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July 4, 2006

Vindaloo
Posted by Teresa at 11:51 PM * 183 comments

If you’re a Brit you already knew about this ages ago. So sue me.

Anyway, it’s come to my attention that England has one of the world’s all-time great kick-ass fight songs, “Vindaloo”. It may be the best new song for singing en masse by drunks since “Rosin the Bow” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

Here are the lyrics, with helpful commentary. Here’s the earnest and sober Wikipedia entry about it. And here are two amateur videos set to it—you have your pick of snippets of cheesy football animation or Final Fantasy game footage. Either will let you hear the song, which is good because just reading the lyrics won’t tell you a lot.

The beauty part of this song is that it makes almost no sense. Mostly it just involves singing “na na na” over and over again, which is great because it’s fun to sing, and it cuts out the part where you try to remember the lyrics and can’t. If you’re not singing “na na nah”, you’re singing “vindaloo” to the same beat, or “na na nah vindaloo na na nah vindaloo”, which is also fun.

If you’re the sort who remembers lyrics, there are bits of them scattered in amongst the na na nahs and vindaloos, but only a few lines really have to be remembered:

—We’re England

—And we all like vindaloo

and (very important) the line everyone can agree on:

—We’re gonna score one more than you

After which, everyone shouts “ENGLAND!” in unison, and then either the next verse starts or the cameraman falls over.

Update: The original video of Vindaloo by Fat Les is now available on YouTube. It’s not half bad, though it’s slightly less mysterious if you know that it starts out as a parody of the video of Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve.

Comments on Vindaloo:
#1 ::: Tracey C. ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:03 AM:

Very cute. :)

(Now I want a vindaloo/badger mashup, though.)

#2 ::: Clark E Myers ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:24 AM:

I suppose Boola Boola is the sort of thing being parodied but I think the honor of America for making no sense goes to the Rock Chalk Chant of honored memory.

Teddy Roosevelt is reputed to have "pronounced the Rock Chalk Chant ["Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, KU" repeated five times] the greatest college chant he'd ever heard" "Some have likened it to a Gregorian chant"

#3 ::: Rob T. ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:35 AM:

After reading the Takeru Kobayashi hot-dog-eating story then watching some of the linked videos here, the phrase "un chien vindaloo" just naturally came to mind.

#4 ::: Dave Bell ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:55 AM:

They don't allow drunken crowds at football matches any more.

Anyway, who needs a song for drunks, when the supporters of various teams can sing stuff as diverse as Blaydon Races and You'll Never Walk Alone.

And that's only soccer, as you folk call it. You should hear the Welsh at Rugby Union matches.

#5 ::: Lucy Kemnitzer ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 03:26 AM:

I saw this being performed for no reason in the middle of a Bollywood weepy about a dying young man making everybody's wishes come true. I can't remember the name of the movie, naturally. But all of a sudden the movie called time on the regular plot lines and had a weird competition between a little Indian restaurant and a little Chinese restaurant (in Brooklyn? I think so) and even more suddenly they were doing this Vindaloo number. It was really weird at the time, with no context . . . I can't recall what they said instead of "England:" it might well have been "America."

Does this movie ring any bells with anybody?

#6 ::: Rachel ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:29 AM:

Yikes... that is obnoxious. The kind of thing that gets stuck in one's head after running out of leftover Christmas carols.

#7 ::: Charlie Stross ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:58 AM:

I didn't know about it.

But then again, I'm from that part of the UK that traditionally supports (a) Scotland or (b) whoever is playing against England.

#8 ::: Anna Feruglio Dal Dan ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 06:05 AM:

Fat good it did them, neeener neeener :-)

Falls over and wiggles feet in the air in glee.

"Football is that game where eleven play and Germany gets to play the final."

Not if we're around they don't.

(plays whistle, gets on car and drives madly around waving flag.)

#9 ::: Dave Langford ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 06:14 AM:

I knew the thing existed but had never bothered to look up the "lyrics" -- like Charlie, I'm from a part of the UK (Wales) that hopes to kick the shit out of England, at least at rugby.

As for the song, I'm reminded of Terry Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork National Anthem ("We Can Rule You Wholesale"), whose official second verse includes "Ner ner ner" passages in acknowledgment of the tradition that no one remembers any anthem's second verse.

#10 ::: aboulic ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 06:36 AM:

Coincidentally, just last week i was using this song as a basis when I was trying to come up with a suitably inspiring and stirring Bardic Song for use during Dungeons & Dragons games.

It's not finished yet, but I was quite pleased with the new lyric for the "me an' me mum an' me dad an' me gran" bit.

#11 ::: Martyn Drake ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 06:52 AM:

Keith Allen and Damien Hurst - what a combination!

A little history and some other football songs are charted here:

Pop Goes the World Cup

reveals more info, and the battle to win the pop spot of Football songs.

M.

#12 ::: Giacomo ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:02 AM:

Somebody should write a book on football songs... the ones composed for it and, much better, the ones that were shamelessly nicked by fans with adapted lyrics. I suspect something of the sort already exists... In Italy, that list would even include No Woman No Cry.

But who cares. I hereby state that football is that game where 11 play and Italy gets to play the final every 12 years.

(opens the window and shouts MA VIEEEEEENI, to great amusement of the quiet south-Manchester neighbourhood)

#13 ::: Paul ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:23 AM:

Charlie: never understood that attitude. It's not like the English usually support whoever's playing against Scotland.

Mind you, I suspect most of the time Scotland don't really register as significant enough to be against. ;-)

(*hides*)

#14 ::: Dave Weingart ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:47 AM:

I'm thinking that it's a damned shame we don't have songs like this in the US of A. I might actually start paying some attention to pro sports, then.

#15 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:54 AM:

Anna, Giacomo, who could blame you for waving your feet in the air, or screaming "MA VIEEEEEENI!" out the window? That was some spectacular football

Back to the Brits: okay, so you sing at football and rugby matches. Do you have dances?

We had an extremely American day on Monday: a trip to Coney Island for the amusement park and a little dabbling in the Atlantic, then hot dogs at Nathan's, a minor-league baseball game, and a fireworks show.

During the musical intervals they threw in at slow points in the game, I noticed that not only did every kid in the stadium (probably every kid in Brooklyn) know the Macarena, but that some of the kids had a couple of line dances going: a traditional one to "Cotton-Eyed Joe", and one I'd never seen before that combined bits of the cha-cha with an irregular pattern of one-footed stomps and two-footed hops. It was a fan thing.

Anybody else know about that? Does it turn up at games elsewhere, or is it local to New York?

#16 ::: India ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:06 AM:

Recommended: "British Football Chants" by Pete May, from Verbatim XXV:1. You can download the whole issue as a PDF from http://www.verbatimmag.com/25_1.pdf. The article is also reprinted in the book Verbatim, edited by Erin McKean (New York: Harcourt, 2001).

I've never heard any of these songs, being the sort of girl who doesn't care about soccer only slightly more than she doesn't care about any typical U.S. sport, but the article still had me on the floor laughing.

#17 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:16 AM:

Come on, aboulic, don't be a tease; let's hear it.

(In exchange, here's a bit of my friend Cipriano's version of "Thunder Road":

His fireball misfired,
His lightning missed the mark,
And then the party found itself
Encased in Total Dark;
He tried to polymorph them,
The dirty ancient louse,
We did not think it funny
When Sir Kai became a mouse.

And there were dragons, dragons
Flying o'er the road,
Wyverns all around us
And behind us yellow mold--
And there were orcses, orcses
Filling all the woods;
They all jumped upon us
Because we were lawful good.)

#18 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:13 AM:

Lila: I have a tape of that! (Or I used to, anyway. It may still be at my parents' house. I should look for it; "Woad of Harlech" is also lots of fun.) How's he doing?

#19 ::: Martin McCallion ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:21 AM:

I'm slightly disappointed in myself to realise that my first ever comment on Making Light is going to be about football; but it does seem to be much in the air at the moment, so I'll live with it.

Paul, about the thing where Scottish fans support whoever is playing England: I wrote about this recently. In short, it seems to me that it's perfectly normal football-supporter behaviour to support any team that is playing against your team's main rival. Why should that be any different for national teams?

And, hello everybody.

#20 ::: "Charles Dodgson" ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:33 AM:

On baseball songs:

Baseball here used to have more fan involvement than it does nowadays. (Which seems to be the trend for American audiences generally --- at the last Dresden Dolls concert in Boston, their hometown, Amanda Palmer commented from the stage that the trend was palpable even in listening to the audience in live concert recordings from ten or fifteen years ago, vs. now. "Something bad happened in the '90s").

At the turn of the last century, the Red Sox fans had a theme song, "Tessie", which drove other teams to distraction. (One Pittsburgh outfielder was quoted as saying "that damn 'Tessie' song" was at least partially responsible for his team's loss to the Red Sox in the 1903 World Series). This was one of several tactics adopted by fans in a group called the "Royal Rooters", though I don't know if they ever went as far as the choreographed routines I've seen from Japanese baseball fans. At any rate, this all faded away, along with the team's fortunes, and an attempted punk rock revival version of "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys is... not well regarded. What's left is the occasional more topical chant. ("Where is Roger? In the shower!" was the on-the-spot improv chant that greeted the rest of the Yankees when they had to pull Roger Clemens from a game early after a very unsuccessful start).

On the other hand, the PA announcers at Fenway, perhaps more out of laziness than anything else, got into the habit of playing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the eighth --- and fans have adopted it as a singalong. After the Sox beat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, in Yankee Stadium, Red Sox fans present joined in a hearty choral rendition behind the visiting dugout...

