there goes july 
Arsenal Anthem – the vote is on (2/7)
-
gooner.ed
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3458
- Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 3:05 pm
- Location: Scotland Yard's 10 Most Wanted List
Arsenal Anthem – the vote is on (2/7)
usual thread starter... am i relieved to say the vote is now live. so continue the debate here, or on one of the existing threads. important to remember is that the club are looking at several options so if what you feel is a suitable option not on the shortlist, and not already proposed on one of the relevant threads on the forum, by all means suggest it here. er.. anyone fancy compiling a complete list of everything suggested to forward to the club? only if you've got some serious spare time to plough through all the threads. or maybe i'll have to do it myself there goes july
there goes july -
Desert_Gooner
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:02 pm
Anthem?
This whole think stinks of a stupid PR man, much like the one who came up with the "let's all shout out player's names" idea.
It was stupid and out of character for us. Why do we want to get involved in this crass marketing effort?
If we MUST have an anthem, it should be something traditionally associated with the club, and I'm sorry, but that can only be WHISPERING GRASS.
It was stupid and out of character for us. Why do we want to get involved in this crass marketing effort?
If we MUST have an anthem, it should be something traditionally associated with the club, and I'm sorry, but that can only be WHISPERING GRASS.
-
mattbanger
- Posts: 151
- Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:11 pm
I can't seriously believe as a club we are doing this!! But to make things worse "to dream an imposible dream is winning" 
There is only one song that would work on that list and that is bridge over troubled water! just run the words through your head in the style of a football crowd!! it works!!!
But all of this relies on the boring old fans singing their team on!! which im sad to say doesn't happen enough!!
Rant over!
There is only one song that would work on that list and that is bridge over troubled water! just run the words through your head
in the style of a football crowd!! it works!!! But all of this relies on the boring old fans singing their team on!! which im sad to say doesn't happen enough!!
Rant over!
-
nuttygoonerpaul
- Posts: 874
- Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:50 pm
- Location: enfield
-
Eboue Can't Defend
- Posts: 637
- Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 3:45 pm
- Location: LONDON
-
Eboue Can't Defend
- Posts: 637
- Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 3:45 pm
- Location: LONDON
-
All_Arsenal_1886
- Posts: 1785
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:32 pm
- Location: South London/Benalmadena
- Contact:
Impossible dream is the best; slow and builds up to a chorus. Can imagine 60k people belching it with tears down their eyes when we win the champions league!
p.s. ed try and contact arsenal mania and see if they want to put it on their home page with a link to the referendum, and try to contact other forums.
p.s. ed try and contact arsenal mania and see if they want to put it on their home page with a link to the referendum, and try to contact other forums.
-
gooner.ed
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3458
- Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 3:05 pm
- Location: Scotland Yard's 10 Most Wanted List
Eboue Can't Defend wrote:How comes The Hollies have two entries: He Ain't Heavy and He's My Brother?
html error apparently. as there is a comma in the song it f**ked everything up and the software read it as 2 choices. corrected now. not sure if we will be able to re-attribute 'lost' votes to that one that never registered on the first day of voting, but we will see. just as well this vote is only to give the club a nudge in the right direction rather than the determining factor, given that.
as for wonderwall. it was felt that oasis = man city a little too strongly, and that the song was a little too recent. so for those two reasons it didn't make the shortlist. great song i'll grant you. but those chosen are all well established in terms of age and (i think) do not have strong associations with any other club.
-
Eboue Can't Defend
- Posts: 637
- Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 3:45 pm
- Location: LONDON
First of all, I want to stress that I am in favour of a fan anthem. The worry I have is that the list of songs from which we are choosing hasn't anything appropriate enough on it, and we will end up with something no-one is satisfied with.
I've said before elsewhere that I would rather we took our time and got an anthem the majority can live with and grow to love, rather than push ahead in haste and end up with a damp squib that only a few hundred will sing.
Without wanting to slight any of my fellow gooners who have contributed ideas for songs, most of the time they haven't thought it through enough and chosen something that is either difficult to sing; has a key change within the tune that would be difficult to reach; is too long; too boring; too slow; too fast; not melodic enough; has chorus's that are good, but verses that are not - or visa-versa; have an emotional effect if you're singing them to your girl, but to a group of blokes?; have lyrics that are not inspiring or giving out the right message; is too old or just too bad!! What is the problem with having something a bit more modern?
