Luckily, I don’t think anyone attending their citizenship interview test has ever been asked to sing the national anthem – you just need to know it’s name – the Star Spangled Banner – a poem written in 1814 by a lawyer. I wonder what the US theme song was in the missing years? It has a range of 1.5 octaves, which makes it a tricky ditty to belt out, but I guess that’s what happens when you adopt the works of a British song designed for a gentleman’s club called the Anacreontic Society. And I think gentleman’s clubs were a little different in those days, and didn’t involve lunch specials and three dollar well drinks.