#21 ::: Doug ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:41 AM:

Though there's the asymmetry factor in Scotland-England, too. England may be Scotland's biggest rival, but not vice versa. (See also US-Mexico, though the Americans have been winning that enough recently that the US must be gaining in Mexico's rivalry sweepstakes.) I suspect England's biggest rivals are either Argentina or Germany. Germany's biggest are either Brazil or Italy. Brazil's only rivals are previous Brazilian teams.

#22 ::: Ceri ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:46 AM:

Hockey also has a couple of songs, though nothing that's team-specific. "Na na na na/hey hey hey/Goodbye" being a favourite, and also "The Hockey Song" by Stompin' Tom Connors. (You can find the lyrics here -- Yikes. I can't believe Avril Lavigne did a cover of it.)

#23 ::: Elayne Riggs ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:03 AM:

Vindaloo Day for me was July 1. Here's the post in question.

#24 ::: Martyn Drake ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:11 AM:

What I REALLY want to know is why I kept hearing "Go West" (the Village People, Pet Shop Boys) at the end of every game in the World Cup. Someone must be earning some serious royalties right now.

M.

#25 ::: kate ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:43 AM:

Whoever that was with the Bollywood movie, I believe that was _Kal Ho Na Ho_. It's got Sharukh Khan in it. The plot involves a Very Serious Girl who gets taught how to Live by an annoying young man, who (it later becomes clear) is dying (slowly and tragically).

The restaurant part comes in because his girlfriend's restaurant is failing, so he proposes making it into an /actual/ Indian (Hindustani) restaurant, which they do in best 'it is time for a montage' fashion, to the bemusement of the Chinese place across the street.

#26 ::: Faren Miller ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:50 AM:

At some baseball parks, even the trad organ sounds seem to be going out of style. I recently watched a TV showing of a night game between the D'Backs and the A's in Oakland (figuring I could always root for my old home team if the Phoenix guys were making fools of themselves again), and the main "music" was some very enthusiastic bongo and drum from the audience. Much better than those hackneyed rising chords. There were some "Let's go Oak-land" chants, but they fizzled when the A's did.

#27 ::: Jack Ruttan ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 11:15 AM:

What about the "Ha-way oh way oh way oh way" song? That's the one I associate with Foot-ba. (soccer to us). What's its name, anyhow?

#28 ::: Margaret Organ-Kean ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 11:19 AM:

I think the lyrics to "Vindaloo" might be a bit too complicated for some. Here, in the upper left, we cheer on the mighty Dawgs (UW Huskies) with "Tequila". All you have to do is shout "Tequila" three times during the song.

The Mariners play two songs during the seventh inning stretch - the traditional "Take Me Out To the Ballgame" followed by "Louie, Louie". People dance to "Louie, Louie", another song that's a little short in the lyrics department (I think it's "Louie, Louie, we gotta go now" but I'm not sure).

#29 ::: Lucy Kemnitzer ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 12:05 PM:

Kate, thank you, that's it exactly (the movie with the Vindaloo song in it).

I was really puzzled by the song when I saw the movie and I'm really pleased to know it has a background. It all makes sense now. Kind of.

#30 ::: Paul Herzberg ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 12:10 PM:

I don't know if Giacomo wants a book that simply lists all football chants or one that looks in to the history of them. There are plenty of websites that collect them, but I don't think any of them look too deeply into them or their history.

One of my favourites was when Cantona, then at Man Utd and who usually got the chant "Oh ah Cantona (said oh ah Cantona)", was suspended and the opposition fans chanted "Ou est Cantona?".

Also one of the great terrace songs happens to be for Sheffield United, now of the Premiership, which is odd enough to be worth a mention:

The Greasy Chip Butty Song (to the tune of John Denver's 'Annie's Song')
You fill up my senses,
Like a gallon of Magnet,
Like a packet of woodbines,
Like a good pinch of snuff,
Like a night out in Sheffield,
Like a greasy chip butty,
Like Sheffield United,
Come fill me again,
na na na na na na
ooooooo!
oo! oo!

Magnet is (perhaps was) a local Bitter, and it used to be OK, certainly better than Stones, say, or John Smiths.

#31 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 12:18 PM:

Charlie: never understood that attitude. It's not like the English usually support whoever's playing against Scotland.

Perhaps the reason they don't is because the Scots never depopulated a huge swath of England because the land was more productive with sheep than people?

Just speculating.

#32 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 12:26 PM:

Charles Dodgson: I'm no expert on overall fan involvement. I do have a standing gripe, though: when did it become standard to have someone perform the national anthem, instead of leading the crowd in singing it? That's just wrong.

For what it's worth, "Sweet Caroline" was the second song sung during the seventh-inning stretch.

Ceri, absolutely everyone sings "Na na na na/hey hey hey/goodbye". "YMCA" is pretty much universal too.

Margaret:

"Louie Louie, me gotta go. Louie Louie, me gotta go. A fine little girl, she wait for me. Me catch the ship across the sea. I sailed the ship all alone. I never think I'll make it home. Louie Louie, me gotta go. Three nights and days we sailed the sea. Me think of girl constantly. On the ship, I dream she there. I smell the rose in her hair. Louie Louie, me gotta go. Me see Jamaican moon above. It won't be long me see me love. Me take her in my arms and then I tell her I never leave again. Louie Louie, me gotta go."
By me, "Tequila" is just too simple to be a perfect mass participation number. I'll admit to being biased, since I went to a high school that had a notably long, complex, and intermittently surreal fight song. Among other things, it included interludes of chanting "chee-ha, chee-ha-ha", and shouting "oskie-wow-wow".

#33 ::: Lois Fundis ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 12:40 PM:

I posted last February about football fight songs. Of course, this was American football, specifically Pittsburgh Steelers fan-written songs (SF fen might think of it as filk) written in the buildup to the Super Bowl. "Vindaloo" and its kin sound very similar in spirit to such local efforts as "Here We Go Steelers".

College football is not immune to silly lyrics in their official fight songs, either. For example, the classic line in my alma mater's song, "alleghenee, genac, genac, genac". Nor is this anything new: if I recall my freshman indoctrination correctly (it's been mumblety-eight years) the song was written in the pre-WWI era -- 1914, give or take a few -- so it's pretty well great-great-grandfathered in now.

#34 ::: fidelio ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:20 PM:

I expect one reason the fans at Mariners games go for "Louie, Louie" is that the band that made it infamous, the Kingsmen, was a Seattle-based band.

Here in Tennessee, the UT/Vanderbilt football rivalry is ornamented by a Vanderbilt cheer, typically used after UT has either scored, intercepted a Vanderbilt pass, recovered a Vanderbilt fumble, or prevented Vanderbilt from scoring*, that goes "That's all right, that's OK, you'll all work for us some day."

*All of these happen a lot--it was regarded as a dire sign, right up there with blood on the moon, or rivers flowing backwards, when Vanderbilt beat UT, in Knoxville, in 2005.

#35 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:24 PM:

Wikipedia appears to Know All about football chants.

#36 ::: Lisa Goldstein ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:32 PM:

Kate: It's got Sharukh Khan in it.

A bit off the topic, I know, but every single damn Bollywood movie seems to have Sharukh Khan in it. Don't they have other actors in India?

#37 ::: Lucy Kemnitzer ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 01:41 PM:

Teresa, I think that the change in how the anthem is done happened about the time the performers of the anthem started singing it as a dirge instead of as a soaring triumph.

Our anthem is a long way from my favorite patriotic song (that would be "America the Beautiful"), but it's not supposed to be sung as if you're about to break down weeping. And you certainly can't get a crowd to sing along if you're bending every note, playing with the rhythm, and generally performing it as a psychodrama.

#38 ::: Avram ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:02 PM:

Flies in the curry sauce, shoo shoo shoo!
Flies in the curry sauce, shoo shoo shoo!
Flies in the curry sauce, shoo shoo shoo!
Vind a my loo, my darlin'!

#39 ::: Peter Erwin ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:05 PM:

Isn't the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner" supposed to be from an English drinking song in the first place?

#40 ::: Jerol J. ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:09 PM:

As an American baseball fan, the only football/soccer song I am really familiar with is Slade's "When I'm Dancing I Ain't Fighting" but that's not really a chant.

The art of jeering has not died in baseball though. Not too long ago at a game, my wife once entertained our entire section by loudly deriding Derek Jeter's long string of girlfriends every time he came to bat. And this is in Minnesota, not Boston. Oh, the handful of Yankee fans behind us were sooooo pissed.

#41 ::: Rachael de Vienne ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:30 PM:

It's a tad frightening, but the song makes perfect sense to me.

Rachael de Vienne,
Princess of Pixies
Queen of Goats

#42 ::: Avedon ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:33 PM:

Oh, god, that's what it is! I couldn't figure out why people were running around singing about vindaloo....

#43 ::: protected static ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:34 PM:

Peter Erwin -

Isn't the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner" supposed to be from an English drinking song in the first place?

Yes - "To Anacreon in Heaven." (tho' I needed to look up the spelling)

#44 ::: Rachael de Vienne ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:35 PM:

Dear Peter Erwin:

The Star Spangled Banner is set to the tune of To Anacreon in Heaven.

Try singing this to your national anthem:

To Anacreon in heaven where he sat in full glee,
A few sons of harmony sent a petition,
That he their inspirer and patron would be,
When this answer arrived from the jolly old Grecian:
Voice, fiddle aud flute, no longer be mute,
I'll lend you my name and inspire you to boot!
And besides I'll instruct you like me to entwine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.

The news through Olympus immediately flew,
When old Thunder pretended to give himself airs,
If these mortals are suffered their scheme to pursue,
The devil a goddess will stay above stairs,
Hark! already they cry, in transports of joy,
A fig for Parnassus, to Rowley's we'll fly,
And there my good fellows, we'll learn to entwine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.

