Swing low??????????????????????
There's a nice 'localist' movement in England, partly as a reaction to similar movements in Scotland and Wales. For 200 years England has been both England and Britain, while the other two entities have been parts of Britain. Sort of like the Trinity, where Jesus and Jehovah have their own personalities while the Parakeet is the whole thing and part of the whole thing at the same time. Weird.

The movement includes finding a new anthem for soccer games. National teams for Scotland and Wales have been singing their own songs, while England's national team has to sing God Save The Queen, which nominally applies to the whole shebang. Or s/hebang for the current genderless kinqueen thingamajig.

Most of the choices are dull. In this clip, a choir sings a few lines from each. Astonishingly, one of the choices is Swing low sweet chariot.

Huh? That song was attributed to Uncle Wallace Willis, a slave owned by Cherokees in Oklahoma. How can you connect it with England?

Thinking of Okla led me immediately to a more appropriate thought. Okla itself had a crashingly awful** state song until 1953 when it smartly chose the lively Rogers & Hammerstein tune. Because R&H were New Yorkers they didn't understand anything west of the Hudson, but their song does manage to connect with one or two actual Okla things. Most of all it's GODDAMN FUN to sing.

England should follow the same principle. My Fair Lady is full of potential anthems. Little bit of luck is the essence of England, and just right for a Sport Event. Or Loverly. Or with slight modification to fit modern English realities, Why can't a man be more like a woman?

= = = = =

** How awful was it? The last line is

Tis a toast we all can quaff.

Unquestionably the worst last line of any song published or unpublished or imagined. No possible competition. On top of that, Okla was officially dry during the years when this song was in effect, so quaffing a toast "where the vintage hangs thick on the vine" would put you in jail.

My father, who learned the song in school, enjoyed singing it to illustrate why the R&H number was so happily welcomed. But his version ended with You're the state we love the best. He didn't sing the quaff line. Makes me think there was a 'clean and sober' school version that didn't recommend illegal activities.
  ¶ 3:23 AM