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"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=God Bless America and Kate Smith )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=God Bless America (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress )〕 "God Bless America" takes the form of a prayer (intro lyrics "as we raise our voices, in a solemn prayer") for God's blessing and peace for the nation ("...stand beside her and guide her through the night..."). ==History== Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called ''Yip Yip Yaphank'', so he set it aside.〔 *Collins, Ace. ''Songs Sung, Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America's Best-Loved Patriotic Songs''. HarperResource, 2003, p. 82-83.〕 The lyrics at that time included the line "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America..."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=God Bless America (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress )〕 as well as "Stand beside her and guide her ''to the right'' with the light from above".〔("From Peace To Patriotism: The Shifting Identity Of 'God Bless America'" ). Interview of Sheryl Kaskowitz by Robert Siegel. NPR.org. 2 September 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2013.〕 Music critic Jody Rosen says that a 1906 Jewish dialect novelty song, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band," contains a six-note fragment that is "instantly recognizable as the opening strains of "God Bless America"". He interprets this as an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=www.rebootstereophonic.com )〕 Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes. In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish and a Russian immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song," and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show.〔("Flyers History - Kate Smith" ) on FlyersHistory.com website. Accessed in 2007.〕 Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer." (In her first broadcast of the song, Kate Smith sang "that we're far from there" rather than "for a land so fair".)〔 This was changed when Berlin published the sheet music in March 1939.〔 Woody Guthrie criticized the song, which he considered unrealistic and complacent, and in 1940 he wrote "This Land Is Your Land," originally titled "God Blessed America For Me," as a response.〔http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6303117/God_Bless_America〕 Anti-Semitic groups such as the Ku Klux Klan also protest the song due to its authorship by a Jewish immigrant.〔 In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical ''This is the Army'' along with other Berlin songs. The manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. Berlin gave the royalties of the song to the God Bless America Fund for redistribution to the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA. Smith performed the song on her two NBC television series in the 1950s and in her short-lived ''The Kate Smith Show'' on CBS, which aired on CBS from January 25 to July 18, 1960.〔 "God Bless America" also spawned another of Irving Berlin's tunes, "Heaven Watch The Philippines," during the end of World War II after he heard the Filipinos sing a slightly revised version of the song replacing "America" with "The Philippines." The song was used early in the Civil Rights Movement as well as at labor rallies.〔 During the 1960s, the song was increasingly used by Christian conservatives in the US to signal their opposition to secular liberalism and to silence dissenters who were speaking in favor of communism or in opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.〔 Later, from December 11, 1969,〔 through the early 1970s, the playing of Smith singing the song before many home games of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers brought it renewed popularity as well as a reputation for being a "good luck charm" to the Flyers〔 long before it became a staple of nationwide sporting events.〔 The Flyers even brought Smith in to perform live before Game 6 of the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals on May 19, 1974, and the Flyers won the Cup that day.〔〔Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'' (New York: Penguin Books, 4th ed., 1996), pp. 446-447〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「God Bless America」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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