( Edit Feb 22, 2021: This page has bugged me for years & I finally changed it after all this time. I vividly remember when I wrote this the first time & couldn’t figure out how to get from where I was to where I wanted to go. I had been thinking about the news concerning Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings that had come out at the time & my brain latched on to it. It was such a weirdly out of place joke, & out of character for both of these two, but I was on a deadline so I went with what I had. Strangely this edit came so easily I was surprised I never thought of it before. Of course at the time of the original I was getting angry people messaging me, so I dug my heels in instead of looking at things dispassionately. In any case, since this isn’t in the only book I don’t feel like I’m cheating anyone by editing it. I’m just doing what I like with my own work. Thank you, George Lucas, for setting the precedent. )

By some strange coincidence I mentioned Michael Jackson in my blog post the day before he died.  I wanted to mention it because I had a link that explained the probability of doing that.  Of course now that I need it I don’t have the link since it wasn’t part of what I saved when I reformatted my hard drive.  If I find it I’ll add it to this post, or maybe link it on twitter. 

Now, on to what I really wanted to talk about.

I don’t know why this page brings this to mind, but do you guys know The Song Of The Volga Boatmen?  You probably do even if you don’t know it by name.  It’s the song people use whenever they want to hammer home the point of something being Russian.  Every country has one.  A defining song.  A lot of the time it’s the national anthem.  Canada and the U.S. are usually musically defined by theirs.  Rule Britannia, or God Save The King/Queen is typically what you hear for England.  I err on the side of Rule Britannia because America stole the tune for one of our songs…  Much like we did with our national anthem.  In our defense we were just upholding a long tradition of stealing shit from other people that started long before we decided to get all national about things.  But I digress…

What I want to know is the names of the songs for every place else.  Most of the Asian countries just get that little Nuh nu nu nu Nuh Nuh nu nu Nuuuuuh.  Is that from a song?  Does it have a title? 

When a television show wants to show you that you’ve been transported to a given country what music will they use is what I am asking? 

I have a short list here, please feel free to help me fill in other places:

U.S. – Star Spangled Banner

Canada – Oh, Canada

England – Rule Britannia

France – La Marseillaise

Australia – Waltzing Matilda

Mexico – Mexican Hat Dance

Russia – Song Of The Volga Boatmen