Football and Music

- A postscript to the postscript and this is the final, final word on Euro 2008. Honestly.

Parisa mailed me to let me know about a segment on the very excellent Current TV in which they talk about how the various countries football fans have taken the guitar riff from the White Stripes - “7 Nations Army” and made it their own.
Douglas Caballero from the DailyFix is your guide to the White Stripes Euro Cup….

There’s a dance remix..? I must have it.

Back in a sec…

…

Ah ! Got it. Someone posted a comment on the Current TV > DailyFix page above with a link to a YouTube clip with the remixed version :

» Fan Project - Seven Nation Army (Soccer Fan Remix)

A postscript to all the happenings that happened in the last three weeks - Here’s another one I wish I found earlier but am glad I discovered them anyway.

It’s another Swiss band who sing in English (the other previously mentioned here) and after listening to a few of their songs I am publicly stating here and now:

Their music is catchy and instantly memorable, I’m surprised that they haven’t caught on everywhere yet. They need to be.

I realise that not everybody in enamored with football and music and as we know on the occasion that one of the home nations actually do qualify for some finals… there is the inevitable avalanche of songs that follow.

Linus Maybe also recognised this when they recorded the following…

» linus.maybe - notanotherfootballsong

…which from the Google translation of their news page tells me that a local Basel radio station was looking for their own song for Euro 2008 and the listeners voted this as their favourite.

I have to tell you I love this track. Love it, love it. This has now become the official F&M song.

Bonus track: They have a music page in which you can hear some of their tracks, plus you can download a couple of them.

- This is another particular standout track which has a tongue in cheek reference to Oasis and the whole rock star thing:

» linus.maybe - rockstar

Links:
- Linus Maybe on MySpace
- Linus Maybe on YouTube

…and so we come back to the beginning…

So how come Vienna got one of the Semi’s and the Final ? The Swiss got jipped there. (Corrected. Thanks gordie)

I know that Basel hosted the opening ceremony and game of the tournament but how many people remember either of these two events now ?

» In a slightly related note and an opportunity for a very tenuous link… Freddy G contacted me to ask:

“… Nobody in Austria sang about the team then, which was hardly surprising. - But what about posting some music from an Austrian artist ? Come on there must be some decent groups from there ?”

Well Freddy there isn’t.

You’d think with them having such a rich musical heritage that there would be something out there, but Austria is better known for it’s classical music and lesser known for any popular music - apart from…

The late great Falco was pretty much dismissed as a novelty act because of that song, but he had other releases including one about his home city:

» Falco - Vienna Calling (Single Version)

» Falco - Vienna Calling (Tek Mix)

- of course there was… which I still love to this day:

» Rock Me Amadeus (Single Version)

» Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (Salieri Version)

- Here’s something not many of you may know: The song “Der Kommissar” was originally recorded and released (in German) by Falco a year before the band “After The Fire” translated and did their English cover version.

The original…

» Falco - Der Kommissar (Album Version)

The cover…

» After The Fire - Der Kommissar (Long Version)

I know none of these are about footie. I’m indulging myself.

You know apart from one report I haven’t seen or heard of any other bits of trouble at the tournament.

Good stuff. Great news that. Long may it continue.

- There’s a German band called “Under Pressure” who did this video in which they sing about digging football and not hooliganism. The lyrics to the song and the video is very clichéd, but more power to them for doing this. Football is about football and not about fighting.

A translation of the text accompanying the YouTube clip:

“Music clip of the band UNDER PRESSURE for Euro 2008
A contribution against violence and hooliganism in the context of football!”

This is something I wish I found at the beginning of the tournament, but oh well.

Fatman Scoop is an American artist who like Sydney Youngblood and Terrance Trent D’arby is more well known in Europe than his homeland. In fact he’s big in Switzerland… I’m not saying that because he is a big bloke but because his stuff has charted there.

Scoop’s style is a shouty, he has a loud rough but memorable voice. He has featured on a number of artist singles including Timberlake.

He had a top 10 single in the UK back in 2004 and currently he’s doing a popular sex and relationship podcast show called Man and Wife.

…

Before the tournament the Swiss got Fatman Scoop to do a song for the finals, a song that has a positive message and celebrates the event.

Here is that song plus a couple of remixes:

Video:

Audio: