You don’t mess with a national anthem – ever. That’s what someone wise said in the wake of the rogue Tenor changing the lyrics to Canada’s anthem at MLB’s All-Star game earlier this week.
Oh wait a minute – that wise person was me! (tee hee) Not only did Remigio Pereira alter some of the lyrics to suit his own political agenda, the quartet didn’t even sing the freshly rebooted line that caused such an uproar a few weeks ago. The new lyric is, “in all of us command” and they sang, “in all thy sons command.” Get with it, Tenors!
As the author of a book about celebrity missteps, the London Free Press asked for my take and then put it smack dab on the front page. You can read it by clicking: HERE. As the old Jim Croce song should have gone: You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off that ol’ Lone Ranger and you don’t change the lyrics to O Canada!
Actually the line they sang or injected was “all lives matter” based on the versions I’ve heard replayed. It wouldn’t have been a problem had they stuck to the old version but they got into the political hot topic of the day.
On a personal note, I think the revised version tries to be too politically correct and likely should have been “in all that we command”, but that would have made sense.
Yes. My comment was that in addition to altering that line, they also didn’t get the memo that the other line had changed by parliamentary assent.