Only in America is the most influential songwriter a slave-owning trial lawyer with exactly one hit. Worse, Francis Scott Key stole the melody from a British pub hymn that had been lingering in the 19th-century equivalent of the public domain. The lyrics, all about him watching the Yankees and the Redcoats bomb the shit out of each other for a whole day in Baltimore, could have carried the 19th-century equivalent of a parental advisory, too.
It took a century and an act of Congress for the Star-Spangled Banner to become the American standard, which would seem proof of how catchy it isn’t. Without school drills or Whitney Houston or the constant drumbeat of patriotism, likely, the Banner reverts to scribbles on a page decades ago. It got Peter Nicks thinking: “If you could imagine an anthem for today, what would that be and how would you do it?” That’s the hand-on-heart question at the center of Anthem, a Hulu documentary from Nicks on the journey to make a fight song that reflects the country’s tortured soul.