The yellow-haired god, and his nine fusty maids,
To the hill of old Lud will incontinent flee,
Idalia will boast but of tenantless shades,
And the biforked hill a mere desert will be,
My thunder, no fear on't, will soon do its errand,
And, damn me I'll swinge the ringleaders, I warrant
I'll trim the young dogs, for thus daring to twine
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.

Apollo rose up and said, "Prythee ne'er quarrel,
Good king of the gods, with my votaries below
Your thunder is useless - then showing his laurel,
Cried, Sic evitabile fulmen, you know!
Then over each head my laurels I'll spread,
So my sons from your crackers no mischief shall dread
Whilst snug in their club-room, they jovially twine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.


#45 ::: James Stewart ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 02:54 PM:

There's a song that at least until 24 hours ago was #1 on the German singles charts titled '54, '74, '90, 2006 (the first three dates being years Germany has won the World Cup). Made a pretty decent football chant. Then there's the ever-popular "Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!" Though today I guess it should read Stuttgart.

#46 ::: Clifton Royston ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 03:22 PM:

Wow, that song is Biohazard level 4. It only took one listen to one of those video links for it to engrave itself on my brain for today. Ouch!

Vindaloo! Na na na!

#47 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:03 PM:

Jack Ruttan: The song you're thinking of used to be played at Columbus Crew (soccer team) games.

It was also used by one of the networks to close out its broadcast of World Cup games several years ago.

I believe the lyrics are actually:

Allez, allez, allez, allez -- AH-ah-lez, allez.

I have no idea who wrote it, or who the performers are...

Two more months, and it will be college football time again:

"In old Ohio there's a team that's known throughout the land--
Eleven warriors, brave and bold, whose fame shall ever stand.
And when the ball goes over, our cheers will reach the sky!
Ohio Field will hear again the BUCKEYE BATTLE CRY:

"Drive, drive on down the field,
Men of the Scarlet and Gray!
Don't let them through that line, we have to win this game today -- (OH-HI-OH)
Straight through to victory, we cheer you as you go --
Our honor defend, we will fight to the end for O-HI-O! (State!)"

#48 ::: Jack Ruttan ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:25 PM:

Me trying to speak French here in Quebec, and not knowing that. Thanks, Lori!

#49 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:30 PM:

Jack, you missed a good chance there. You could have thanked her in Japanese...Ohio gozaimasu.

#50 ::: Jack Ruttan ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:37 PM:

Sorry, X. I know a bit of Mandarin, from my corner store, and could say "shiu-shiu". But nothing to do with Ohio.

Wanted to chime in that I investigated the wikipedia site cited above, on football chants, and it talks about "Ole, ole" (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Football_chant_ole_ole_ole.mid), and has it as a bullfighting chant.

Still, we're waiting up here for the decision between Portugal and France. Portugal would mean a better street party.

#51 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:39 PM:

Jack, it was the first song I thought of when the topic of football/soccer appeared.

I'm interpreting the "allez" as the French equivalent of "up and at 'em," but it's been many years since I was last in French class, so I could be -very- wrong.

Xopher -- ah yes, the other meaning of "ohio!"

I'm told the state's name actually means 'beautiful river' in the local Native American dialect (Shawnee, perhaps?).


#52 ::: Scraps ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:42 PM:

My friend Gavin, who collects all sorts of pop music oddities, loves football songs, and (as I recall) thinks "Vindaloo" is the best, or at least the funniest.

The only other one I remember him telling me was the song for Scotland's national team before the World Cup: "Don't Come Home Too Soon."

#53 ::: Alison Scott ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:45 PM:

I'm delighted that someone else appreciates Vindaloo. I believe it's just about the best football song ever written. It's clearly post-ironic; it is obvious to all that the people who wrote it were both taking the piss and celebrating the genre.

The weirdest football song of all time to my mind is (Put 'em) Under Pressure, the Republic of Ireland's 1990 effort which mashes up clips from other football songs rewritten to feature Ireland, together with the opening riff from the Horslips' Dearg Doom (which is why I know it, being mad Horslips fan). It was Number 1 in Ireland for 13 weeks.

Oh well, never mind. Hey chaps, it's forty years of hurt now!

#54 ::: Greg Ioannou ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 04:57 PM:

Hockey has its share of great chants. My favourite was came after a much publicized incident in which Jim Schoenfeld of the Devils yelled "have another donut, you fat pig" at referee Don Koharski. For the remainder of that year's playoffs (at least for the away games), fans taunted Schoenfeld with a lovely chant, with one side of the rink yelling "have another donut" and the other side answering with "you fat pig." (Maybe you had to be there.) I believe Koharski suffered the same chant that year, but I didn't see any of those games.

And of course there was the great chant from the 1972 Canada/Soviet Union hockey series: "da da Canada/nyet nyet Soviet."

#55 ::: kate ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 05:06 PM:

Lucy -- You're welcome. For awhile, that was my favorite Bollywood movie, despite the complete (and fairly distracting) tone change from the first half of the movie to the second. (I later figured out that was par for the course, with Bollywood.)

I will now stop being off topic completely.

#56 ::: Lois Fundis ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 05:34 PM:

Wikipedia says, "Ohio is an Iroquois word meaning 'good river.'" This is an oversimplification in that the Iroquois were (and are) several different nations speaking closely-related but different languages.Many of the native people who lived in this area* at the time white folks** started moving in were Iroquoian; a group called "Mingo" ("enemy" or "stranger" in the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware, tongue) were mostly Seneca and seem to have been the dominant group in this part of the valley at the time. I suspect "Ohio" is their word, more or less, but the history is a bit jumbled.

The French translated the name of the river as "La Belle Riviere", which is how it's shown on many early maps of the area. (They included the Allegheny River as part of La Belle Riviere, too.) The English/American settlers seem to have restored the Indian name, and "the Ohio Country" as they called it included most of the valley from well above Pittsburgh to down around Louisville, if not all the way to the Mississippi.

*I live in Weirton, West Virginia, which is on the Ohio River, 35 miles west of Pittsburgh, just across the river from Steubenville, Ohio, and 30 miles north of Wheeling, West Virginia (which is the county seat of Ohio County, so named 27 years before the state of Ohio was formed). This region was a hotbed of disputes among Indians, French, and English (including between Virginia and Pennsylvania) for much of the 1700s, from before the "French and Indian War" (a.k.a. the Seven Years War) to the Whiskey Rebellion.

**Some of the white folks brought black folks with them, too, of course. As slaves, at least mostly; many of the settlers were from Virginia, after all -- and this was Virginia until 1863 -- but slavery was still legal in Pennsylvania in the early days, too. Just last week a lady was telling me a family story from those times about a woman from our area who was taken captive by Indians. (This would have been in the 1780s or so.) With her was another woman she kept describing as "a black helper." I don't think the person telling me the story could admit to the S word, and I was too polite to bring it up, but I'd be willing to bet the black "helper" was not there of her own free will.

#57 ::: Peter Erwin ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 05:34 PM:

protected static and Rachael de Vienne: thanks for the links (and the lyrics!). I hadn't known that the original lyrics were so, um, unusual. Not what one normally thinks of as drinking song.

I had a somewhat surreal encounter with an English football song almost twenty years ago in London, walking across a bridge over the Thames one night. A group of drunken men came stumbling past me, singing, "Drink, drink, wherever you may be, for we are the drunk and disorderly..." Which really weirded me out, because I was very familiar with the tune, but only from the (original) religious version of the song, having sung it a number of time in church choir: The Lord of the Dance.

It's only now, thanks to Google, that I discover that the "Drink, drink" version is, in fact, an English football song. So far, I've found it on pages for Arsenal, Manchester United, and Newcastle United, so it seems pretty generic.

(Apparently the tune is taken from an old Shaker hymn. And now I have the vision of a group of Shakers being exposed to the football-song version...)

#58 ::: Sam Kelly ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 05:36 PM:

The lines "Me and me Mam and me Dad and me Gran / We're off to Waterloo / Me and me Mam and me Dad and me Gran / And a bucket of Vindaloo" are just perfectly English on so many levels.

Despite being sort-of English myself (Welsh and Irish ancestry, but living in England most of my life) I picked up the anyone-playing-against-England reflex myself, on the rare occasions I notice there's football on. In Glasgow this year, they were all selling supporters' T-shirts for Scotland, Portugal, Sweden, and whoever else it was in the same group as England. Quite confused some of the visitors. The great mass of the English tend to think of the Scots as just a different kind of English, when they think of them at all - the same as, say, Liverpudlians or Mancunians - but the Scots never forget that they're an independent kingdom who were never conquered, and that even after the Act of Union in 1707 the English went to great lengths to keep them economically subjugated and powerless.

The traditional Welsh rugby song, 'Sosban Fach', makes only slightly more sense. (Note that the translation there is very rough - the chorus actually translates as "large saucepan boiling on the floor, small saucepan boiling on the fire" - and it isn't the version I learnt at school.) Mind you, the Welsh tend to sing hymns, from the Methodist influences. And when drunk, they don't sing worse, just more and more slowly.

#59 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 05:58 PM:

Peter Irwin,

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free;
'Tis the gift to be right where we ought to be.
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
We will be in the Valley of Love and Delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.
To turn, turn, will be our delight
'Til by turning, turning, we come 'round right.
The original words. From memory, so requires a grain of salt (not included). I think LOTD is a better lyric...especially the Pagan version, but that's just because I'm Pagan.

Hmm...LOTD, LOTR...nah. Not getting much beyond "It's so great to be Sauron, it's so great to be King/It's so great to be the bearer of a Ring" for the first section, and "'Bring all the twenty* Rings to me/for I am the Lord of the Rings', said he" for the second. I'll work on it.

*Not counting the One, which he has when he's saying this.

