans.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Okay, well, I haven't heard of her, but wish her
well on her journey.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We all do.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But also we we have to confess to your point
about overexposure.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
There Noel.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
The national anthem of the United States is almost always
hung at the beginning of a sports game, right, U
and everybody, if you're respectful, you stand up. You might
take your hat off, you might put your one of
your hands over your heart, and then you have to
just stand there while you hear the rockets, red glare,
(06:08):
or whatever the current current public consumption version of it is.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It is called the star spangled banner, if I'm not mistaken.
I had to search for I had to dig deep
for that one, because people usually just call it the
national anthem, which is funny. I do love the idea
of something being spangled. Nobody uses that word enough.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I know, why didn't that British guy who was mad
about waiting in line, why didn't he say spare me
or spangled anthem?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Here you go?
Speaker 1 (06:38):
That would have been cooler. But what we found here
thanks to Max, is that national anthems are very much
a thing. Some of them are written by terrible people.
They're often going to be a product of their ridiculous time.
Some are written by lawyers, some are written by musicians.
(06:59):
To be fair, and a lot of times people are
cribbing notes and songs from one another and putting their
own spin on it for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, why don't we just jump right in to this
is sort of alistical episode. Max is fond of those,
and we're fond of them as well. So we're going
to start off. First entry in today's episode of ridiculous
national anthems that are also good is the Czech Republic
and Slovakia. Who go in have these on a national anthem.
You will probably still hear people refer to this part
(07:32):
of the world as Checklesslovakia. That's because before Slovakia the
Czech Republic split were they were the same country. It's
pretty recent split, actually, about thirty three years ago. And
it's funny though, because if I'm not mistaken, then oftentimes
a shorthand for people from this region is just Slavs
(07:57):
or checks dang it, don't know which. Which are the
ones that squad in tracksuits? All of them men, all
of them do. Do check out squatting Slavs in tracksuits.
If you want a fun Instagram.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Follow absolutely because they'll get there. If we go to
our friends at Britannica, we'll see that Czecholeislovakia was a
former country in Central Europe and it took in the
land of other previous countries or regions Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia.
I'm falling into Dracula voice flat Tepe.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You got the hands and the voice, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So the Empire of Austria Hungary collapses in nineteen eighteen
at the close of World War One, Czechleislovakia gets formed.
Out of all of this, the political union of the
Czechs and the Slovaks after World War One. It worked
(08:54):
out kind of at least in the bigger picture, because
these are two different ethnic groups, but they have a
lot of similarities in religion, culture and language. And for
a while, between World War One and World War Two,
this was, no kidding, the most politically stable state in
(09:15):
Eastern Europe. Again, the bar is very low.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Well yeah, I mean they often hear this part of
the world referred to as a powder keg, and I
think it's not too hot of a take to say
the history of this part of the world is a
little fraud, a little complex. Hence, things like Austro Hungary
and and you know Czechoslovakia, which now is of course
the Czech Republican Slovakia strange bedfellows. And I think it's
(09:38):
because of the border. They're all so close, they're all
packed in together, and yet they all have distinctly unique
national identities and cultures. And sometimes, what do they say,
been good fences make good neighbors, and maybe the fences
aren't high enough. But these borders are so close, you know,
it's like living in one of those like a condo situation,
(09:59):
where everything is packed right next to each other, and
it can sometimes cause beef.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah. Yeah, And I love the point you're making about
the combination of these various unique ethnic groups into a
larger nation. One thing that's always fascinated me and probably
all of us is the existence of countries that are
named two countries like Ostia and Herzegovina.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's right, that's another one. So is Slovakia the same
as there's also Yugoslavia. Yes, there was also Yugoslavia, but
it's in the region.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's in the region. It's not a thing anymore.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Nineties that fell apart.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, So if we look at the nineteen thirties,
as you said, the powder keg begins to you know,
begins to get a little sparky. There's this guy that
hot take I think is kind of a drip, kind
of a pill and a fink. His name is Adolf Hitler.
