Football and Music

Actually they did this song before they did the other one.

I am very familiar with the bands output but obviously not familiar enough.

The tune, which can be found on the B-side of the single Seven* wasn’t actually about football but about the state of human evolution.

* and on Ultra: B-Sides CD

Alright then…

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When you read the lyrics

» James - Goalie’s Ball

Thanks once again to sdg for mailing me about this one - and for…

Extra Time:

This post doesn’t end there though.

Whilst searching around for more info about the Goalie’s Ball song I stumbled across this place. If you are a fan of the band it is a gold mother mine.

From there I discovered the original 1989 version of their biggest and most well known song. This was originally released on Rough Trade before they signed to Sire Records and it was remixed and re-released.

The original Rough Trade single cover, as pointed out by sgd featured a Leeds United ‘keeper.
Bonus points to anybody who can name this player.

» James - Sit Down (Rough Trade 12″ Version)

A Footie & Music Appeal

This is the first in what I’m sure will be a series.

I want your half time songs. What music did you hear ALL the time during the break ? What was that one particular song did you hear over the tannoy week after week after week whilst you were standing there burning your lip on a streaming hot plastic cup filled with a coloured tasteless liquid they described as tea ?

Send me details on what song always annoyed you, or if didn’t irritate just stuck in your brain because of that repetitive chorus.

Send them to me via manager at footballandmusic co dot uk.

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I’ll start the ball rolling with one I heard every time, at every game plus when I was watching the half time reports on Grandstand.

Every time they threw it over to Sinstadt at Carrow Road you could hearing being played there too.

The name of the band was Ph.D which you might not remember that much, but you do remember the lead singer Jim Diamond who did that song…what was it.. “Hi Ho Silver”… it was the theme tune to that telly show…what was that now… forgot meself. I could google it but I can’t be arsed.

Anyhoddles this one was in the charts in the early 80’s and over the loudspeakers ever since:

» Ph.D - I Won’t Let You Down

- Next one is a contribution from Groundskeeper Willie’s exact twin DaveC and another early 80’s song which Stevie Wonder composed as part of a campaign to get Martin Luther King’s birthday recognised as a national holiday (in the USA).

Over the water and far away in Pittodrie it was played all the time:

» Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday

Other songs that people mailed in for submission:

  » Aswad - Don’t Turn Around
  » Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow
  » Elton John - Guess That’s Why They Call It/Blues

Boon. That was it.

Yes sir they did.

Markie emailed me exclaiming this after reading the posting about the World Cup official songs (1986-1994) and downloading tracks from the 1994 WC soundtrack which included a song from a certain Manchester band which I must agree, was a bit unexpected.

The song itself has some of the ingredients for that perfect footie song (with the noise of the crowd) and a chant-like single word chorus akin to the Olé ones posted the other day.

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Some interesting… lyrics in the song too. The first verse is:

“I’m in love with the football club
At the age of 7 my father took me
He got me hooked into this game
I’m a member of an ape like race in the final days of the 20th century
When we don’t win I go insane…”

» Click to read the full lyrics

» James - Goal Goal Goal

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I’m posting this because of Markie’s email and because JC over at the Vinyl Villain posted some obscure tracks by them the other day. Sadly though they are no longer available to download but you can still listen to them via the Hype Machine.

During the Euro 2008 tournament all the the fans chanted the “Woooah, Wooah Woah Woah, Woah…” the hook line from The White Stripes - 7 Nation Army. This trend actually started earlier but only came to recognition/gained mass popularity at the Finals.

But there’s another chant-like song which goes back, way back to who knows when.

I tried to research and find out about the history and origins of this tune but everything led to a dead end. If you have some knowledge then post it in the comments.

The words to the song are instantly memorable that even a one year old could recite it on demand. It goes like:
“Olé, Olé Olé Olé, Olé, Olé….”

The second line goes:
“Olé, Olé Olé Olé, Olé, Olé….”

The third line… < SNIP! >

- The earliest version recorded for prosperity… but maybe not because of another version I’ll mention below… was at the 1994 World Cup finals and was included on the official CD released back then.

