I follow a group on Facebook that shares misheard song lyrics. One that comes up a lot is from people who as kids wondered what a “donzerly light” was.

I never had that problem, because when I was a kid, my dad got me a record of patriotic songs with a lyrics sheet and the Star Spangled Banner got a little intro about how Francis Scott Key wrote it during the War of 1812 and set to the tune of a song about wine. It talked a little bit about how Congress passed a resolution making it the national anthem in 1931.

It did not, to my recollection, talk about how Key was a lawyer, owned slaves (leading some to say the song was about “the land of the free and the home of the enslaved”), or almost became an Episcopalian minister. It definitely did not mention that his kid had an affair with Dan Sickles’ wife or how Sickles killed him and was acquitted thank to the first use of the temporary insanity defense. It didn’t talk about how F. Scott Fitzgerald was Key’s namesake, or explain why the Key Bridge in Washington goes to Virginia instead of Maryland, where Key lived.

It also didn’t talk about how hard that song is to sing. I can’t tell you how many sporting events I’ve been to where these little Honey Boo Boo gals would trot out in too much makeup and sequins and butcher the anthem. I used to joke about calling social services on their mothers for allowing it. But then I’ve also heard it done magnificently: played on the violin, and once by an opera tenor.  I think the best rendition I ever heard was at Fenway when an a capella group of cops knocked it out of the park (hahaha, sorry); that was incredible.

And the anthem also creates camaraderie in unexpected ways—at Orioles games, the fans stress the “O;” at Capitals games, they stress the “red.” I assume other teams have other traditions, but these are the two I was part of the longest.

Being in marching band for high school and college, I played that song a lot. Now, don’t get me wrong, I never gave myself chills or anything, but it was one of the few songs that never got old despite the fact that I could literally play in my sleep. (A roommate attested to this; she watched my hands move and asked me when I woke up what song “goes like this” and wiggled her fingers, and I knew immediately.)

I suppose it is old-fashioned and in bad taste these days to celebrate things like the national anthem or patriotism or this nation’s history; it feels like a lot of people just want to burn it all down. I’m not even sure if they want to start over or just sit in the ashes and wait for something else to come along. Like so many things, the history behind the tradition has its bright spots and dark sides. As always, I will come down on the side of optimism and say tradition is important to maintain—to celebrate the bright spots and disinfect the dark sides.