Before a baseball game in Newton, Ray Nicodemus sings the "Star-Spangled Banner." The words he sung might not be familiar to a lot of people, because he chose to sing a different verse than the one you're probably familiar with.
"The announcer at the ballgame made a little fun of it," Nicodemus remembers. "He said, 'Ray's going to sing the fourth verse so don't try to sing along with him!'"
The "Star-Spangled Banner" has four verses in it, but the first verse is the one sung before major sporting events and other engagements.
Ray chose to sing the fourth verse because he says it has more meaning for him. A video of him singing the song was posted on the Newton Kansan's website.
"I just think it's a verse that isn't heard, and isn't heard near enough and most Americans don't know it."
Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the War of 1812 after the Battle of Fort McHenry. The poem was actually originally titled "Defense of Fort McHenry." The poem gained popularity quickly and was later put to music.
The melody chosen was "The Anacreontic Song", by English composer John Stafford Smith. The song was a popular drinking song of students at Harvard at the time. President Woodrow Wilson was the first president to order the song be used at military functions and official occasions in 1916. President Hubert Hoover signed a law making the song the official anthem of the United States in 1931.
The complete lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner"
O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
