Illinois Hits 206

We interrupt the Holiday Fest currently in progress so that we my bring you this special posting.  The Holiday Fest will return soon -- like this evening.  This afternoon, though, we honor the State of Illinois on the 206th anniversary of it being admitted to the Union in 1818.  Huzzah!

In honor of it as the true birthplace of America, or at least of me, we do have music, so those of you who miss the latest installment of holiday songs at least have something to hold on to.  It's the state song, "Illinois," quite an aptly-named title, I must say.  It's also often know as "By Thy Rivers Gently Flowing," the song's first line, which adds a bit of grace to something otherwise more perfunctory.  There's a lovely chorus that sings along, very slowly as if it was a religious hymn.  For all I know, that's what they songwriters intended, rather than something to rouse the spirits -- or not.  Hymn-like does make it lovely, albeit interminable.  I have a feeling that it's all because of the word "Thy."  When you put "Thy" in a song, people are going to sing it like a hymn.  And if you give people a hymn and make it long-enough, there's a reasonable chance they'll turn it into a dirge.  And that's precisely what the dirge-like version I posted in 2018 for the state's 200th birthday was.  

(By the way, I still have zero idea why on earth that video was titled, "Illinois, Worth Fighting For."  I wasn't aware it was under attack.  Not when the song was written, not in the intervening years and not now.  Unless you count by people from Wisconsin driving down on tractors wearing their cheeseheads.  But that usually isn't legally considered an act of war.  Then again, that 2017 video turned out to have other problems with it I noted later -- like pictures of presidents born in the state for Republicans Ulysses S. Grant and Ronald Reagan but not Barack Obama, a photo of Republican Speaker of the House Henry Hyde forced to resign in scandal disgrace, and a graphic of Trump Tower.  So, good riddance!)  

Here is a significantly shorter, 1-minute orchestral, rousing version that is played like a state's anthem should be played!

And for those who want to sing along, I'll post the lyrics to the first verse below.  You're welcome!
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By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois,
O’er the prairies verdant growing, Illinois, Illinois,
Comes an echo o’er the breeze.
Rustling through the leafy trees,
And its mellow tones are these, Illinois, Illinois,
And its mellow tones are these, Illinois.