No, not really. Ha-ha! But boy, did the 63-year-old rocker abuse the National Anthem at the start of yesterday’s Patriots-Ravens game. We were all sitting on the front porch at my mom and dad’s house after lunch when a horrible screeching sound came from inside the house. We thought one of the kids might be hurt, or a cat had got into the house and was stuck somewhere. I went inside to investigate, and it turns out someone had left the TV on, and there was this elderly man on screen, looking like a bag lady and sounding like a tomcat who’d gotten his goolies caught in a vise:
Steven Tyler hates America
27 Responses to Steven Tyler hates America
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LUKE1732 says:
Rod,
I think you should do a post sometime on this very trend – how the singing of the National Anthem at public events has morphed from everyone present singing along with a marching band version of an actual “anthem” to an increasingly bizarre form of performance art where those present are reduced to passive spectators. I’m not sure what it all means but I’m pretty sure it’s not good.
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MargaretE says:
I don’t get what all the hoopla’s about. You hire Steven Tyler to sing the national anthem… you get Steven Tyler, singing the national anthem. That’s exactly what he sounds like. What did people expect?
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Chris Jones says:
Tyler demonstrated that one does not actually have to be able to, you know, sing in order to be the lead vocalist of a rock-and-roll band (where “sing” is defined as emitting the correct notes in sequence, with an intonation that is somewhere in the vicinity of the correct frequency for each note).
I cavil, however, at the description of Tyler as “elderly.” First of all, “old” is always and everywhere defined as “fifteen years older than me,” which means that Tyler wouldn’t be “old” unless he were in his 70s. Secondly, calling him “elderly” suggests that Tyler looks as bad as he does because he is old, when the truth is that he has always looked that way.
I’ve loved New England ever since I moved here in the late 90s, but there are some things about the local culture I just can’t relate to. One of them certainly is New Englanders’ undying devotion to Aerosmith, a “local band made good” whose charm has always eluded me. (Another is the delusion — no doubt induced by mass hypnosis — that Dunkin’ Donuts sells great-tasting coffee. I think there must be a state law here in the Commonwealth which defines the maximum distance between Dunkin’ Donuts outlets at a quarter-mile. And every one of them has a line of cars at the drive-through that stretches into the street and snarls traffic. I just don’t get it.)
Oh, well. Go Pats!
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Brad says:
Yeah. Heh. Well that was just Steven Tyler singing as he has for decades now (voice all raspy and raw) without the bands music for cover. Maybe they ought to start picking out budding young American and as-yet-not-famous artists instead of tired old hacks decades past their prime … . Go home Steven. Time to close the gate.
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Charles Cosimano says:
Well, considering that the National Anthem cannot be sung sober…
But one question. Who is Steven Tyler?
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David J. White says:
I’ve never understood this business of having self-important “celebrities” sing the national anthem at sporting events. Call me crazy, but since it’s the *national* anthem, can’t it it just be sung by the people, with the stadium organ or recorded music as accompaniment? The lyrics could be projected on the scoreboard. Put it in the key of G, which, according to Garrison Keillor, is the “people’s key”. So what if it’s “too hard” for some people? At least make an effort. Trying to sing the national anthem is one of those minimal bits of participation in our national civic liturgies that everyone should be expected to do, like voting.
Occasionally, for variety, local church or school choirs or *local* soloists (e.g., the winner of a contest held for local high school singers) could be asked to sing it. But I guess I really resent the way the national anthem has become one more opportunity for self-iimportant “celebrities” to promote themselves. I suppose I should be happy that we haven’t yet reached the point (or if we have, I’m glad I haven’t been paying attention) of explicit corporate sponsorship of the national anthem — “And now, Taco Bell present the national anthem!” But maybe I shouldn’t say anything; I may have just given some marketing department an idea. Blech.
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apt9 says:
I agree, though I’m having a hard time understanding why everyone seems so surprised by this. As a musician, I find that most singers chosen for the national anthem are pretty bad…
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EngineerScotty says:
If Tyler were on American Idol as a contestant rather than as a judge, he’d be told to dream on…
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TWylite says:
So you’re saying the dude looks like a lady? Someone should write a song about that.