(11:00):
He is rising to power in Germany in nineteen thirty
three and the people of western Czechoslovakia start to buy
into his pitch of national socialism.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
M YEP national socialism aka the Nazis, and with the
acquiescence of Britain and France, Hitler did a bit of
a power move, a lot of a power move, and
annexed the German speaking part of Zudutan which means southern
areas of Czechoslovakia in nineteen thirty eight. By thirty nine,
(11:37):
Germany had occupied Bohemia and Moravia further and turned the
two regions into a protectorate of Germany right, which means
in this context these people were under the leadership of
Nazi Germany, but they did not have the same rights
as German people. Slovakia, it gets autotomy on paper, but
(12:03):
still Germany and German corporations are running the game. In
nineteen forty five, and we'll get to the anthem here,
Czechlislovakia is quote unquote liberated by the Soviet Union, but
they're not really liberated.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
They just have new masters. Because the Soviet Union takes
this land into the USSR and they rule there in
all but name from nineteen forty eight to nineteen eighty nine.
We're talking puppet government's vassal state stuff for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
By the Soviets. You know, iron fisted grasp did eventually weaken,
and when that dominance broke, the Czechs and the Slovaks
began to kind of realize that they didn't particularly care
for one another.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
They might not be the best roommates, or they might
need to Fleetwood max style go their own way. So
just Hollywood Mac did, just like Fleetwood back did. Yeah,
And so when the Communist rule ends due to the
Velvet Revolution, that sounds nice. It does sound nice. It
(13:13):
sounds like an album from the seventies.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, there's that band, Velvet Revolver that that's like the
supergroup from the Guns and Roses and what was it?
Oh gosh, Tommy Lee was in and I want to say,
and I think the singer was the dude from Stone
Temple Pilots.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'm thinking of Velvet Underground.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Vell Underground much much superior group to Velvet Revolver. But
we're talking about the Velvet Revolution, which sorry, it just
sounds really soft. They had some serious disagreements and that escalate.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, the Slovak part of the population is saying, you
guys got to stop privatizing everything, you dirty checks. And
they have these parliamentary elections in June of nineteen ninety
two that really put a spotlight on these stark political differences. Eventually,
(14:07):
because of these disagreements, the leaders of the Czech and
Slovak factions decide to peacefully dissolve the idea of Czechoslovakia.
And so as part of this we see something called
the Velvet Divorce and two.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
New Yeah sounds nice, dude the follow up.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Album, and two new countries are created, the Czech Republic
or Czechia and Slovakia. This occurs on New Year's Day
nineteen ninety three. This is where our national anthem comes in.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
That's right, because even the you know, most amicable of
divorces still involve breaking up your stuff, and sometimes that
can include a song. So when Czechoslovakia split in nine
Zine eighty three, Eben Discan writes for Matador Network the
following more than just land was divided between the two countries.
(15:06):
Czechoslovakia's anthem where my Home Is was originally written in
nineteen eighteen. By combining verses from a Czech opera and
a Slovak folk song, makes sense, gives a little taste
of both the national identities in that national anthem. When
the country split in two, so did the anthem hull.
The Czech Republic adopted the first verse as its new anthem,
(15:27):
also called where My Home Is, and Slovakia adopted the
second verse as its new anthem, now called Lightning over
the Tatras, which is clearly a more badass name than
where My Home Is. And then they add an additional
verse because you know, they only had one verse, so
they had extended a little bit.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, there we go, so amicable breakup and everybody wants
to keep at least a piece of the song. And
so that's why those that's why that anthem is going
to be so similar here. Don't worry, folks, it gets
(16:09):
weirder if we go over to Chuka. Juannazia, writing for
Dutch Review, will see the story of the vill Helmos,
which is regarded by the Guinness Book of World Records
as the oldest national anthem in the world.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That's right, and the Dutch Review piece goes on to
say that the Wilhelmas only became the official anthem of
the Netherlands in nineteen thirty two. However, as the writer
points out, things are a little bit off kilter with
this anthem. While reciting the anthem, you start to ask
yourself a few questions. What inspired someone to write this hymn?