#60 ::: Rob Hansen ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 06:11 PM:

tch, Teresa, they don't all shout 'ENGLAND' at the end of 'Vindaloo'; they shout 'ENG-GER-LAND'. For English football fans, their country's name is a three syllable word, hence the choice of 'Vindaloo' for the song, of course.

#61 ::: Claude Muncey ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:04 PM:

Back at good ol' UC Davis (go AGGIES!) we had an ode to drinking for our football fight song. Also for baseball, soccer, basketball, track, chess . . . it was a multipurpose song, good for any profane occasion and centered on what we were best known for (at least on frat row and in the dorms). It started:

Oh, we had a little party down in Lakeport
there was Harry, there was Mary, there was Grace.
Oh, we had a little party down in Lakeport
and we had to carry Harry from the place.

Oh we had to carry Harry to the ferry
we had to carry Harry to the shore.
Oh the reason why we had to carry Harry to the ferry
was that Harry couldn't carry anymore.
It goes on and on from there, changing meter and melody any number of times. Versions of the same song were known at other Northern California schools such as that junior college in Palo Alto and up where the Lumberjacks roam.

#62 ::: miriam beetle ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:04 PM:

lori, ack, it was the first song I thought of when the topic of football/soccer appeared.

I'm interpreting the "allez" as the French equivalent of "up and at 'em," but it's been many years since I was last in French class, so I could be -very- wrong.

i believe it is actually the spanish "ole" (don't know how to type accents) & the bouncing souls, who recorded a song with the chant as its chorus, agree. i don't know if they made up the chant, though, or just borrowed it.

#63 ::: debcha ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 07:33 PM:

Charles Dodgson: I think that it's only fair to point out that the Red Sox did win the World Series in the year that the Dropkicks recorded a new version of "Tessie" (and for the record, I think it's a great song - although I am a Dropkick Murphys fan and the Red Sox fail to move me). And the Dropkicks' raging-at-injustice punk cover of 'The Fields of Athenry' - which I know is the 'official' song of Irish rugby and at least a couple of football clubs - blows the sad ballad-y versions all to hell (YMMV, of course).

I think you need to be a bit careful when you compare your run-of-the-mill live concert with concert recordings from fifteen years ago - it's not a big stretch to imagine that people are a lot more vocal when they are being recorded, and Amanda Palmer isn't old enough to have personal experience from the early eighties. Although I wonder if high ticket prices are a factor - it kind of does drive me crazy when people in the audience sing along to the songs (I paid to hear the band, not the drunk guy beside me). But the Dresden Dolls have definitely encouraged and benefited from considerable fan involvement, and it's really the trademark of Dropkick Murphys shows.

BTW, I would have to translate, "Allez, allez, allez, allez" as "Go, go, go, go," which goes a long way towards demonstrating how much more mellifluous French is than English.

#64 ::: Peter Erwin ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:02 PM:

Xopher:

The original words. From memory, so requires a grain of salt (not included). I think LOTD is a better lyric...especially the Pagan version, but that's just because I'm Pagan.

Good memory! -- at least, the Wikipedia entry for "Simple Gifts" (I should have known there would be one) seems to agree with you!

The last line you quoted seems awfully familiar -- it's possible we sang those verses once in choir, as a variation on the usual "Lord of the Dance" lyrics.

Before today, I hadn't known there were Pagan versions. Though there's a hint of a pagan, or at least very ecumenical, attitude in the comments of Sydney Carter, who wrote the "Lord of the Dance" lyrics. Reminds me a bit of the attitude of Mike Scott (of the Scottish band The Waterboys), who is avowedly Christian but happily writes songs celebrating Pan. (And also sets W.B. Yeats poems to music, for extra coolness.)

(None of the relevant Wikipedia entries allude to the drinking/football versions, alas.)

Hmm...LOTD, LOTR...nah. Not getting much beyond "It's so great to be Sauron, it's so great to be King/It's so great to be the bearer of a Ring" for the first section, and "'Bring all the twenty* Rings to me/for I am the Lord of the Rings', said he" for the second. I'll work on it.

Oh, please do. That sounds charmingly blasphemous.

#65 ::: Madeline F ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:13 PM:

Claude Muncey: Ah, I learned that as the UC Berkeley drinking song... For after all, does it not continue,

California! California!
The hills send back the cry,
we're out to do or die
For California, California!
We'll win the game or know the reason why
(the team sucks!)

And when the game is over we will buy a keg of booze, and drink to California 'til we wobble in our shoes, so Drink! Tra-la-la Drink! Tra-la-la
And so forth. Great song. The tempo/melody changes make it seem like an accretion of handfuls of decades...

I doubt Leland Stanford Junior College could manage something so fine. ;)

#66 ::: Painini ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:41 PM:

No, no, no!

I mean, the Ohio thing. You're thinking of 'Good Morning!'

#67 ::: Julie L. ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:45 PM:

Quoth Xopher: You could have thanked her in Japanese...Ohio gozaimasu.

Er. Well, actually, that would be "good morning"; the "thank you" you're probably thinking of is "arigatou."

(Blah blah ultrapolite verb "gozaru" blah special forms of adjectives "hayai" (early) and "arigatai" (grateful) blah blah bonus random Tokugawa sumptuary note.)

#68 ::: jain ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 08:50 PM:

1- Theresa: I believe the dance you described is the "Electric Slide", much favored around here at weddings and company parties

2- The best place to hear the "Star-Spangled Banner" is here in Baltimore, its birthplace, where every schoolkid has to learn all the words. At Orioles games the "O" at the the end is held for a very long time in honor of the "O's" and is made even more dramatic by our unfortunate Cockney pronunciation: "Aaoooooo say does that stor-spangled banner yet wave"

3- "Vindaloo" is the Best.Anthem.Ever.

#69 ::: Rikibeth ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:26 PM:

Debcha, I'm with you on admiring the Dropkicks' version of "Tessie." AND "Fields of Athenry." Although I'm a lifelong Sox fan and only a Dropkicks fan as of last year.

And, Jack, I hadn't realized that the "allez" or "ole" or whatever chant had a thing to do with football! I'm accustomed to it as "audience begging punk or ska band for an encore." Seems to have spread way beyond the Bouncing Souls.

Miriam: alt-1-3-0.

off to see the Dropkicks next week...

#70 ::: Margaret Organ-Kean ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:31 PM:

Teresa -

"Louie, Louie" has words? Well, knock me over with a feather!

Yes, "Tequila" is simple, but that's so (insert name of despised campus group here) can remember the words.

#71 ::: Lee ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:35 PM:

Not getting much beyond "It's so great to be Sauron, it's so great to be King/It's so great to be the bearer of a Ring" for the first section, and "'Bring all the twenty* Rings to me/for I am the Lord of the Rings', said he" for the second. I'll work on it.

Dammit, Xopher, you made me waste a perfectly good mouthful of iced tea! When you get that finished, I want a copy!

#72 ::: Tim Walters ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:45 PM:

Here's an interesting and provocative essay about the national anthem and sports.

#73 ::: Linkmeister ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:08 PM:

Frank DeFord had an essay about the national anthem on Morning Edition a week ago. It's here at Sports Illustrated's site.

He closes:

Next Tuesday is our American national holiday, the Fourth of July. Wouldn't it be nice if all baseball teams would agree to swear off playing the anthem at every game during the season, and only play it once a year, on our Independence Day? That would be enough. Look out to center field. Just as Francis Scott Key assured us: Our flag is still there.

#74 ::: Teresa Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:13 PM:

Jain, it's not the Electric Slide. I know, because the accounting department used to do the Electric Slide en masse at the Tor/SMP Christmas blowout parties we don't have any more. However, when I was double-checking this on Wikipedia, I spotted a link to the Cha Cha Slide, which turned out to be the very thing they were doing. So thank you: a near answer, and a lot of fun to track down.

#75 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:16 PM:

About the Ohio thing: oh right, sorry, hang head in shame, oh hell.

Before today, I hadn't known there were Pagan versions.

When she danced on the water and the wind was her horn,
The Lady laughed and everything was born,
And when she lit the Sun and the light gave Him birth,
The Lord of the Dance first appeared on the Earth.
"Dance, dance, wherever you may be,
For I am the Lord of the Dance," said He.
"I'll live in you as you live in Me,
And I'll lead you all in the Dance," said He.

#76 ::: Jan Holden ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:18 PM:

Jack - would you be thinking of Sergio Mendes' Mas Que Nada? It's Brazilian, I think.

O - aria raio
Oba Oba Oba Oba...

#77 ::: Kate ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:24 PM:

Cotton eye'd joe has a line dance. My sister can do it, so can my friend's daughter Beth. I am hopeless at it as people who saw me at the wedding reception can attest.

The final fantasy version of Vindaloo that you link to has slightly more audible lyrics - one of which is knit 1, purl 2.

I now have that silly song in my head.

Ernie thinks that our 3 month old daughter's first word should be vindaloo.

#78 ::: debcha ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:37 PM:

Rikibeth:

...I hadn't realized that the "allez" or "ole" or whatever chant had a thing to do with football! I'm accustomed to it as "audience begging punk or ska band for an encore."

I am so with you there (Number of professional sporting events I've attended: 2. Number of concerts: oh, hell, I lost track ages ago :). That's kind of why I'm going with 'allez' instead of 'ole' - 'go,' in the plural imperative, makes much more sense when you are trying to get the band or team to go on than 'ole' does.

Have fun at Dropkicks! I saw them on March 16th - they were a blast. (if you're in the Boston area, might I recommend Mission of Burma, next week at the Paradise, too?).

#79 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:44 PM:

I have just one thing to say: On a gagné! On a gagné!

*smooches Zizou*

#80 ::: Maggie ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 10:45 PM:

Anybody else know about that? Does it turn up at games elsewhere, or is it local to New York?

I've seen something similar at Fort Wayne Wizards games, so maybe it's more of a minor league thing. I miss Wizards games.

