In April 1814, the Sixth Coalition defeated the French at Toulouse, finally forcing the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor. The war in Europe was finally over, so the victorious British Empire could finally turn its attention to North America. The result would not only drastically change America’s fortunes in the ongoing War of 1812, it would lead to the modern equivalent of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” becoming the U.S. national anthem.
The Star-Spangled Banner Emerged From Fort McHenry
For the first two years of the War of 1812, Britain, Canadian militias, and Native tribes allied with Britain had been holding off an American invasion of Canada. Fighting Napoleon meant the Empire couldn’t spare the troops needed in the Great Lakes. Well, no more. The tide of the war would soon be turned, as the British sent tens of thousands of battle-hardened veterans of the Peninsular War to the United States.
After expelling American forces from Canada, they sent three expeditions to capture New York, New Orleans, and Baltimore. Fresh from sacking Washington and looting Alexandria, the British turned to do the same to Baltimore. On Sept. 12, 1814, they approached the once-bustling port city. Before they could land troops, however, they had to reduce and capture its key defensive position: Fort McHenry. The next day, the assault began.
For 25 hours, British ships fired as many as 1,800 rockets and cannonballs at the walls of the fort. American lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key watched the spectacle from an American truce ship in the nearby Patapsco River. As he watched, he wrote the verses of what would one day become the United States’ national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The Star-Spangled Banner Was Set to a Drinking Song
For Key, it was a poem entitled “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” a wildly popular one that would be published on pamphlets in the days to come. Key’s brother-in-law, Joseph H. Nicholson, set the poem to a drinking song, a favorite of the London gentlemen’s club, The Anacreontic Society.
The general consensus seems to agree this song was a raunchy drinking song made for the pubs of London, but the consensus is only half right. It was a wildly popular song.
The Anacreontic Society was not a gentleman’s club as we know it today. It did not feature strippers, dollar bills, or private dances. It was named after the Greek poet Anacreon, whose songs often celebrated booze and women, so we can see why it might get that reputation. Its official stated purpose was to promote music, however.
The Star-Spangled Banner Was Never Truly Bawdy
In 1778, the club wrote a “bawdy” song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which was sung after dinner at every meeting. The Anacreons weren’t a secret society, and the tune soon found its way to the public, where it became a banger on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet, despite the lyrics’ mention of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry, there’s not much “bawdy” in it – even by the standards of the day.
The song caught on so much that its tune had already been adapted for different lyrics, including a song supporting the second President of the United States, John Adams. “Adams and Liberty” might have been good for President Adams, but for everyone else, it was just a catchy bop. And while the all-male club was known for drinking alcohol, so was everyone else; the water in London wasn’t safe to drink.
The truth is that, although “Anacreon In Heaven” had the tempo, jauntiness, and refrains of a pub song, it was a celebration of making music that required some skill to perform. It’s just the thing you might expect from the 18th century equivalent of record store hipsters.
And at a time when the true drinking songs of London’s “Grope C*nt Lane” were about “Blue Petticoats or Green Garters,” “The Old Wife,” or “A Lusty Young Smith,” the anthem of The Anachreon Society that became the American national anthem was about a Roman god’s taste for wine and music. Not quite as “bawdy” as we were led to believe.
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