Bridge Over Troubled Water - verse to chorus key change too difficult/too slow
Can't Help Falling In Love With You - sing that to your lady, not your team
Danny Boy - no for oh so many reasons!!
He.....Heavy.... My Brother - too slow and hardly going to inspire the team
I Only Have Eyes For You - too slow/inappropriate lyrics
Lean On Me - not inspiring enough melodically
Somewhere Over The Rainbow - is someone having a bubble?
Stand By Me - has too many gaps in between verse words and would be hard to keep it in time by thousands of people. Again, chorus lyrics not right to inspire team
Streets of London - the only reason I can think this made it onto the short list is because it has the word London in it!! So wrong in so many ways!
The Impossible Dream - no!no!no!no!no!no!no!!!!!! wrong message in lyrics/difficult key changes
I realise it must seem as if I am just finding reasons not to pick one, but like I said at the top of this piece, I really am in favour of an anthem - but not any old shit!! The rush to find something has led to a short list which frankly isn't good enough and smells of desparation.
Now that the whole idea of an anthem is out in the public domain, and in the minds of a lot of gooners, let's just take our time and something will organically present itself. The worse possible thing would be to force an anthem that is not natural, and would garner little participation.
Wonderwall was ruled out because it was written/sung by a couple of mancs, yet why should that be a barrier? Does anyone know the club allegencies - if any - of all the song writers on the list? No. So why should it matter if the song is going to be a popular one for us to sing?
Again, apologies if this post is negative but I truely want us to get this anthem business right so that we create our own piece of history for generations of gooners to follow.
I've said before elsewhere that I would rather we took our time and got an anthem the majority can live with and grow to love, rather than push ahead in haste and end up with a damp squib that only a few hundred will sing.
Without wanting to slight any of my fellow gooners who have contributed ideas for songs, most of the time they haven't thought it through enough and chosen something that is either difficult to sing; has a key change within the tune that would be difficult to reach; is too long; too boring; too slow; too fast; not melodic enough; has chorus's that are good, but verses that are not - or visa-versa; have an emotional effect if you're singing them to your girl, but to a group of blokes?; have lyrics that are not inspiring or giving out the right message; is too old or just too bad!! What is the problem with having something a bit more modern?
Bridge Over Troubled Water - verse to chorus key change too difficult/too slow
Can't Help Falling In Love With You - sing that to your lady, not your team
Danny Boy - no for oh so many reasons!!
He.....Heavy.... My Brother - too slow and hardly going to inspire the team
I Only Have Eyes For You - too slow/inappropriate lyrics
Lean On Me - not inspiring enough melodically
Somewhere Over The Rainbow - is someone having a bubble?
Stand By Me - has too many gaps in between verse words and would be hard to keep it in time by thousands of people. Again, chorus lyrics not right to inspire team
Streets of London - the only reason I can think this made it onto the short list is because it has the word London in it!! So wrong in so many ways!
The Impossible Dream - no!no!no!no!no!no!no!!!!!! wrong message in lyrics/difficult key changes
I realise it must seem as if I am just finding reasons not to pick one, but like I said at the top of this piece, I really am in favour of an anthem - but not any old shit!! The rush to find something has led to a short list which frankly isn't good enough and smells of desparation.
Now that the whole idea of an anthem is out in the public domain, and in the minds of a lot of gooners, let's just take our time and something will organically present itself. The worse possible thing would be to force an anthem that is not natural, and would garner little participation.
Wonderwall was ruled out because it was written/sung by a couple of mancs, yet why should that be a barrier? Does anyone know the club allegencies - if any - of all the song writers on the list? No. So why should it matter if the song is going to be a popular one for us to sing?
Again, apologies if this post is negative but I truely want us to get this anthem business right so that we create our own piece of history for generations of gooners to follow.
Last edited by Eboue Can't Defend on Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
Its Up 4 Grabs Now
- Posts: 4701
- Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:08 pm
Eboue...
I agree with a lot of your points on this and you make your arguements well. I would also rather we as Gooners adopted a song on our own terms. I have to admit i was initially in favour of this idea until i found out it was the club who approached the fans about it, rather than it being our own initiative.