And thank you for the Vindaloo nostalgia -- I was studying in England when it came out, and the song burned itself into my brain. Strangely enough, I don't feel so bad about getting it stuck in my head now that I'm not hearing it every two hours.

#81 ::: JaniceG ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 11:14 PM:

Catchy isn't the word for this. I'm afraid I now have an earworm that won't leave for days!

#82 ::: JaniceG ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 11:30 PM:

Lee ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2006, 09:35 PM:

Xopher wrote: Not getting much beyond "It's so great to be Sauron, it's so great to be King/It's so great to be the bearer of a Ring" for the first section, and "'Bring all the twenty* Rings to me/for I am the Lord of the Rings', said he" for the second. I'll work on it.

Dammit, Xopher, you made me waste a perfectly good mouthful of iced tea! When you get that finished, I want a copy!

Pretty hard to beat the old filk standard by Marc Glasser to the tune of the Marx Bros. "Hooray for Captain Spaulding":

Hooray for Frodo Baggins, the Middle Earth explorer
I just got back from Mordor
Hooray hooray hooray

I went to Sauron's castle, but there I did not linger
I lost my little finger
&etc

#83 ::: Larry Brennan ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:14 AM:

Wow - for once an earworm I didn't get. I just don't find the song all that catchy. Vindaloo, schmindaloo. But I've got "Allez, allez!" stuck in my head instead.

One thing I've noticed in a lot of ballparks is that when they play the opening of Car Wash everyone immediately claps along, which makes me really happy for some reason I have no insight into.

Early in my extended college career, my friends and I had a drinking song stolen from Haagar the Horrible. It went Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!...

#84 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:29 AM:

JaniceG, the world has room for an infinite number of silly LOTR filks.

#85 ::: Martin Wisse ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:47 AM:

The best Engerland football song, as a football song, has to be three Lions, with its obsessive/sad/cynical lyrics:

Three Lions on a shirt
Jules Rimet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming

Best the Dutch came up with is

"Schade Deutschland alles ist forbei.
Alles ist forbei,
Alles ist forbei"

This Worldcup, the Germans retaliated by singing

"Ohne Holland fahren wir nach Berlin"

But now it's also "Ohne Deutschland fahren wir nach Berlin"

Where hopefully France, who already made me happy by knocking out the cheatin, divin bastard Portuguese, will make me happier still by crushing the always jammy slightly less cheatin Italians.

Australia was robbed!

#86 ::: Luthe ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:52 AM:

My school has a drinking song. It is a filk of "If I Only Had a Brain." We also have a chant. In ancient Greek. There is nothing like a concrete dining hall packed to the rafters with women who are screaming in Greek at the top of their lungs.

#87 ::: Dave Bell ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 05:22 AM:

I can't bring the precise reference to mind, but the image of a roomful of women screaming in Greek is one of those "check where the exits are" moments.

#88 ::: Niall McAuley ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 05:38 AM:

A band called The Memories recorded an Irish football song to the tune of Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire", and when I saw the man himself play in Dublin soon afterwards, he came out with the football lyrics taped to the back of his guitar and did a verse or two.

No mean feat when the lyrics are unintelligible unless you know Ireland's soccer history:

Jackie Charlton, Eoin Hand
Johnny Giles. Ireland
Mick McCarthy, Steven Staunton
Cascarino!
Tony Galvin, Niall Quinn
Packie doesn't let em in
North of Ireland
South of Ireland
Only one can go

#89 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 05:51 AM:

Xopher: LOTD, LOTR...nah. Not getting much beyond "It's so great to be Sauron, it's so great to be King/It's so great to be the bearer of a Ring" for the first section, and "'Bring all the twenty* Rings to me/for I am the Lord of the Rings', said he" for the second. I'll work on it.

There was a fellow on rec.arts.sf.written for a while who used this as a .sig:

"Rings, rings, wherever they may be,
I am the Lord of the Rings," said he.
"And I'll bring them all, wherever they may be,
And I'll bind them all in the dark," said he.

The person didn't answer my email asking whether he'd written it, or else where he'd got it; I tried to find an author on my own, without success.

#90 ::: xeger ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 08:32 AM:

Dave Bell winced:
I can't bring the precise reference to mind, but the image of a roomful of women screaming in Greek is one of those "check where the exits are" moments.

You're looking for an im-medea-te exit?

#91 ::: xeger ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 08:48 AM:

Dammit! I'm now earwormed with "We're in the loo!" instead of "Vindaloo!" (Ah, mornings!)

#92 ::: Nic_C ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:01 AM:

I can't bring the precise reference to mind, but the image of a roomful of women screaming in Greek is one of those "check where the exits are" moments.

Yes, you want to watch your Bacchae in that sort of situation...

(Xopher: good one!)

#93 ::: Dave Bell ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:04 AM:

Not that door, xeger, it only leads to the kitchens and the loading dock, and I happen to know that my mother's sisters are unloading more beer. Much too dangerous, you really don't what to meet the back aunties.

#94 ::: Giacomo ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:20 AM:

Mas Que Nada is a kick-ass song. You probably remember it for being the soundtrack to a great Nike advert, some 10 years ago (when ads with people kicking the same ball across cities and buildings were still somewhat original). IIRC, in the ad, the entire brazilian team, bored at the airport, started to play all over the place, doing the most amazing tricks, with Cantona looking at them from a plane with typical French "so what" attitude. For years, I associated that ad with the pure joy of football... in Italy, loads of youngsters started to sing "obaa-obaa" when dribbling each other wild on the streets. (That's something that football has above all other sports: you can play it everywhere, you just need something round enough to kick)

This said, Mas Que Nada predates the ad, and its lyrics are not about football (and I still think that Nike's football shoes are plastic crap).

#95 ::: Gavin ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:27 AM:

"Vindaloo" dates back to the '98 World Cup; at the time, parodying the "Bittersweet Symphony" video in the promo clip was up-to-the-minute.

As Scraps said, it's one of my favorite pop-music artifacts ever; I wrote about it (and the other World Cup singles of that year) at some length here.

It's worth noting that although "Vindaloo" endures, "Three Lions" is still the song more likely to be bellowed by triumphant drunken Englishmen on the streets, if my trip back to London a few weeks ago is at all indicative.

#96 ::: Giacomo ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:31 AM:

Wikipedia says that Go West "provides the melody for the common chant 'You're sh*te, and you know you are' "... would that explain why they play it at the world cup? Or is it a subtle joke from west-germans? (the old DDR only provided one stadium for the current tournament, and several of the top german players are actually polish immigrants)

On a side note, when Germany lost the entire stadium was singing "You'll never walk alone", in perfect english. I didn't know so many Germans were actually from Liverpool.

#97 ::: Mez ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:38 AM:
I can't bring the precise reference to mind, but the image of a roomful of women screaming in Greek ...
Try looking up references to Maenads, Bassarids, or Bacchae. Not so much check exits as 'Start moving carefully towards exits, but don't turn your back. Check for possible shelters, or impromptu defence weapons.'

BTW, speaking of mob scenes, did any NYC persons notice this at all? Or was it as widely reported & noticed as the visit of our Prime Minister 'Honest' John Howard, prominent participant in the Coalition of the Willing, a coupla months back?

#98 ::: Chad Orzel ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:45 AM:

On the subject of sports anthems common in the US, the Gary Glitter song "Rock and Roll Part 2" (the one that goes "daaaa, da-daaaa, da-daaaa, da da daaaa, da-daaa, da-daaa," with the occasional "Hey!") gets played in a lot of arenas. It's hugely popular with the students at Maryland, who sing "lyrics" that basically consist of yelling "You suck!" after the "Hey!" parts, and "We're gonna beat the hell out of you" during the bridge.

After an incident a couple of years ago involving stuff thrown from the student section at an opposing team, the pep band was officially banned from playing the song during timeouts for a few games. The students responded with an a capella rendition during every single timeout, and after the administration relented, it's only become more
raucous.

My sentimental favorite among sports themes is the song for my college rugby team (a club sport, not an official varsity team):

We don't play for adoration
We don't play for victory
We just play for recreation
Williams College RFC

#99 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:52 AM:

Rats, David Goldfarb. Now that I know about that, I can't use it or anything like it. And it's too good; anything I could do I would look at and say "that's not as good as the thing Goldfarb showed me." So probably I won't. :-(

#100 ::: Luthe ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:59 AM:

Try looking up references to Maenads, Bassarids, or Bacchae.

I prefer to refer to us as a tribe of heathen Amazons upon the river Schyukill.

*only eats men for breakfast on alternate Tuesdays*

#101 ::: Faren Miller ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 11:02 AM:

And now I have the vision of a group of Shakers being exposed to the football-song version... Meanwhile, I was imagining a stadium full of fans belting out "Anacreon in Heaven" (much cooler lyrics than the anthem, though if sung by drunks they'd probably sound more like the Kingsmen's slurred version of "Louie Louie").

As for "allez!", as a tennis fan I'm used to hearing that accompanied by a Francophone player's fist pump. The English equivalent, "C'mon!", seems to have been so popularized by Leyton Hewitt, even non-Aussies pronounce it his way. (So we may hear more of it, even though he lost to the amazing Cypriot in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.)

#102 ::: India ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 11:50 AM:

Mez, some friends and I met at Eight Mile Creek's downstairs bar early on the evening of 6/26, the day Australia played Italy, expecting to find at least some residual mayhem. We were the only customers, however, and there was no sign that anyone had been there earlier. I guess all the postgame action was at the Italian bars, which are a couple of blocks south.

#103 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:04 PM:

Faren, I used to swear that in the unlikely event I ever attended a baseball game, I would sing "Anacreon" and see if anyone noticed.

