The Fray butchers the National Anthem

[Fever]

The Fray sang the Star Spangled Banner tonight at the NCAA basketball championship.I thought it was pretty bad

 

[ILoveJimmyPage]

I couldn't even finish it. What the heck was that, a remix?

(Sorry Soots)

 

[Soot and Stars]

I don't see how that was bad. It sounded like The Fray singing the National Anthem. If you know the groups sound they adapted it to the anthem and they definitely weren't off key or anything that would signify bad singing.

 

[ILoveJimmyPage]

I respectfully disagree Soots. I know you're a fan, but you just don't change up the national anthem like that. It's best when performed in its stripped state, simple and respectfully. That was just strange.

 

[Lynch]

who the F is "The Fray"?

 

[Soot and Stars]

I respectfully disagree Soots. I know you're a fan, but you just don't change up the national anthem like that. It's best when performed in its stripped state, simple and respectfully. That was just strange.

I'm not a real fan of them actually but that was pretty harmless.

 

[Lynch]

harmless, yes

brutal? definitely. Sorry, there are some things that shouldn't be F'd with and the National Anthem is one of those things. It's one thing to put a little bit of yourself into a live rendition that you sing at some sporting event, however, aside from the final 10 seconds, they did everything they could to re-invent the entire song aside from the lyrics. Brutal to the n'th degree in my eyes and by the pain in my ears, it'll be a while before I forget this.

I'd rather listen to Chrissy Aguilera screw up the lyrics.
I'd rather listen to Steven Tyler screw up the lyrics.
I'd rather listen to Rosanne Barr butcher the song with her brutal voice
I'd rather listen to old people hump
I'd rather listen to Nirvana's entire catalog followed by Coldplay's entire catalog

Ok, scratch that last one, but the other 4 for sure. Ish. This was terribad and unnecessary.

Just my own (not-so-humble) opinion.


/off_soapbox

 

[METALPRIEST]

eh...what WAS out of key was not the singing but the guitar and the singing together. There were moments where is sounded like they were doing two different things. Probably should have rehearsed it more.

 

[TheSound]

I'm with Sooty on this one. In fact I'd go further and say that I like it. All I'm hearing/seeing here is four kids with guitars giving their own acoustic/folksy take on it, totally fine with me, in fact it's a nice contrast to the usual howling pop divas and 3rd raters they normally invite to sing the anthem, and who most times end up just using the occasion to demonstrate their ghastly vocal pyrotechnics to a big TV audience. Yeah and like The Fray are the first band in music history to maybe sing out of tune for a bar or two!?? I'm all for singers re-inventing stuff, it shows they have an active and creative mind and aren't just stuck in the usual rut, it's called improvisation, and many of the greatest musicians did it all the time, so to me it's like knocking Slash (who does national anthems a lot, and in multiple countries, I've heard him doing USA, UK, Canada, and Australia!) or the great Jimi Hendrix for doing this astonishing thing (below) and saying that they were butchering it. So more power to The Fray, I don't know them but they sound like a nice combo to my ears, and the crowd at the game seemed to love it...

 

[Lynch]

Probably shouldn't have done that at all

Fixed.




I don't liken this performance to what Jimi did at woodstock because that was a concert, not a single/solo performance of the national anthem at a sporting event. Does the sporting event have different rules? Probably nothing written down, but I think there's an unwritten assumption that when asked to perform, you don't bastardize and butcher the country's "Theme Song".

I have no issues with them doing something like this in their own shows, on their own album, etc. But in the setting it was, I think it was terribly out of place and sounded awful on top of it.

Again, JM2CW