My worry is that whereas the likes of Liverpool and WHU's anthems (and yes i am sick of hearing/talking about Liverpool's so-called "amazing" fans as well) were in all likelihood adopted by the fans first for whatever reason and then the club began playing the songs as a pre-match ritual after a history/tradition of the fans singing the given song had been established, this initiative by Arsenal seems to be in the opposite (and in my opinion, wrong) order!
If the club tries to force a song/anthem on the fans (even one that most fans agree on) before any tradition of singing it has been established then the whole initiative will become a laughing stock when nobody joins in to sing, and once that stigma has been attached to the whole anthem idea the chances of it taking off are about as slim as a Peter Crouch/Amy Winehouse love child. And what a beautiful thought that is!
My only hope in that scenario would be that in response, us Gooners might make a concerted effort during matches to be more vocal with our own songs and chants - something which i personally feel quite passionate about.
I would prefer if this was an initiative between the likes of RedAction, the Away Boyz and any and all other active Arsenal supporters groups (without the club's involvement initially) so we can build up a traditional song/anthem more organically. I cringe everytime i see Chavski waving their shitey flags at european matches... it all looks as staged and propoganda-ish as one of those Nazi rallies in Germany before the war. Please let's not go down the same soulless road as those bastards in blue!
I am very much in favour of an anthemic song (one that's unique to Arsenal) for us all to sing, i just think if it's our song it should be on our terms!
I dont agree with you ECD though on the point that some of the songs listed wouldnt make good football songs due to issues over the lyrics, etc. Surely some of those songs with lyrics adapted to suit Arsenal would sound at least quite good. For example (and purely as an example), i'm not sure about Danny Boy melodically but lyrically if went something like this it would at least have some relevance (original version in italic, Arsenal version in bold...obviously):
Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside
The summer's gone, and all the leaves are falling
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
Oh Gooner Boys, i hear your greatness calling
From Highbury, to Europe and beyond
You can stand tall, cos even when you’re falling
We’ll pick you up, and come back twice as strong
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
For I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
In red and white, or on the road in yellow
We’ll follow you, wherever you may go
We will be here, in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Gooner boys, Gooner boys, we love you so.
I agree with a lot of your points on this and you make your arguements well. I would also rather we as Gooners adopted a song on our own terms. I have to admit i was initially in favour of this idea until i found out it was the club who approached the fans about it, rather than it being our own initiative.
My worry is that whereas the likes of Liverpool and WHU's anthems (and yes i am sick of hearing/talking about Liverpool's so-called "amazing" fans as well) were in all likelihood adopted by the fans first for whatever reason and then the club began playing the songs as a pre-match ritual after a history/tradition of the fans singing the given song had been established, this initiative by Arsenal seems to be in the opposite (and in my opinion, wrong) order!
If the club tries to force a song/anthem on the fans (even one that most fans agree on) before any tradition of singing it has been established then the whole initiative will become a laughing stock when nobody joins in to sing, and once that stigma has been attached to the whole anthem idea the chances of it taking off are about as slim as a Peter Crouch/Amy Winehouse love child. And what a beautiful thought that is!
My only hope in that scenario would be that in response, us Gooners might make a concerted effort during matches to be more vocal with our own songs and chants - something which i personally feel quite passionate about.
I would prefer if this was an initiative between the likes of RedAction, the Away Boyz and any and all other active Arsenal supporters groups (without the club's involvement initially) so we can build up a traditional song/anthem more organically. I cringe everytime i see Chavski waving their shitey flags at european matches... it all looks as staged and propoganda-ish as one of those Nazi rallies in Germany before the war. Please let's not go down the same soulless road as those bastards in blue!
I am very much in favour of an anthemic song (one that's unique to Arsenal) for us all to sing, i just think if it's our song it should be on our terms!
I dont agree with you ECD though on the point that some of the songs listed wouldnt make good football songs due to issues over the lyrics, etc. Surely some of those songs with lyrics adapted to suit Arsenal would sound at least quite good. For example (and purely as an example), i'm not sure about Danny Boy melodically but lyrically if went something like this it would at least have some relevance (original version in italic, Arsenal version in bold...obviously):
Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside
The summer's gone, and all the leaves are falling
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
Oh Gooner Boys, i hear your greatness calling
From Highbury, to Europe and beyond
You can stand tall, cos even when you’re falling
We’ll pick you up, and come back twice as strong
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
For I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
In red and white, or on the road in yellow
We’ll follow you, wherever you may go
We will be here, in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Gooner boys, Gooner boys, we love you so.