Funny how your perspective changes. Since I turned 42, I belt out the SSB with force and feeling (though not at baseball games, which I remain uninterested in attending). I'll be 47 in the fall, and I can't see that changing anytime soon...unless I flee to another country at some point, which looks more and more possible.

#104 ::: Rachael de Vienne ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:27 PM:

Dear Xopher,

The Star Spangled Banner is under-appreciated. Only the first verse is sung. This is a mistake.

There are feelings in the full song that some would reject. Yet, it is a war song, written in the heat of battle. The song gives fair warning about the multifaceted American spirit. Those who hate America and those who admire her should think through the words.

Here it is, in all its glory:

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' 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 thro' 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 on 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 wash'd 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 lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause 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!

#105 ::: ajay ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:36 PM:

Obligatory mention of Tom Lehrer:

Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.

How we will celebrate our victory,
We shall invite the whole team up for tea. (How jolly!)
Hurl that spheroid down the field,
And fight, fight, fight!

Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight!
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Oh, fellas, do not let the crimson down,
Be of stout heart and true.

(Come on, chaps)
Fight for Harvard's glorious name!
Won't it be peachy if we win the game? (Oh, goody!)
Let's try not to injure them,
But fight, fight, fight!
Let's not be rough, though!
Fight, fight, fight!
And do fight fiercely!
Fight, fight, fight!

"Wir fahren nach Berlin" sounds deeply, deeply ominous. In translation it's innocuous, I suppose. There was a Private Eye cover of the stadium of Neasden FC, with one speech bubble saying "We're on the way to Wembley" [where the FA Cup Final happens] and another saying "You have to go through Neasden to get there".

#106 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 12:51 PM:

Rachael, yes, I was actually taught that in 4th grade, though I've forgotten most of it. I don't think the "In God is our trust" line is appropriate today, but then it's on our money too, so *shrug*.

I daresay FSK didn't have "Anacreon in Heaven" in mind when he wrote that. It's much too heartfelt to be sung to such a silly tune.

#107 ::: Dave Bell ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 01:47 PM:

Something about flags... There are one or two notorious German songs that I suppose can similarly catch a foreign ear. Particularly the first three words. But then I have an odd memory of little snippets of songs.

(Yes, I am thinking of that song which starts "Die Fahne hoch", which is also a pretty innocuous phrase.)

#108 ::: Rachael de Vienne ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 01:52 PM:

Two excellent though now wildly politically incorrect fight songs are

1. Marching Through Georgia

Yes and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears,
When they saw the honored flag they had not seen for years;
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking forth in cheers,
While we were marching through Georgia.

"Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never make the coast!"
So the saucy rebels said and 'twas a handsome boast
Had they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the Host
While we were marching through Georgia.

So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles of latitude, three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.

and 2. Bonnie Blue Flag:

We are a band of brothers,
Native to the soil
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil.
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far;
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!

chorus:
Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, Hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!

As long as the Union
Was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and brethren,
kind were we, and just;
But now, when Northern treachery
Attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue flag
That bears a single star.

As much fun as singing Vindaloo is, it can't match the more serious yet jaunty spirit of these Civil War songs.


#109 ::: kate ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 01:54 PM:

Oh, OK, Pennsylvania. Good. I was having an entertaining time trying to think if there were any /other/ women's colleges that chanted in Greek.

#110 ::: Laurence ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 02:23 PM:

The traditional Welsh rugby song, 'Sosban Fach', makes only slightly more sense. (Note that the translation there is very rough - the chorus actually translates as "large saucepan boiling on the floor, small saucepan boiling on the fire")

Could that possibly be the song that Howl sings in Howl's Moving Castle? I think Sophie refers to it as "the saucepan song."

#111 ::: coffeedryad ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 03:44 PM:

There's also, of course, the quadratic formula as sung to the Notre Dame fight song's tune - the only reason I know that tune, in fact.

Start off with the negative b
Add or subtract square-root-quantity
b squared minus four a c
Divided all by two a. Hey!

#112 ::: Sam Kelly ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 04:51 PM:

Could [Sosban Fach] possibly be the song that Howl sings in Howl's Moving Castle? I think Sophie refers to it as "the saucepan song."

I think it must be! Howl is Welsh, and whilst I don't have a copy handy, I don't know of any other saucepan songs.

#113 ::: Laurence ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 04:59 PM:

Howl is a rugby player too. How cool.

#114 ::: xeger ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 05:17 PM:

Laurence exclaimed:
Howl is a rugby player too. How cool.

Well, yes! There's that great scene where Howl arrives back at the castle stinking drunk after a night out with his rugby mates...

"They think so much about me that they always play without me!" Howl bellowed. Sophie realized that he was only trying to sing Calcifer's saucepan song and lay down again, whereupon Howl fell over the chair ...

... "Rugby Club Reunion," Howl replied with thick dignity. "Didn't know I used to fly up the wing for my university, did you, Mrs. Nose?"

#115 ::: Laurence ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 05:22 PM:

And Sophie's response is "If you were trying to fly, I think you must have forgotten how."

#116 ::: Pat Sheller ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 06:49 PM:

Then there's the football cheer that Daddy learned at Purdue in the late '40s.

(I can't figure out how to do superscripts, so some of this will be verbal equivalent of formula.)

e to the x, dy/dx
e to the x, dx
Tangent, cosine, secant, sine
3.14159
Ampere, foot-pound, BTU
Slipstick, sliderule, yea Purdue!

#117 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 07:07 PM:

TexAnne: (sorry for lateness of reply--been out of town) I have no idea where/how Sir Cip is, as I've been out of the SCA for lo these many years. I remember him fondly though!

Lisa Goldstein: Some of them have Aamir Khan. But no matter who the stars are, the same 3 singers do all the singing for them.

#118 ::: JaniceG ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 07:17 PM:

JaniceG, the world has room for an infinite number of silly LOTR filks.

Hey, I didn't say you shouldn't try! I was just presenting what I consider the gold standard :->

#119 ::: JaniceG ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 07:19 PM:

If we're going further afield, my public high school in Miami Beach had the following official cheer:

Bagels, bagels, two for five
That's what keeps us Jews alive
We play football, we play soccer
We keep bagels in our locker
Go, Beach!

#120 ::: Kip W ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 07:29 PM:

Stop the madness! Oh, wait, it's already too late. See what you've done?

#121 ::: Eric ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:06 PM:

I learned the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" at a young age, and I've always loved it. "The Lord of the Dance" is a fine modern folk song, but the Shaker original is clean, elegant and beautiful (like so much of their artistic work[1]).

I think there's some differences in the arrangement, too, but you'll need to consult a musician for the details.

"Simple Gifts" is one loveliest of the New England protestant hymns, and it's the only one you can dance to. Plus, it doesn't hurt that it's long out of copyright, so there's no need to pay royalties to Stainer & Bell.

[1] Today, the Shakers are remembered for their simple and graceful furniture. But back in their heyday, they were also known for their inventions, among them the flat broom and several early washing machines.

Interestingly, the Shakers rarely applied for patents. Taken together, this love of simplicity, dislike for drudgery, and disregard of the Patent Office appeals to something in the modern spirit.

#122 ::: Daniel ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:46 PM:

Just wanted to point out that the second video isn't set to Final Fantasy game footage but rather to scenes of the movie "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children", which has an incredibly vague and thin plot, but even more incredibly eye-popping visuals.

#123 ::: Eve ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:56 PM:

JaniceG: I thought that was an invention of Philip Roth. Learn summat new every day.

I've always loved the way that a mistranslation means that 'Vindaloo' now denotes two completely different curries - a Goan one involving lots of garlic and vinegar, and an Anglo-Pakistani one with potatoes.

#124 ::: Kip W ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:01 PM:

I love "Mas Que Nada." Took me years to find out the title.

I heard that football crowds in Italy would sing "Va, Pensiero" from Il Trovatore (Verdi) at games. I always wished I could hear that. I never did, but when I was in Rome, I d/i/d/ a/s/ t/h/e/ R/o/m/a/n/s/ found a good piano transcription of it at Ricordi's (and a Hary Janos vocal score! Yay!).

My pal Gecko was thinking of a filk on "We Didn't Light The Fire," about a spurious sheet (this is fiction, not a real event) listing people and events that weren't going to be at his convention and disclaiming knowledge thereof: "We Didn't Write The Flyer."

And I know not why, but I'm reminded of a story Tony Hendra recounts in his book on Boomer humor. A somewhat worshipful biography (autobio?) of Werner von Braun came out with the title I Aim For The Stars, to which Mort Sahl added, "...But Sometimes I Hit London."

#125 ::: Kip W ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:06 PM:

My cousin used to regale me with tales of how Rice University in Houston had academic standards for all athletes, and consequently, never won any games. As a result, the fans developed bad sportsmanship to an art form.

For their traditional rivals, A&M (while I was working at the library at Rice, I found accounts from around 1917 of the schools stealing and dishonoring one another's mascots, for instance), they were known to dress students up as A&M yell leaders to lead insulting cheers.

The thing I really wish I could have seen was the custom whenever the other team scored against them. The stands, my cousin said, would reverberate with the unison cry of "Aw Shit! God Damn!" If I'd just worked there a few more months, I swear I would have gone to a game. But we moved.

#126 ::: Rikibeth ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:48 PM:

Debcha, I'm in CT, and it's a bit of a drive to make for a midweek show. I was SO hoping it'd be a weekend instead, as I was too young to go see them in their original heyday.

If I have the energy, I'm likely to be taking my daughter to see Reel Big Fish that day instead.

Allez!

#127 ::: xeger ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 10:52 PM:

xeger groused:
Dammit! I'm now earwormed with "We're in the loo!" instead of "Vindaloo!" (Ah, mornings!)

... and worse yet, I've been roaming around, intermittantly breaking into chants of "We're in the loo!" all bloody day. People have been looking at me even more strangely than normal.

