What's football without a sing-song?

According to most nothing beats becoming a world class footballer. Doing what you love and getting paid more in a week than the number you can count up to. Being adored by thousands and hovering up 'clunge' like it's going out of fashion. The beauty of the football melody is that no matter how rich, foreign and talented the player on the pitch is, nothing can stop Dave from down the road screaming abuse at him from the terraces on a Saturday afternoon.

 

The soccer singalong has a vast history and can be traced back to 19^th century. Norwich City's 'On The Ball City' is seen as the oldest anthem still in use. Our footy hymns became popular in the 1950s, influenced by Brazil who spurred on their team to a samba beat. Pop music had an influence on the chants of Liverpool in '60s due to the success of the Beatles and this is when aspects like rhyme and repetition played an important role. The rise of hooliganism in the 1970s led fans to adapt pop hits due to their desire for 'aggro'.

 

However most chants heard today will have specific targets. I think that the tidal wave of jealousy we get while watching these individuals causes us to verbally blitz them in this way. Some attacks on players I've come across include "Ten men went to lift, went to lift Frank Lampard. Ten men and their forklift truck went to lift Frank Lampard" also a player named Andy Goram returned after being diagnosed with schizophrenia to a chorus of "There's only two Andy Gorams, two Andy Gooooorams". The thing that always really baffles me about a football melody is how they are born in the first place. I can never get my head around how they go from a couple of balding, beer drinking geezers, sipping a pint of wife-beater down the local, to a well known anthem that can be confidently sung by a chorus of terrace overlords on matchday, even if it's about events that happened just days before. Or how the rhymes and references can catch on in a flash and stick around for years. What's so special about them?

 

I've discovered that there are several secrets to a knock-out footy tune. Firstly a good rhyme, however simple, is a must and found in most chants. Also a tonne of repetition is key as I found with "Could be worse, we could be Leeds, could be worse, we could be Leeds" and so on. As in most poems, a footy ballad works well with a good story. Or occasionally a chant can catch on with words that aren't actually proper words - "De de de de, de de de der. De de de de, de de de der. De de de de, de de de der, De de de de, de de de der" is a tune sung by the Middlesbrough faithful entitled 'Pigbag'.

 

Another mysterious aspect of the chant is how most football fanatics are characterised to be a few beers short of a six pack yet the professors of the pitch still manage to concoct a pretty decent rhyme as soon as the clock strikes three and nearly all include a handful of language devices. Maybe the terrace monkeys aren't so dense after all. 

Luke Fortmann