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tbraton says:
I listened and didn’t find it nearly as objectionable as you did, although he let himself go a bit over the top toward the end. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the great Jose Feliciano who opened the door back in 1968 by singing the National Anthem in a nontradional way, which opened the door to endless variations we have heard ever since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shpJ-sRUB-8 Although Feliciano’s version is nontraditional, I still think it is one of the great versions of all time, even though it was very controversial at the time and still remains so. (See comments following my link.) The versions I find most objectionable are the ones that seek to jazz it up. Sorry, folks, but it is patriotic music, not jazz or R&B (both of which I like). Feliciano’s version came in 1968, the height of the Vietnam War, which explains much of the controversy it generated and the divided reaction it received.I’m also surprised you didn’t remark on the U.S. military plane flying over at the conclusion of Tyler’s singing. You just can’t have the singing of the National Anthem or the playing of a football game without a display of military might.
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SEAN CARLSON says:
It was pretty bad. But then the singing of our national anthem at such events has pretty much been in the toilet for some time.
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Jaybird says:
Say whatever you want about what a clownish figure Steven Tyler is these days, the fact remains that Toys in the Attic is one of the best straight-up rock-n-roll records ever recorded. Lifetime pass.
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Roland de Chanson says:
I was just preparing my pre-game collation of Cabernet and Brie when I heard the feral caterwauling from the kitchen. Thinking my wife had stepped barefoot into an unseen pile of merde du chien I rushed into the séjour only to find it was that person parodying the national anthem. “Who’s she?” I asked.
Just joking. It was beer and pizza, not Cabernet and Brie.
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Judith says:
You said it Charles Cosimano. The scene in “The Magnificent Seven,” where some brainless dope is about to engage James Coburn in a shooting match, and another shiftless neredowell keeps laughing about it in a mechanical raucus fashion? WIsh I could duplicate it online….
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Are you sure Liv is his daughter? I mean, how could someone as hideous as he sire someone as gorgeous as she?
Personally, I think they should have gotten Stephen Tyler to play Elrond in Lord of the Rings; pity Peter Jackson doesn’t listen to my casting advice.
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J says:
New Englanders have a peculiar sense of humor.
Often the only way to get an annoying public figure to go away is to put him on stage and let him embarrass himself thoroughly. Mission Accomplished, I say.
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sal magundi says:
so ok, yeah, people don’t like the sound of an aging rocker. but could we cut the anthem singing entirely? please.
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JonF says:
The anthem is fundamentally unsingable, except by a well-trained opera diva.
Add to that the fact that the tune come from an English drinking song that celebrated an ancient Greek poet who liked fresh-faced boys, and I think it’s time to retire it in favor something that those citizens who can carry a tune in a bucket might stand a chance of singing.
Please don’t tell anyone in Baltimore I said that. The anthem celebrates the battle of Ft McHenry, our one claim to history around here unless you count the pro-secessonist riot that geeeted Union troops in April of 1861. -
“so ok, yeah, people don’t like the sound of an aging rocker. but could we cut the anthem singing entirely? please.”
But what will accompany the military fly-over if we dispense with the National Anthem? The 1812 Overture? Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss?
We cannot have a capella military displays. It just won’t do. -
johan says:
I think Tyler passed his ‘sell-by’ date years ago. These aged rockers should just retire and move to Florida or someplace.
And I’m with Mr White above: why does a celebrity need to be brought it for the anthem? When I was a kid the whole stadium just sang it together, without any song leader. -
dominick amendola says:
i find it funny that the crowd didn’t boo because he’s from boston
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pentamom says:
“Personally, I think they should have gotten Stephen Tyler to play Elrond in Lord of the Rings; pity Peter Jackson doesn’t listen to my casting advice.”
You forget that one of the signal characteristics of Elves is that they are fair to look upon.
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Yes, Liv is his daughter. Obviously, her mom is a knockout, and Liv inherited all of those genetic traits and not so many of Steven’s.
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Lulu says:
Fellas, please: Steve was a hottie (in that androgynous 1970s way) back in the day.
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Mitchell Young says:
He needed Run DMC out there.
“…there was this elderly man on screen, looking like a bag lady and sounding like a tomcat who’d gotten his goolies caught in a vise.” Ha ha. I love your similes!