(16:45):
There we go with him again, who wrote it? And
what is the hidden meaning behind the lyrics. I just
want to take a pause real quick because that word
him came up. There is a certain in a reverence
that needs to be conveyed a national anthem. It really
is kind of like you mean, even like what the
battle Hymn of the Republic is another big you could
(17:06):
say that's an anthem. It's not a national anthem, but
that's sort of the idea. It does have this sort
of biblical epic quality to it.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So we we see something really interesting here. As Juanasea explains,
the vill Helmas or Willhelmos I'm going to go with
vill Helmas was written about a guy named Villain von
Orange or.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
O r A in j E.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
We are not native speakers. This guy led a fight
against the Spanish for independence during the eighty years war.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
That's right, and some scholars believe that the author of
this piece of music may actually be a history mystery.
On the other hand, this is again from a Nuan
Nausea's piece. Some Dutch citizens, you know, and students of
(18:03):
history of their country, have always believed that the hymn
was written by Philip of Marnix of st Aldigonda. Of course,
he's got a couple of things, who is a very
important advisor to the aforementioned villem van Orange.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And a lot of people will still propose different authors here,
names of poets that were contemporarius to the rebellion, and
of course names of advisors. The issue is for people
like Dick Kornhert and I see you there, Max or
Phillips of Martix. Neither of these guys claimed to have
(18:45):
written this anthem, even though it was very popular during
their days.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So you'd think if if they, if credit was to
be claimed, they certainly would have done it right exactly now.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I realize, of course that often throughout history and anthem
will be propaganda that has new lyrics added to an
existing song.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
So there was traditional traditional him if. Yeah, a lot
of these things are kind of interchangeable irrespective of genre.
Perhaps might be some of the differentiating features. But much
like the oral tradition, you know, and the songs of
old like you know, think about tales of nights and
(19:30):
the songs that bards might sing, the original author of
those things can often be lost to history because they
just get repeated and tweaked and that historical game of
telephone that you're always talking about, Ben, So it does
make sense that a lot of these things could date
back to much more regional traditional tunes with lyrics that
(19:51):
are then kind of tweaked a little bit. So it
makes it a little bit hard to nail down a
single author.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, exactly, well said, we know. A lot of the
village bangers eventually, like the breakout singles of your favorite uh,
your favorite fair Carnival, they later informed national anthems. In
the case of this one, it seems that the music
itself can be traced back to a popular Roman Catholic
(20:19):
French song called Hanson de la ville de.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Well, certainly, we've got to put that into a little translator.
What the heck does that mean? Casey Pegron would be
able to help us with that. Let's see it appears
hold on to translate to well, it's so French that
the only results I'm getting are in French. Ben, Wow,
(20:49):
I bet I could tackle a little bit. I bet
you could. I here we are at the Dutch review,
which I think is the piece, the piece in question
here then, but it does not offer us the translation.
That is a bonker's long title for a piece of music. God,
if only casey we're here.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I believe it translates to outside the Chanson of the
sheltras via sailed by the Prince of Conde.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay, all right, well done, well done, Ben, I knew,
I knew you could do it.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Let's not stop there. Let's figure out what a chanson is.
A chanson is a musical genre spanning from medieval courtly music.
So this is outside of the song.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Very confusing, that's very.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Confus confusing, chass all, I have to imagine that it's pronounced.
But this was actually a pretty controversial pick for a
national anthem at the time because it was considered a
little too kind of of the upper class and a
national anthem supposed to be for everybody. So at the
(21:57):
beginning of the nineteenth century, this piece of music, the
Wilmus was considered unworthy of being the national anthem of
the Netherlands. That was because it was regarded as a
song specifically for the Orange Royalists, who many folks were
not a big fan of.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Right, Yeah, a lot of people were not a huge
fan of the royal family at the time, so they
didn't want to have anything to do with this. Until
the Nazi occupation of World War two. That's when you
see cities like Rotterdam completely get their bells rung. And
that's when you see absolute innocent civilians getting sent wholesale
(22:37):
into the horrors of concentration camps.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Because of their religious faith. And there you know, obviously,
and everybody knows about this stuff, and it's every time
you read about it. It just really that happened. It
wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, let us not forget the Jewish people. Let us
not forget the Roma people, the people of same sex orientation.