The usual song lyric, the oft repeated line as you know is: Olé. But for some reason on the USA’94 version the title was changed to: Alé (That’s Al-lay and not ale).

For why is unclear but it is the same song. I seem to remember the Irish fans constantly chanting this at the tournament, maybe it was their influence onto some record producer who created this version..? I don’t know.

» The Crowd - Anthem (Alé, Alé, Alé)

-> Fast forward to the 2006 World Cup and that annoying Crazy Frog jumped on the bandwagon. (Yes there was a full album.)
What happened to everybody ? Were they brainwashed by the noise it made ?
The fat cat record execs inflicted this upon us and now everybody downloads instead of buying their overpriced CD’s. Revenge is sweet.

This version actually has a line of lyrics. Hard to believe but it’s true:

» Crazy Frog - Olé Olé Olé (Do The Froggy Wave)

Many years ago, in the early/mid 80’s I followed a non-league team around. I’ll name names, it was Barrow AFC.

At their home games, I don’t know who the MC was but found and played this next song as the running out music for the team years before there was running out music.

This one has actually has full - and very corny lyrics. It’s terrible but great at the same time. Of all the tracks posted here this is actually my favourite because it reminds me of the time back in Barrow and the fans who took up the chant: “Olé Olé Olé - we are Barroooowww/we are Barroowww…”

Again I don’t know where the original came from or who originally wrote it. Would love to find out more.

Update: Searching for an image to go with the track I found this page. It says it was from 1987 - Is this the original ? Is my memory faulty and I heard the song playing over the PA later than I thought ?

» The Fans - Olé Olé Olé (The Name Of The Game)

and finally…

What if I said to you that Brian Harvey, the king of chavs, the English equivalent of Vanilla Ice had collaborated on a single with Wyclef Jean (under the name Refugee Crew) and the song included Olé Olé Olé in the chorus. Would you believe me ? Well it happened…

» Brian Harvey and The Refugee Crew - Loving You (Ole Ole Ole)

» Time for another versus…

This is an interactive post where you choose the winner.

The last time we did this was with a compo between singing Middlesbore fans who did a song about their club. The final result went to Ewan Carmichael who won by a landslide.

Today it is a battle of the punk bands. But not between your usual suspects. This one pitches a couple of punk acts from the continent against each other.

Have a read of their bio, then listen to the song and vote afterwards to decide - Do you love or hate football ?

BUT TAKE NOTE… this isn’t actually about whether you actually do love or hate footie, that point is pretty moot since you are here reading this. The competition is about the song. Please take time to hear both tracks and then vote to decide if it is yah or nah:

- First up is a Dutch band “Speedtwins”, who were around in the original punk explosion of the 1970’s. They were the support band when the Sex Pistols toured the Netherlands and they released a punk cover version of The Who’s “My Generation”. Sadly the original lead singer died and eventually in the ’80’s they disbanded.

In 1978 they recorded this track which sounds like an anti-footie song, but was actually directed at the Argentinian junta that organised the ‘78 World Cup.

This one starts with a crowd noise and then… ah so this is where Fat Les got that drum beat from… then they do a version of a tune I posted about the other day. This time red is the colour:

» Speedtwins - Football Song

- Next is a current band: “Vanilla Muffins” who are from Switzerland. They are big footie fans and have recorded many songs on the subject of football. This is a general obsessed about the whole game sort of song:

» Vanilla Muffins - The Drug Is Football » Click for lyrics What´s the reason for your life, It´s a deadly poisoned knife when you go into the town just to see what´s down every day is like the other keep your fear undercover It´s the only way to pay for you addiction We live in one ghetto we´re not better boys the drug is football we live in one ghetto we got deadly bored but our drug is football You´re not the only one to think you had no fun but it ain´t no really good cause just for you to end it It could be the start of love take today without a drug It´s like the end of a beautiful friendship We live in one ghetto we´re not better boys the drug is football we live in one ghetto we got deadly bored but our drug is football

Now you’ve listened please vote »

The poll will close in a month. I will post more songs from the winner.