Oh say, can you see the man with the lightbulb head?

Today is a bumper day in the history of music. It's two massively significant days rolled into one.

On March 3, 1931, Herbert Hoover signed a measure into law that the National Anthem of the United States of America would be a poem full of unanswered questions set to the tune of a British drinking song.

AND

On March 3, 1953, Robyn Hitchcock was born.

Now, we're as fond of Francis Scott Key as the next poetry enthusiast, but we can't help feeling that but for an accident of birth, Robyn Hitchcock could have done a far more surreal job of writing a national anthem. He also indulges in far more interesting between-song banter than at your average rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.



Your assignment for the day is this. Compare and contrast the following lyrics. Then let us know what you think

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
(Star Spangled Banner, FS Key, 3rd verse)

And how's about you, my pretty one?
Do you still roll and dream of bees?
How's about you, my pretty one?
Do you still dream of bees?
(The Man with the Lightbulb Head, Hitchcock, 2nd verse)