> > Penny "Do you at least sing along with the hymn "Jerusalem"? stamp
>
> Aaaaargh! I hate "Jerusalem" even more than the national anthem! Let's face it, the first verse is really nothing more than a set of questions to which the answer is always "no", while the second is just militaristically stupid twaddle. In short, I really, really hate "Jerusalem" and I won't even sing that if I can help it.
>
> Phil-"The actual reason I try not to be patriotic is that it's too easy to drop from there to xenophobia..."-bee

Heh-heh. I've wondered for quite some time what the modern Brits' take is on that. It seems admirable only in its historic and/or literary quality, preserving in popular (if that's the right word for such a thing, which i doubt) form the mystic prophecy of William Blake.

Personally, i prefer Emerson, Lake, & Palmer's version much better than the traditional one found in the movie Chariots of Fire. But, hey, ELP even spruced up Aaron Copland--that's just part of the group's identity, and i like it.

I was actually singing the thing (though i always get the lyrics screwed up after the first vers) as i left church tonight, because a 13-year-old Air Force boy had a shirt with "England" on front the Blake poem on back. When i asked him if he knew the song, he said, "Er, no, i got the shirt 'cuz i lived in England when i was younger. Works for me.

Penny *still trying to locate a CD copy of ELP doing Pictures at an Exhibition--sweetness (if you buy into that whole "unbelievably creative musicians in rock music 1965-1978" idiom! and i quite obviously do)* stamp
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