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The National Anthem Connection
The American, Austro-Hungarian & British Flags
When some people hear this melody, they think of an Anglican hymn. Others recall a string quartet by Joseph Haydn. And others hear the German national anthem.
In fact, the tune has served all three purposes, but surprisingly its origins lie in the British national anthem, “God Save the King.”
In this hour, the curious and intertwined stories behind these two familiar tunes, and the ways they have been used and misused for the past two centuries.
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THE American folk singer Carolyn Hester was playing the Greenwich Village venue, Gerde’s Folk City, one night in 1961. She introduced a song, Lonesome Tears, by saying it had been taught to her by its author, Buddy Holly. “Before you know it,” she recalls in an interview for the new edition of Uncut magazine, “ somebody in this little hat pulled his chair up to almost beside me. He said, ‘Is that true about Buddy Holly? I just think the world of him. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Bob Dylan’.” Six months later, Dylan hitch-hiked to a club in Boston where she was playing, and talked the manager into letting him open for her. Dylan went on to play harmonica on three of the songs on Hester’s next album.