The Matt Walsh Show - July 04, 2023


Matt Walsh Ranks The Worst National Anthem Performances

Hosted by
Matt Walsh
Mentioned
Scott Stapp Christina Aguilera Francis Scott Key Fort McHenry R. Kelly Roseanne Rebuke
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Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

143.22

Word count

1,219

Sentence count

92

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In honor of July 4th, we've compiled a list of the 5 worst performances of the National Anthem ever performed, and we're here to rebuke those who have failed in their own patriotic duty, specifically while singing the anthem.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.120 So we could do something really uplifting and patriotic today for July 4th, but we're
00:00:04.720 not really into uplifting content on this channel, so that's not what we really do here.
00:00:09.760 So instead we're going to rebuke.
00:00:11.840 Rebuke those who have failed in their own patriotic duty, specifically while singing
00:00:15.320 the national anthem.
00:00:16.320 Now as I understand it, singing the national anthem is difficult.
00:00:19.080 It's a difficult song to sing.
00:00:20.720 Was so helpless while I lies at the last gleaming rose dry.
00:00:30.000 I can't judge that because every song is difficult for me to sing because I have the singing
00:00:33.840 voice of like a demented cow. 0.53
00:00:35.440 For people who can sing, it's a difficult song to nail, which is all the more reason why you
00:00:40.400 just have to be, take it simple, sing it as it's supposed to be sung.
00:00:43.120 But what we know is that there are a lot of people who get the chance to sing the national
00:00:46.240 anthem and they want to do their own thing with it, and catastrophe is the result.
00:00:50.000 So we're going to do a top five, I guess a top five of the worst national anthem performances
00:00:56.400 of all time.
00:00:57.400 And, um, we'll start with this one.
00:01:00.200 You know, this is a, it's a singer from the nineties.
00:01:02.040 He gets kind of a bad rap, but, but, but he deserved it for this performance of the national
00:01:06.440 anthem at a NASCAR race in 2004.
00:01:08.440 Here is a Scott Stapp of Creed.
00:01:12.200 Listen.
00:01:12.920 You know, I mean, he's at a disadvantage because he's singing acapella to begin with.
00:01:42.440 And also he can't sing.
00:01:43.320 So that's the other.
00:01:43.880 So he's really two disadvantages.
00:01:45.160 Hold me now.
00:01:47.480 I'm six feet from here to not thinker.
00:01:51.240 Uh, it's not nearly as bad as some of the other ones on those, on this list, but it's
00:01:55.000 still, that's like your classic, that's sort of your classic bad national anthem performance.
00:01:59.720 I think it deserves a spot on the list.
00:02:01.160 It really represents many other bad national anthem performances.
00:02:04.360 We're just picking on Scott Stapp, um, which, which is unfortunate, but here's where we get
00:02:13.240 into the really, uh, into the nitty gritty.
00:02:14.840 So number four is Christina Aguilera at, I believe the Superbowl in 2011.
00:02:21.000 And here's how she did.
00:02:23.480 Gave proof through the night that a flag was still there.
00:02:33.480 Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave in the land of the free?
00:02:53.640 So she's on, I think she's on pitch.
00:02:57.800 I can't really tell, uh, as far as I know, she is, that's not the issue.
00:03:01.400 So before Scott Stapp can't sing here, she can sing, but she's doing way too much.
00:03:09.320 So she's turned the national anthem into an opportunity to show off her vocal range.
00:03:14.360 It's not about the flag.
00:03:15.400 It's not about the country.
00:03:16.440 It's not about patriotism.
00:03:17.400 It's all about, look at me, Christina Aguilera.
00:03:19.400 If you want to perform a song like that, you can perform your own songs like that.
00:03:22.760 That's fine.
00:03:23.640 But it's the national anthem.
00:03:24.920 It is not supposed to be a, it's, it's not written to be a vocal showcase.
00:03:30.840 And any attempt that you make to turn it into that, it's going to be terrible.
00:03:34.040 And so that's number four on the list.
