Jerusalem vs God save the Queen - which is the better 'England' national anthem?

[Del Fenner]

"There are jewels in the crown of England's glory...."

"There are jewels in the crown of England's glory...."

 

[The Spanish]

Despise GSTQ. An absolute Dirge. Made even worse by the ****ing England band playing it incessantly. I want to sing about my country, not the ****ing royal family.

Dirge bingo!!!!

 

[The Spanish]

You'd have to be a total idiot to even ask this question. A national anthem is supposed to unite a nation. Ours alienates the one third who are republicans and the significant number who don't believe in God. And it sounds dreadful.

It's a terrible national anthem. The French, Germans and Americans all have properly uplifting anthems. Where's ours?

Two revolutionary anthems and one country who's recent past is intrinsically linked with the worst genocide in human history. Yes why can't we be more like them instead of settling for slightly deferential stability?

 

[Simster]

Two revolutionary anthems and one country who's recent past is intrinsically linked with the worst genocide in human history. Yes why can't we be more like them instead of settling for slightly deferential stability?

Christ that really is feeble.

Two countries had a revolution 200 years ago. So what? Are you saying that the price of changing our national anthem is to have a revolution? As if the population of either country is unhappy that those revolutions ever happened. Jesus.

And we shouldn't have a national anthem as uplifting as the German one because otherwise we might be linked to terrible genocide. Well we wouldn't want that would we? Otherwise other countries might start to dislike the UK for similar reasons eh. *cough* Boer war *cough* India *cough cough* Ireland, parts of Africa, Palestine etc etc

 

[Monkey Man]

No affection for GSTQ but my god, Jerusalem is a bloody awful song. Not least for its use of the word "builded".

 

[The Modfather]

Jerusalem, unless it's the Sex Pistols, GSTQ

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Jerusalem, unless it's the Sex Pistols, GSTQ

Pub?

 

[The Modfather]

Pub?

Not tonight. How about next week?

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Not tonight. How about next week?

Yeah fine, game of jukebox then?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Dirge bingo!!!!

Maybe it is the most appropriate description.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

What's even worse than merely hearing absolutely any recorded playout of the United Kingdom's embarrassing, joyless and irrelevant dirge is hearing it being murdered for real, by (a) the crowd at any England fixture and (b) the England 'band'.

Exhibit (a) somehow manages always to sound like a bunch of rent-a-mob drunks bussed in at the last-minute by the BNP. It's simply impossible not to imagine every one of them as a St George's flag-waving, lobotomised racist. How else can you explain their need to sing along with this tedious, totally ludicrous piece of non-music?

Exhibit (b) is simply a crime against humanity; a grotesque obscenity that violates the ears of anyone unfortunate enough to hear their pathetic attempt at playing something that's actually of nursery rhyme simplicity. At least the Portsmouth Sinfonia knew they were rubbish. It's as if the England 'band' had never been introduced to the taxing concept of harmony, that you don't all have to play the melody line as if all your instruments are glued together. In their case, it would be better if no-one played the melody line. Or anything else.

Given England's pretty impressive musical heritage, how on earth can things have ever got to this point?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I vow to thee my country.

 

[Keith the Kipper]

Let's just face it us footy fans are pretty rubbish at singing our anthems. If you look at any of the six nation home rugby games the singing of their anthems make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up ( In best singing order they are ; Wales , Italy , France , Scotland , Ireland and England - might be better if Jerusalem ! )

 

[BensGrandad]

I vow to thee my country.

I agree that is the best

 

[W.C.]

This sums it up for me.

The ENGLAND team should have something which is:
1. Unique to England - so not GSTQ
2. Is a rousing call to arms - so not GSTQ, officially the most unrousing tune ever
3. Is well known enough that it can be sung by the majority of the crowd

To me this leaves us with Jerusalem or, possibly, Land of Hope & Glory.

It's the SWELLING nature of Jerusalem that I like. Builds up to a ROUSING crescendo.

On the subject of dirges though, I think the Japanese or Spanish national anthems could battle it out with GSTQ.