Folks are getting rounded up and they're sent to death
in hellish ways. And the Dutch are trying as a
culture to find national pride, right to identify in some
(23:15):
way that has passed this slavery and horror occurring in
their homelands. So they look to their old symbols and
they say, ah, right, the vill helmets is maybe not
that bad?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, yeah, apparently. Can I say, Ben, I got a
call back to a thing that you said off Mike
when we were looking up something a little peak behind
the curtain. The idea of ball with Taba by Kid
Rock kind of becoming a new de facto national anthem
for us here in the United States, I non consensually
(23:52):
I would argue, and in that context, boy Ol Boyd,
is that star spangled banner look pretty just.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Like a banger? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Absolutely sorry, it gave you a hard time history.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So where is Kid?
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Where is job rule?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
As well? You've seen that video of Kid rocking the
RFK gets. I don't love it.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
It's still it's a little uncomfortable for me.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It's a lot uncomfortable. They thought it was cool. It
is still right?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Is it not still unusual for us to realize that
a hymn can be a national anthem? Japan, the nation thereof,
has a bone to pick about the idea of oldest
national anthem, because Japan has used a poem which is
quite short but also older for its anthem, The melody
(24:44):
just wasn't recorded or wasn't documented until the eighteen hundreds.
So it depends upon how we define an anthem. Is
it the poem first, the music first, or is the
time the lyrics and the music come together. I think
it's the third one.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I would agree with you, Ben. Moving over to South
Africa and what Max described as probably the most creative
and definitely the hardest national anthem to learn, because it's
got those cliquies, it's got those those yeah, those little sounds,
(25:25):
which are not particularly easy. God Bless Africa, writes Jackie
Bischoff for q Z. The title and first lines of
Enoch Son Tonga's hymn Nkosi Sikeli e Africa may appear
simple to some, but one hundred and twenty years after
it was written, it has become one of the most
powerful tunes in Africa's history, a symbol to the post
(25:47):
colonial liberation movement used in the past and present post
independence national anthems of South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, this is a fascinating and inspiring story because Sintaga
initially wrote this hymn this zilk to him for his
school choir in eighteen ninety seven. And I want to
pause there, because, as we have pointed out earlier, it
is quite difficult for us to pronounce this language. If
you want to look it up, you're going to look
(26:19):
for a language spelled Xhosa.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
So he writes this him for a school choir eighteen
ninety seven. It's inspired, probably in part by the work
of a poet named Joseph Perry from Wales. This hymn
becomes popular, other choirs start performing it. Fast forward nineteen twelve,
it is sung at a meeting of the South African
(26:45):
Native National Congress, which we now call the African National
Congress or a n C.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
That's right. The A and C adopted the Him as
an official song in nineteen twenty five as an act
of defiants to the South African government's racist policies towards
Black Africans, apartheid. This is what we call that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, and now it becomes a unifying liberation anthem, right,
a hymn to an anthem again, and a lot of
communities that might not have otherwise unified, they agree on
this song and they we see the streisand effect the
apartheid government tries to ban anybody from singing this anthem,
(27:36):
so naturally everybody wants to sing it. Fast forward nineteen
ninety four, then President Nelson Mandela says, hey, can we
get a modified version of Sontonga's original hymn and can
we combine it with the old afrikanor hymn the Call
(27:57):
of South Africa or dies Steve Vans Africa.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So interesting Afrikaan language, so much in common with German.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, very much so. And they say, Okay, We're going
to use these two sources to make a unifying thing,
a unified national anthem. If you go to the boffins
over Michigan State, like David Copeland and Benetta Jules Rossette,
you'll see that they describe it as being composed in
(28:27):
the form of a blessing offering a message of unity
and uplift to act morally and spiritually on behalf of
the entire African continent.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So it's a beautiful idea, right it is. It really is.
