The focus of this pod is when Jackie Charlton was the boss so we are looking at Euro ’88, Italia ’90 and USA ’94. The golden era for Irish international football.

Because of the limit I set for the pods (keep the length under an hour) it was very hard to select which tunes to include. I once again called upon our football and musical consultant Fredorrarci from the occasionally visited Sport Is A TV Show because it was he who first found all the Ireland-related European/World Cup songs.

I read his reply to my email, took in his thoughts and then pretty much ignored most of it. Apologies to you Fredo, but because of the number of songs and time constraints I had to be tough with the selections.

So here now is the latest FootieAndMusic Podcast – Dreaming of Ireland:

Tracklisting:

1. [audio] Jackie Charlton interview before the 1988 European Cup
2. [audio] Ray Houghton goal v England at Euro ’88 (Danish or Swedish commentary ?)
3. The Pogues – Fiesta
4. [audio] Ronnie Whelan’s goal v Soviet Union at Euro ’88
5. Christie Moore – Joxer Goes To Stuttgart (live)
6. Dublin City Ramblers – The Boys In Green
7. Dermot Morgan – What A Beautiful Team
8. Republic Of Ireland Football Squad – Put’em Under Pressure
9. [audio] Kevin Sheedy’s goal v England – World Cup 1990
10. Watch Your House – Ooh Aah Paul McGrath
11. The Memories – The Game
12. [audio] From the film The Van – the penalty shoot out v Romania at Italia ’90
13. The Dubliners & The Pogues – Jack’s Heroes
14. Charlie O’Neill and the Goal Celebrities – Drive it Jack
15. Against The Grain – On The Ball
16. [audio] Ray Houghton’s goal v Italy at the 1994 World Cup
17. One Hit Wonder – Ole 94
18. Dr Morgan – That Old Jack Magic
19. [audio] Jack Charlton and John Aldridge go mental at the officials in the match v Mexico
20. Born Na Gaeilge – Seo Linn Go Mherica
21. Paddy Reilly, Ray Treacy And Shamrock Rovers Squad – Thank You Jack

Additionally…

I really wanted to include all of Fredorrarci’s suggestions but as mentioned… I have though previously posted the World Cup songs by Dermot Morgan here and here.

Additional to the additional:

The band The Dublin City Ramblers, like Dermot Morgan sang a few songs about football.
One of them was included in the podcast and there’s two more here:

[See post to listen to audio] » Dublin City Ramblers – Que Sera Sera [See post to listen to audio] » Dublin City Ramblers – You’ll Never Beat The Irish

It is with thanks to @Dunnie77 for the suggestion of the Ireland theme.

You have the:

With:

The German National football team (Die Deutsche Fussballnationalmannschaft)

you throw in the following:

…and you get:

Did you see him ? Did you spot Jürgen really getting into it ?
This must have been the moment when he decided that California was in his future.

» Die Deutsche Fussballnationalmansschaft – Far Away In America

But wait ! There’s more !

There was an album.

I don’t have the entire thing but thanks to popmoderne.de we have some more tracks in which the German team sang in collaboration with…

[See post to listen to audio] » The Scorpions and Die Fussball Nationalmannschaft – No Pain No Gain » United We’ll Go Sadly I don’t have the one with Nicole (remember her from Eurovision 1982 – A Little Peace) they sang together that It’s Just A Game !

- Oh and don’t forget to throw another certain cheezy American act in the mix:

[See post to listen to audio]
» David Hasselhoff – The Best Is Yet To Come

And Finally:

To clear that taste out of our mouth – this track from previously featured band:

[See post to listen to audio] » Die Prinzen – Überall

So let the hype begin.

If you want to get yourself in the mood then there’s some very nice 2010 World Cup wallpapers here.

- and I’ll do my bit to stir things up with the following:

Air Miami were a band, unsurprisingly, from Miami. The song “World Cup Fever” was originally featured on the band’s full-length debut, Me, Me, Me, in 1995. The song was inspired by the 1994 World Cup and then in 1998 – in time for the WC in France, they released an EP with various remixes.  » More info

[See post to listen to audio] » Guy Fixen Mix [See post to listen to audio] » Mac Mccaughan Mix [See post to listen to audio] » The Sun Was Invented To Shine On Skyscrapers Mix [See post to listen to audio] » Trevor Kampmann Mix [See post to listen to audio] » Demolition Recording [See post to listen to audio] » Pitch Recognition Mix

Extra Time – A bonus song for you:

[See post to listen to audio] » Air Miami – Adidas My Ass (Demo)

Oh I give up.

I got some great responses and yesterday I posted the first one about an outstanding defender and today is the second one – and like the previous this one is also a tune that everyone knows, but this time because it borrow from a previously recorded song.

Firstly a big hello and thanks to Fredorrarci from the Sport Is A TV Show blog. It will be added to the Friendlies and I recommend that you visit. His writings is better that what I can…err…write…

He let me know of a defender who played for that team but was one of those who you would have liked to have seen play for your lot. (Apart from Wayne Bridge, I don’t want to see him play anywhere… ).

But this isn’t about his club exploits… although I will mention in passing that Paul McGrath had his demons and hit the bottle a few times, I’m glad to report that he hasn’t followed Gazza into the gutter. He was there, but is doing much better now… it was his national service which gave reason for some people to burst into song.

It was 1994 and Big Jack and his boys had managed to qualify for their 2nd World Cup in a row.
As usual there was a trip to the recording studios before their journey to the tournament in the USA .

I can’t find any more info about who these people were, but some musicians or producers under the name of “Watch Your House” recorded a tribute song but with a difference – they actually got the man himself to appear on the record.

Last Minute Update: I’d like to break into my own posting here to tell you about a late find…

This wasn’t the first time.

I discovered by accident, that a certain somebody had got in before them.

I was searching for extra background information and stumbled across a very short mention on Wikipedia on another recording about the same subject.

Before his “big break” thanks to Father Ted, the beautiful and much missed Dermot Morgan was famous in Ireland at the time because of his RTE Radio 1 show Scap Saturday. Then in 1990 for their qualification to the finals in Italy he recorded a rap song…

[See post to listen to audio]
» Dermot Morgan – World Cup Rap (Paul McGrath)

- Going back to what I started talking about and the 1994 song with guest vocals from:

[See post to listen to audio]
» Watch Your House featuring Paul McGrath – Ooh Ahh Paul McGrath

So it is double your pleasure on this post. (Oh here I go again…) Two songs about one man and because of these he will make the F&M 1st IX.

Which one I prefer I don’t know – What do you think ?

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.

–

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

[See post to listen to audio]
» James – Goal Goal Goal

–

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.