NH National Anthem

NH Exit
#1

The FSP posted this video by Justin O’Donnell:

This old “Live Free or Die” song is catchy. It should be modified. It’s about “guiding America”. Change “country” and “America” to “New Hampshire”, take out the talking part and it might work.

Interestingly, information about it is quite hard to find online. Apparently it was bought for the campaign of former governor Meldrim Thomson Jr:

There’s another song on the B-side of the album called “Keep NH #1”, no idea what it sounds like.

Are there any other good possible NH anthems? We’ve gotta stop people from singing the national anthem and chanting “USA” at events, and replacing it with something NH-centric might do the trick.

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#2

I’ve transcribed the lyrics here, replacing “country” with “New Hampshire” in spots. Also replaced “Yankee” with “Peaceful”. Cutting out the guy talking leaves a simple tune that clocks in at just one minute. We can easily replace the pledge off allegiance and national anthem with this, IMO. Thoughts?

Live free or die,
Don’t let the freedom pass you by,
Stand up proud and strong,
And lead New Hampshire on.

Live free or die,
From the village green to the mountain side,
Peaceful voices sing,
The song of liberty!

In 1623 she touched the hand of history,
Led the colonies on,
Independence was won.

And the spirit lives today,
To guide New Hampshire on her way,
Independent and free,
The home of liberty.

Live free or die,
Don’t let the freedom pass you by,
Stand up proud and strong,
And lead New Hampshire on.

Live free or die,
From the village green to the mountain side,
Peaceful voices sing,
The song of liberty!

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#3

I think changing " and the spirit lives today" to “and the spirit lives on” might be better. But either way it looks amazing.

#4

More feedback from some random person who is against COVID mandates: “Good lines, but I don’t think “lead New Hampshire on” resonates”… just some feedback…

#5

I really like it. I agree about “lead New Hampshire on,” but have nothing better to suggest at the moment. I can see that “today” rhymes with “way.” Maybe “And the spirit’s strong today”? Might that work?

#6

Does the person know it used to say “lead this country on”? The whole point of this is to have an anthem about New Hampshire that people can sing instead of nationalistic stuff. It’s not the greatest song in the world, but it’s about NH and I made some tweaks to make it more about NH. Maybe someone could write a better one, but this what we have for now.

No, it wouldn’t rhyme if you changed it like that, nor would the syllables match.

#7

500 of these will be on-hand for this Thursday’s rally in Concord - 2pm at the Legislative Office Building.

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Thanks to NH native Bill Barger for the graphic design: https://twitter.com/billisajoke

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#8

I like the fact that it’s an existing song and that Governor Thompson wrote it… as opposed to something new.

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