But it does add a level of complexity to it
that you don't find in most national anthems because of
the absolute just cornucopia of languages that are spoken in
this part of the world.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, and we as knuckleheaded United Staters or Americans as
we're sometimes called, we have a hard time learning our
own national hymn that is just in one language. This
anthem has five different languages. English is one, but then
you have Jotsa, you have Zulu, you have Setoto, you
(29:18):
have Africaullans. If you're singing the full anthem, you're supposed
to sing all five languages because it is about unification.
Let's get your country singer pal to do that.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
One.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Gosh, that sounds that sounds a little painful.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
That's a tall milkshake.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I think, no Pal of mine. She's doing well.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yeah, I hope.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
So we've got a couple other things we wanted to
get to England's national anthem. We're not necessarily fans. There
are four nations who cut past vocals.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
In general.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Four nations have national anthems with no words. They are
San Marino, Coase of our guests from earlier in the episode,
Bostnia and herzel Viavina, and then of course Spain. I
don't know why I said of course Spain. I had
no idea.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I mean, it's it's it's definitely a classy move It's like,
we don't need lyrics. We can communicate this national pride
with melody alone.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Just hear the chord progressions and you'll get what we're about.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I mean, it's funny, like a lot of really great
classical music is meant to paint a picture, you know,
without words. Like there's this piece called Themes from the
Maldao that is meant to be the you know. It
starts off with these happy sailors, you know, preparing to
go on a voyage, and then the next movement of
the seas begin to royal and get a little more intense,
(30:45):
and then the next movement it's an outright storm and
you can really feel all that stuff, even if you
don't really know that's what it's supposed to be about.
Pretty cool. I love that.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I love when bands do that as well, bands that
will ordinarily, you know, have vocals or have a lead vocalist,
but then there's one track on the album that is
purely instrumental. I think that's powerful. I'm thinking of, you know,
I'm thinking of the bands Beirute.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, I love I love fully instrumental bands. Explosions in
the Sky, Yeah, tortoise is one of my favorites. And yeah, no,
I think it's a cool it's a cool idea.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well, with this, I do have a question to pose
to you, No, and to pose to you Max before
we wrap today's episode.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Are you prepared? I am right, right, okay?
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Could the US change its national anthem? And should it
to Toba? I jumped the gut. I don't think that's
with the forties and the chicks with beepers. That doesn't
resonate you think with the common man. Is it possible
that we are in a situation I'm I'm going to
be very political here. Is it possible that we are
(31:59):
in a situation wah from where a president with a
predilection for naming stuff after himself would ask for a
new national anthem featuring him.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Let's just say, let's just change it to God Save
the King. Oh no, No. To answer your question, Benet,
it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yeah, I mean, I Francis Scott Keys is kind of
a pill, so I would not be against getting rid
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Just like as a dude.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Yeah, he's like not a was not a good person.
But I mean, in this scenario, it sounds like it
would be a downgrade.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
It is also true that forty eight of the fifty
states in the US Union have state songs, and some
of them have more than one state song. Can we
guess the state song of Georgia? It is a Devil
went down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels band.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
It better be Unfortunately, it's Georgia on.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
My mind, you know, Okay, look, excellent song. Heard it
too many times?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, because it's like the state song. I can't wait
to hear more about anthems. I know we are all
fans of seeing big public performances. Super producer, Max, thank
you so much for being our research associate on this one.
And thank you, of course to Alex Williams who composed
the anthem of ridiculous history, which is instrumental and I's
(33:27):
just instrumental because we rule.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Thanks to Chris Frosciotis and the needs Jeff Codes here
at spirits U and man Ben you know, let's just
kut it sure. Thanks to you and with you as well.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen
(33:53):
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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