00:03:35.480 Um, now we get into the really, really bad stuff.
00:03:38.040 Next is the band, uh, the fray performing at the final four about 10 years ago.
00:03:43.880 And here's their take on the national anthem.
00:03:46.920 You can always tell, like, that's why I think that's why when you watch the national, these
00:04:05.800 national anthem performances, the performers always have their eyes closed because they
00:04:09.000 don't want to see the reaction of the people in the crowd, because you can tell based on
00:04:11.480 the reaction of the athletes that are standing on the court or the field, if they have this,
00:04:15.480 like, what the hell's going on kind of expression, you know, that you're not, you're not doing it
00:04:18.600 the right way.
00:04:19.480 And that was the case here.
00:04:20.360 I mean, the national anthem, look, I don't know how many times I have to say this.
00:04:23.960 It's not a folk song.
00:04:25.880 I love folk songs.
00:04:27.720 That's not what the national anthem is.
00:04:29.240 It can't be that.
00:04:30.920 Okay.
00:04:31.400 It was not written in most cases.
00:04:33.960 If you just got a folk singer strumming the acoustic guitar and singing some song about
00:04:37.560 whatever, I will like it.
00:04:39.800 I'll be into it.
00:04:40.760 But the acoustic guitar does not belong on stage during national anthem performance,
00:04:45.240 and it does not belong at a church.
00:04:46.600 Those are the two places it does not belong.
00:04:48.520 This needs to stop now.
00:04:50.760 Okay, number two, we go to convicted child sex predator R. Kelly, who, before he went to
00:04:55.720 prison, used to be a big time pop star.
00:04:58.600 And it was in that capacity that he was called on years ago, I don't know how long ago this
00:05:02.360 was, this was a while ago, to perform the national anthem before some kind of big boxing match.
00:05:06.040 And we can only assume that he came up with this arrangement after getting punched in the
00:05:11.800 head 15 times himself, because otherwise I can't explain it.
00:05:14.600 Let's listen.
00:05:15.800 Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed, by the twilight's last name, whose broad strides and bright stars, through the perilous fight.
00:05:44.360 Yeah, no, that's, so the national anthem is not a folk song.
00:05:48.280 It's also not whatever that, it's not elevator music or R&B.
00:05:51.960 I don't know what the hell he was trying to do there.
00:05:54.440 That's not what it is.
00:05:55.560 Listen, here, for the national anthem, remember that it was written by Francis Scott Key,
00:06:03.720 as he was remembering Fort McHenry in Baltimore, being bombarded during the War of 1812.
00:06:09.560 You should be able to imagine that happening.
00:06:13.560 You should be able to imagine people marching into battle while listening to the song.
00:06:23.560 If you can't imagine the national anthem being performed as troops are marching off into battle, then it's not a good performance.
00:06:30.760 Finally, we get, I mean, nothing could ever top this.
00:06:41.660 This performance will live in infamy.
00:06:43.880 This is Fergie at the NBA All-Star Game in 2018.
00:06:49.180 Go ahead.
00:06:49.540 Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
00:07:16.540 I don't think, there have been some really bad ones that people will nominate as the worst.
00:07:28.040 I mean, the Roseanne performance we didn't even put up.
00:07:29.980 I don't think anyone gets quite as bad as that, and that's a national tragedy.
00:07:41.600 That is a, that's like Pearl Harbor.
00:07:44.300 That is Pearl Harbor in music form.
00:07:46.360 Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner...
00:07:56.240 I think we should at least talk about charges of treason for anyone who performs the national anthem that poorly.
00:08:03.100 And if I was the theocratic fascist dictator of the country, and you performed like that, they're going to haul you off the court and throw you in prison.
00:08:14.760 That's what needs to happen.
00:08:16.960 So, don't sing the national anthem like that today, but do enjoy yourself.
00:08:21.520 Now that we've afflicted all that on you, have a happy July 4th.
00:08:25.040 God bless America.
00:08:25.740 And a home of the free.