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Francis Scott Key 298 Views


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Description:

This guy wrote the most famous song in American history. Sorry, Gaga.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:08

Oh say can you Francis Scott Key...

00:13

Francis Scott Key here.

00:14

Even if you don’t know me by name, you already know my work.

00:18

Speak of the devil…

00:19

That little ditty is mine. It’s my best known song.

00:22

Far and away more popular than the stuff I wrote during my “blue period.”

00:28

But I wasn’t always such a music industry megastar.

00:30

The “Madonna” of my time. I started out as a lawyer.

00:35

I know, I know… if you had a nickel for every lawyer who turned songwriter.

00:40

Anyway, it fell on my shoulders to secure the release of a civilian prisoner who had

00:44

been taken aboard a British ship.

00:46

And then it was just a matter of “right place, right time.”

00:49

As chance would have it, I wound up with a front row seat

00:52

to the Battle of Baltimore at Fort McHenry.

00:56

There wasn’t much of a call for lawyers out there on the battlefield…

01:01

…so I was detained on the ship while the British carried out their plans to take the fort by sea.

01:07

However, they were a little surprised when they realized the fort wasn’t made out of couch cushions.

01:12

So while I was chillin’ on the ship...

01:14

…the British bombarded the fort through the night.

01:16

Their ships tried to station themselves just outside the range of the fort’s guns…

01:20

… so they just kept firing on the fort without being too worried about enemy fire.

01:24

But… it was pretty dark out there.

01:26

This was pre-floodlights, keep in mind.

01:30

Eventually, the ships came into range of the fort’s guns, and… kablooey!

01:34

The British desperately wanted to get their paws on the fort…

01:37

…as it was a crucial location for US supply lines…

01:40

…but they were outmatched.

01:43

By the dawn’s early light… sound familiar?...

01:46

…I could see that the American flag was waving above the fort.

01:49

It was a little battered and riddled with holes from artillery shells…

01:52

…but at least it was still there.

01:54

The Americans had prevailed. Luckily, I had some paper handy…

01:59

…and I borrowed a pen from some British bloke, who was too depressed to care why I needed it.

02:03

I was totally inspired by what I had seen…

02:05

… and when a poet is inspired, he writes.

02:08

Yeah, okay, I was still a lawyer, but… a very poetic one.

02:13

I started writing our eventual national anthem then and there, on the deck of the British ship.

02:18

Ah, well… what they don’t know, right? Now that the battle had been won…

02:22

…the men under my watch were released at the Baltimore harbor.

02:25

I took a room at a local hotel…

02:27

… might have been a Holiday Inn Express, I don’t recall…

02:30

… and pulled an all-nighter, writing my famous four-verse masterpiece!

02:35

Even if most people only know the first one…

02:38

Fortunately, I was able to get the poem into the hands of the right people…

02:42

…and “The Battle of Fort McHenry” became our national anthem!

02:49

Although they ultimately came up with another title for it – “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

02:54

Whatever. I still like mine better. But hey… whatever sells on iTunes, right?

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