#128 ::: "Charles Dodgson" ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 11:44 PM:

Rikibeth, if it's any easier for you, Mission of Burma also has a Friday-night gig in Brooklyn, for which tickets are apparently still available.

(Also, on a rather different note, for folks who will be in the area for Readercon, but feel their weekends will not be complete without seeing bewigged faux ancien régime French noblemen screaming "Let them eat rock!" at the top of their lungs to an AC/DC heavy beat with killer guitar solos, please note that the Upper Crust will be playing the Middle East downstairs Friday evening, in Central Square, Cambridge...)

#129 ::: "Charles Dodgson" ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:00 AM:

(Oh, crud. It's apparently too late to proofread. The Brooklyn Burma gig is Friday the 14th; the Upper Crust are playing the Middle East on Friday the 7th; and with regard to the latter, those desiring proof that truth is indeed stranger than fiction are invited to peruse the evidence).

#130 ::: Brooks Moses ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:50 AM:

My alma mater is the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (and State University), whose team is informally known as the Hokies. Like everything else, the informal becomes the formal, and they're now Virginia Tech on the official stationary and nobody calls them the Fighting Gobblers (as in turkeys) any more, but that's another digression.

You can guess the fight song.

No, really.

"You put your right wing in, you take your right wing out, you put your right wing in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokie Pokey and you turn yourself around; that's what it's all about!"

Repeat for left wing and tail feathers.

#131 ::: pat greene ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 01:27 AM:

Pat Sheller:

At the place I used to hang out (not where I got my degree, but where my husband got his), the last lines of that cheer go "...square root, integral, mu,dv/ slipstick, slide-rule, MIT!"

And the place where he got his PhD. has the best college fight song in the country.

#132 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 05:35 AM:

To Xopher:

Touching "Lord of the Dance/Rings": Er, sorry about that.

Touching Francis Scott Key: The meter of "To Anacreon in Heaven" is fairly eccentric -- not a lot of people use anapests these days. It's not like ballad meter, where every song goes to every other; if "The Defense of Fort McHenry" scans to that meter I pretty much have to think it was intended to.

#133 ::: Mary Aileen Buss ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 09:17 AM:

Then there's the University of Redlands (California) football chant:

Och Tamale
Gazolly Gazump
Deyump Deyatty Yahoo
Ink Damink
Deyatty Gazink
Deyump Deray Yahoo
Wing Wang
Tricky Trackey
Poo Foo
Joozy Woozy
Skizzle Wazzle
Wang Tang,
Orky Porky Dominorky
Redlands!
Rah, Rah, Redlands!

Freshman were required to memorize this during orientation week.

--Mary Aileen

#134 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 10:14 AM:

Mary Aileen...required by whom? It sounds like a spell to me.

#135 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 10:47 AM:

Eric: Re "Lord of the Dance"

Actually, there are two tunes for this filk, one being "Simple Gifts." The other is commonly called "the West Coast version," and is in a minor key. It has a very tribal sound.

I believe you can hear the latter on one of Leslie Fish's tapes. I'm not sure if there is a CD containing it.

#136 ::: Mary Aileen Buss ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 10:52 AM:

Xopher: By the older students. Everyone had to be able to yell it in unison at appropiate points during football games (touchdowns, etc.). Or so my mother tells me.

#137 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 10:56 AM:

Lori, the Pagan version isn't exactly a filk, and I thought Leslie Fish wrote that tune. It's a much more Pagan tune, with a strong rhythm, irregular enough to keep grabbing your interest. Danceable, in fact.

Not that you can't dance to Simple Gifts, of course! Or Aaron & Martha wouldn't have had such success.

But isn't that an interesting provenance? Simple Gifts -> LOTD (Christian) with the same tune -> LOTD (Pagan) with the same tune -> LOTD (Pagan) with the new tune...leaving nothing of the original except the meter of the lyric.

#138 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 11:01 AM:

By the older students.

I keep hearing stories about this sort of thing. Nothing like it was ever done at my school. Maybe the fact that I didn't live in the dorm and declared my linguistics major as a freshman helped, but the only "in/out group" factor I ever had was when the other linguistics majors bought me a "Redundancy Rules" t-shirt. (Yes, that's a pun.)

#139 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 11:06 AM:

Mary Aileen: I have an aunt I can ask. Redlands '52, magna.

#140 ::: Mary Aileen Buss ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 11:08 AM:

Xopher: We didn't have anything like it at my school, either. My mother was at Redlands in the '50s, but apparently they're still doing it.

#141 ::: Mary Aileen Buss ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 11:54 AM:

P. J. Evans: I think that's my mother's class! I wonder if they know (knew) each other.

#142 ::: debcha ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:11 PM:

Charles Dodgson: thanks for the heads-up re: the Upper Crust - I've heard of them, and I'm going to try to make the show tonight.

#143 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:24 PM:

I meant the whole "older students with power over freshmen" thing. I know if an older student had told me "OK, you're a freshman, so you have to memorize this meaningless series of words" I'd have told him (almost certainly him) to FOAD. I mean, didn't that sort of thing go out with freshman beanies and stuff?

I guess not.

#144 ::: JeffAllen ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:50 PM:

Kip W:
Here is a list of official Aggie yells. There's also a link to the songs. During the "Saw Varsity's Horns Off" bit in the fight song, everyone in the stands links arms & legs & sways in unison. I swear to X that you can see the top decks of the stadium moving. I'll ask my dad (class of '68) if there was any cussing in the yells when he was there, but I doubt it.

TNH:
Ahh, but that's only one version of the lyrics. Bloom County fans might remember these versions as heard by Dukakis & GHW Bush. "Take Bent-sen and qualms begins. Iran-Contra thing makes me phlegm." Indeed.

#145 ::: Juli Thompson ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:51 PM:

Lila, Whoa! Wyverns, Wyverns takes me back. I was there the night Cip was knighted (farewell performance of Knights Boys Knights!), but there is no reason he would remember me.


Brooks, my dad was on the faculty of VPI when I was a kid. When I turned 6, the student who played the Gobbler was one of his students, and came to my birthday party in costume and led us in the Hokie Pokey. I was a major celebrity that week in kindergarten!

#146 ::: JeffAllen ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 12:53 PM:

Kip W
Reread your post. I guess you were referring to Rice impersonating the Aggie yell leaders. Oops. Well, the A&M yells and songs rock. Anyway.

#147 ::: Lori Coulson ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 01:16 PM:

Xopher:

As a filker, I'm using 'filk' at its loosest definition, and only because LotD appeared on a filk tape. I thought Leslie had written the tune, but wasn't certain enough to cite it.

(Big Evil Grin) Let's not start a "what is filk" argument here...

I did not become aware of the second tune until LotD appeared in one Westerfilk songbooks. I *think* the tape came out after that...I've been in fandom long enough that the details have gotten just a little hazy.

(For those who may be curious, I'm conchair for the Ohio Valley Filk Fest and a member of the Pegasus Award Committee. I've been a member of fandom and filking since 1974.)


#148 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: July 07, 2006, 02:14 PM:

pat greene: if your husband periodically spends time in meteor craters in Canada trying to boot up Windows in the sleet, then you and I know each other.

juli: if you know the excessively maudlin and juvenile unofficial anthem of the Kingdom of Meridies from back in the early '80s, I'm the one who wrote it.

#149 ::: pat greene ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 04:50 AM:

Lila, the rocket scientist says hi. He leaves for the arctic in a week. The blogosphere is a small place. : ) Have I seen you over at slacktivist, as well?

#150 ::: Lila ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 09:11 AM:

Yes you have. Ah, the pleasures of having a distinctive name!

#151 ::: rams ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 10:24 AM:

Right about Rice. When my nephew was there and the Aggies scored, they also used "THAT'S all right, THAT's okay -- YOU'RE gonna work for US some day!" I never heard if the team on the field was grateful.

Earlham, a Quaker college, has the tongue-in-cheek
"Fight 'em,
fight 'em,
beat 'em senseless,
fight until you reach concensus!"
(and I understand there are Quaker pick-up lines, too -- "Got any Quaker in you? Want any?")

As to those 1920's nonsense cheers, Kalamazoo College (stop that) had us learning, as late as 1968,
"Rickety rack
squack squack!
Rickety rack
squack squack!
Whoa up!
Whoa up!
Parabaloo, parabaloo,
Kalamazoo,
kazoo
kazoo!"

As to "I'm in the loo," what's the term for a parody of a parody? (Xopher, nothing about a pair o'parodies)

#152 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 11:50 AM:

A paraparody?

Fun as that is...probably a metaparody. Actually "excess" is the conventional term.

#153 ::: dave ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 12:01 PM:

Eve ::: (view all by) ::: July 06, 2006, 09:56 PM:


I've always loved the way that a mistranslation means that 'Vindaloo' now denotes two completely different curries - a Goan one involving lots of garlic and vinegar, and an Anglo-Pakistani one with potatoes.

There's another version too. It's the "Oh look, Rajit, yet another bunch of falling down drunk racist yobs has come in for a curry after being thrown out of the pubs. Shall we give them the 'left-over meat, semi-lethal dose of chilis and Hindu urine' dish?" version.

#154 ::: Bruce E. Durocher II ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 12:48 PM:

Teresa: thank you for the original lyrics for "Louie, Louie" since it saves me from making an idiot of myself singing them to Margaret while she draws. I was going to give you the lyric that Richard Berry wrote for Washington State when it looked, briefly, like "Louie, Louie" would replace the incredibly blah Washington, My Home (Real Audio), but I can't find a link for it.

As far as School Fight Songs go, Evergreen has The One To Beat. (Gratuitous mascot and living example included.) Although if you shout "Tom Tuttle of Tacoma, Washington!" you'd be amazed at how often you'll hear "Fight, Fight, Fight for Washington State!" explode out of othewise fervent UW Huskies...

#155 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 04:17 PM:

Bruce, didn't "Louie, Louie" become the official state ROCK song?

#156 ::: Bruce E. Durocher II ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 07:51 PM:

Xopher: yes, it did. It was one of those ugly "don't rock the boat" compromises done just to make sure they wouldn't upset the twelve people that have actually listened to and liked "Washington, My Home" in the last thirty years. (I promise you, the sudden peak in downloads from my link above will put the webmaster into shock. And the Washington State government page I got it from has NO mention of an Official State Rock Song.)

#157 ::: Kip W ::: (view all by) ::: July 08, 2006, 08:31 PM:

JeffAllen, no, it wasn't something the yell leaders did. Spectators in the Rice stands would give the shout in a more or less spontaneous (i.e., leaderless) fashion. So I'm told!

#158 ::: JaniceG ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 02:20 AM:

JeffAllen: No cussing in Aggie yells when I was at the UT/A&M games in '74 and '75.

-- JaniceG, proud (illegal) owner of an Aggie Corps Standard despite not attending the school, long, long story

#159 ::: Rachael de Vienne ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 12:38 PM:

Well, in my heart I know that Cougars rule and Huskies drool, but

Fight, fight, fight for Washington State! Win the victory!
Win the day for Crimson and Gray!
Best in the West, we know you'll all do your best,
So on, on, on, on!
Fight to the end! Honor and Glory you must win! So fight, fight, fight for Washington State and victory!

Never thrilled me. It's insipid. We need something better!

#160 ::: joann ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 12:56 PM:

JaniceG--

Wasn't it about then (74/75) that the Rice Marching Owl Band managed to make sufficient fun of Reveille the Aggie mascot in their halftime show that a riot almost ensued? (I saw the report of the unfortunateness in the Daily Texan; the only UT games I ever attended were a couple against Rice in the same period. Later, I lived in the sound footprint of the UT stadium and made up for it in vicarious attendance, as it were.)

I vaguely recall my R.A. attempting to pound "The Eyes of Texas" into the whole floor, but names were not taken and butt was not kicked.

#161 ::: Shannon ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 04:15 PM:

As for fight songs about drinking, Cornell's fight song, "Give my Regards to Davy" is actually about getting thrown out of school for drinking!

Give my regards to Davy,
Remember me to Tee Fee Crane. (the registar and a dean at the time the song was written)
Tell all the pikers (freshman) on the Hill
That I'll be back again.
Tell them just how I busted (expelled)
Lapping up the high highball.
We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's (local bar that has long since closed)
When I get back next fall!

The marching band - which I was in freshman year - sang this quite heartily pretty much any chance they could. An athletic director in the '70s tried to write a new fight song to replace the morally-questionable lyrics, but his just became known as the "New Cornell Fight Song." The band would play it as well, but it certainly never replaced Davy.

#162 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 08:40 PM:

joann--The story I heard was that the MOB (Marching Owl Band, the only band in the world that has a marching xylophone and a marching electric viola) took whistles to the sidelines with them and completely wrecked the whistle-driven halftime show of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band (WHOOP!).

Yours sincerely,
TexAnne
Class of '90

Hm. It would appear that I'm still brainwashed.

#163 ::: Marilee ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 08:42 PM:

WashPost article today on what fans sing at soccer games.

#164 ::: Bruce E. Durocher II ::: (view all by) ::: July 09, 2006, 11:08 PM:

Paging Mr. Ford! Paging Mr. John M. Ford!

Since it's *almost* possible to sing this little tune using Geoduck instead of Vindaloo, could you suggest something to swap for "Waterloo" in the lyrics so that using Geoduck has at least a kelp bulb's worth of an excuse to be there? Thank you!

#165 ::: oliviacw ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 06:31 AM:

Bruce - I would settle for the internal rhyme of "BUCKet of geoDUCK", and then substitute an PNW Native American place-name for Waterloo. Issaquah or Hoquiam (stretched to "ho--qui-AMM") seem to fit the rhythm scheme, but you could probably come up with something more obscure.

#166 ::: Faren Miller ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 10:50 AM:

Footnote on misremembered/misheard lyrics: San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate columnist Jon Carroll calls them "mondegreens" and has written about them numerous times. Google could probably give you some links, *if* they're still available online.

#167 ::: pat greene ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 12:14 PM:

Oh, I don't know Lila -- until you said something, I didn't think of you as being "Lila whom we know," rather than simply "Lila who comments at slacktivist."

And if we are talking *bands,* the LSJUMB (Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band) has been banned from at several college campuses, including University of Oregon and Notre Dame. They're my favorite band.

#168 ::: joann ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 12:38 PM:

TexAnne -- the story I heard involved the band's formations depicting a dog interacting w/ a fire hydrant; the Aggies refused to allow the band to leave at the end of the game. The whistle story definitely falls into the "great hacks w/ flash cards" sort of tradition.

As to "brainwashed", it actually seems to get worse with time. I suspect some of my pores may be oozing orange by now.

#169 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 12:43 PM:

joann: Hadn't heard it, but I'd believe it. Also: OMG, you're one of *those* people! (I have two degrees from t.u., which could explain why I'm so thoroughly an Aggie.)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled non-Texan conversation.

#170 ::: joann ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 12:52 PM:

TexAnne--"those people" [*]?

(I have three official degrees from UT, one additional major, and another additional major that would have needed a theatre course to be completed properly. I may have stopped going there but my husband still works there. Result, some sort of osmosis.)

#171 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 12:56 PM:

joann: yep, a t-sip. Not one of us, i.e., a famously obnoxious Aggie.

#172 ::: Karin ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 02:04 PM:

Joann and TexAnne: I'm a Rice alumna, and I've heard the "whistles" story, although I have no eyewitness accounts.

However, I do for the Reveille story. According to my sources, it was something like this. (Anyone who knows better than me, please correct.) Apparently the latest Reveille had died quite recently, and the MOB decided to pay "tribute" -- e.g. the aforementioned fire hydrant formation, as well as the playing of "Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone".

That went over poorly with the Corps. Very poorly. The MOB had to get carted away from the stadium by the Central Kitchen delivery trucks, the better to avoid the wrath of sabre-armed Corpsmen.

Twenty years later, while I was an undergrad there, the band did a "20th Anniversary of the Reveille Incident" halftime show, where a couple of bandmembers, dressed in old uniforms and fake white beards, were led out of the stadium tunnels where they had ostensibly been hiding all those years. This was, as I recall, a different game from the one where some bright folks on the Rice side decided to start doing the Nazi salute while the Corps was doing their halftime drill. That little gesture made no one happy. (No one who was sober, anyway.)

#173 ::: TexAnne ::: (view all by) ::: July 10, 2006, 02:31 PM:

Ohhhh, you know, I think I remember the Nazi incident. Or at least hearing about it from people who were there.

#174 ::: JennR ::: (view all by) ::: July 11, 2006, 08:33 PM:

pat greene mentions the LSJUMB, and I am reminded that the MTU pep band is banned from every hockey arena in both its current and former leagues, because they tend to be loud and rowdy and override the home arena advantage (at least according to the athletic directors at those other schools).

The "that's all right, that's OK, you'll be working for us someday" chant is also a staple at Tech games, although not so much now that the football team has gotten good. (Tech fans also sing in heaven there is no beer (and so we drink it here) and Engineers, although it's still not clear to me whether GaTech borrowed it from MTU or vice-versa.

#175 ::: Rikibeth ::: (view all by) ::: July 13, 2006, 07:25 PM:

Oh, so tempting to drive to Brooklyn, but my partner-in-crime insists that if we're driving that far tomorrow we're not indulging my nostalgia, we're going even further to see Street Drum Corps in Southampton, since they're HER obsession, and as I have to be somewhere at 8:30 on Saturday morning, I don't think either of these is going to happen.

Neither is Reel Big Fish. My daughter declined. :(

But the Dropkick Murphys were wonderful, and the "allez" chant made an appearance in the opening band Madball's set, and there are other shows coming up soon, especially the Nassau Coliseum Warped date, so I am not entirely bereft.

#176 ::: Kevin Doran ::: (view all by) ::: July 19, 2006, 09:16 AM:

I think it's a more Oi-oi!-esque 'We gon' score one more than you.' But what do i know; i fucking hate that song.

#177 ::: siriosa ::: (view all by) ::: July 20, 2011, 02:06 AM:

Marching bands: It always tickles me that the drills the Cal (Berkeley) Band do (stadium stairclimbing among them) are too tough for the football team.

At least, that's what my friend who was in the Cal band told me.

#178 ::: abi ::: (view all by) ::: July 20, 2011, 03:19 PM:

siriosa @177:
It always tickles me that the drills the Cal (Berkeley) Band do (stadium stairclimbing among them) are too tough for the football team.

Having seen Cal play football, I believe your source.

#179 ::: Carrie S. sees spam ::: (view all by) ::: March 06, 2012, 10:34 AM:

OK, I admit I can't say for sure it's spam, because I don't read German (?). But it looks spammy.

#180 ::: Xopher HalfTongue agrees that Carrie S. has found SPAM ::: (view all by) ::: March 06, 2012, 11:09 AM:

Yeah, that's a generic "this is great, maybe I should start writing my own blog" comment on this ancient thread.

#181 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: March 06, 2012, 11:46 AM:

Totally spam. Soon to die.

The ones without links are the hardest to filter.

#182 ::: Xopher HalfTongue ::: (view all by) ::: March 06, 2012, 12:10 PM:

But James, they're easy! You have us, your legion of Focused spam detectors!

#183 ::: P J Evans sees spam ::: (view all by) ::: March 19, 2021, 10:34 PM:

Longwinded spam with a malformed text link.

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