The search for an Arsenal ‘anthem’ (18/6)

[AndyBlock19]

The Impossible Dream gets my vote! To those who says it starts slow and takes time to get going, so what! You'll Never Walk Alone hardly rips in with Drum N' Bass does it?!

The Impossible Dream will at last (I hope) get the 54,000 or so home fans singing something AS ONE and singing something other than Stand Up if You Hate Tottenham blah blah - so boring, and on European nights, so irrelevant it's untrue.

If we can add some player songs to an Anthem for next season then I'd be in heaven (Gilberto for example) - anything to stop 2nd rate London teams coming to our place singing "It's still a library!", which may be true at times, but on the whole it's improving.

Make Impossible Dream Reality!!

[dennis_10]

I don't mind Impossible Dream, as long as people get behind something.

Anyway, something needs doing, but i don't understand what's wrong with The Green Green Grass of Home- it is infinitely easier to sing than impossible dream, something you can sway to, has an easy peasy chorus, references the 'old house' and i think it's pretty stirring actually.

What's the issue eh?

[MK Gould]

Patronising Pilchard Mr MK.....

Bloody hell !! I've been called a lot of things in my time - but pilchard is a 1st. Good to see that I at least got you to suggest something positive this time around. I like Daltry's Highbury High - It didn't go down too well at the last game at Highbury, but its catchy enough to think that it might go down well if given enough airplay. John Lydon? Oh yes, I'd like to see RedAction or the gooner convincing the club to play that one....

[springbok]

What about the 60s Bachelor song "I believe"? Stirring and easily adaptable words.

[Herd]

I suggested some of Ray Davies' work for consideration mainly on the grounds that several of the songs in his back catalogue fulfil the stated criteria and the fact he happens to be a Gooner makes it so much the better.

I have doubts whether asking him or any other gifted Gooner like Mr Lydon to write something new, as Herd now suggests, would achieve the required result. Anyone heard Roger Daltrey's ditty again since the farewell to Highbury? Or wanted to hear it? Thought not.

Part of the appeal and longevity of the bin dippers' 'Sign on' anthem is that it has f all to do with football in general, or their Club in particular. It was written by bin dippers though.

To be fair Daltry never wrote for the Who but i thought Highbury High was a good effort.

The problem with any anthem is that u have to get people to sing it.
With the fans we have now,they wont sing any tune ,but they might record others singing on their mobiles whilst people in pink hats tell them to sit down.

Didnt realise Rogers and Hammerstein were scousers though ?

[ian-afc]

I'M WITH SHANE F ON THIS ONE , I THINK THIS SONG WOULD BE GREAT TO USE.

STAND BY ME by BEN E KING

IT'S EMOTIVE AND FOR ME I'LL ALWAYS STAND BY THEM WHATEVER.

[gooner.ed]

The problem is we have supporters who watch Arsenal as a pastime not as a passion.

For all the efforts of the well meaning Red Action mob we will never get the old atmosphere back and putting up a stupid anthem will make us a laughing stock.

When I saw the list I thought it was a Joke and began to laugh but now i see your serious .

Im not sure who the folks of the Gooner think they are but they dont represent me OR the vast majority of Old School Gooners who are most peturbed by this latest attempt by the trainspotters to drag our proud name through the gutter

Angry of Aberdeen Park !

well all we try and do is provide a platform for debate, but there is one policy of which we are guilty. and that is wanting a better atmosphere at home matches. there are many different ways of achieving this. the suggestion of an anthem is only one. the choices listed were those based upon two months of debate by all interested parties who contributed to a thread on the forum. some of them i do not like myself, but the problem with democracy is that what is most popular is not always what an individual would choose. i accept that some people are going to fold their arms and refuse to have anything to do with attempts to improve things at the new stadium. fair enough. you pay your money, you do as you please. all those such as redaction and the people within the club who are trying to improve things can do is attempt to change the habits of the majority. never will we have 60,423 people singing an anthem. but if, on big nights, 40,000 will join in we will have one hell of an atmoshpere before the teams enter. YNWA is played over the PA before games at Anfield to cue up the crowd. The timing of that song is only organic during injury time at the end of the game. Before the match, the club starts it off. That is what the club will do at Arsenal once an anthem has been decided upon.

if you enjoy the current pre-match atmosphere, good on you. but i don't. we need something to lift the atmosphere aside from the bayern munich call and response thing with the players names. the anthem suggestion is only one initiative. there will be more over the course of the next few months as the gooner, in co-operation with redaction/redsection, the club (where relevant) and any other interested parties. we are trying to work against the tide of what football has become to actually turn arsenal's new stadium into a place where our players feel at home and the opposition do not. at the moment, much of the time it is pretty neutral.

you may not like the attempts to change this situation. i would be intrigued to hear any suggestions you and other doom-mongers may have. the 1970s and 1980s are gone. sad but true. football will never be like that again for obvious reasons. we have to now make the best of the situation and try to get an atmosphere going in whatever ways we can. an anthem is one. so we are going to give it a try. if you don't like it, simple. don't join in.

we don't claim to represent anybody, just provide a platform for supporters interested in moving things forward for the best of the club. you don't like the way we are doing it, fair enough. maybe the herd website can offer an alternative, assuming that's where your loyalties lie.

[ruthless]

Look, if the debate is about whether to have a debate, we'll just end up in the comic inactivity of the Judean Peoples' Front in the Life of Brian.

Anthem = atmosphere. Selecting a tune is the first stage of a probably hard slog to get it adopted.

Be constructive.

Like me...

Hersham Boys by Sham 69 (again, no-one took it up the first time)

Mind you, anything by John Lydon's ok by me.

[Anyone For Peanuts]

Rather than continuing the interminable wait for an anthem to occur organically, I'm all for another attempt being made to introduce an anthem - and I'm old enough to remember the Club trying to foist "Red Barrel" on us. javascript:emoticon(':oops:')
Embarassed

But why not consider something written by a Gooner?

I don't have time to read through all the previous posts to check if I'm repeating another suggestion here, but I'm referring to our very own Ray Davies of The Kinks, writer of several excellent potential contenders that fulfil all the criteria.

Ray's hits include "You Really Got Me", "Waterloo Sunset", "Sunny Afternoon", "Lola", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "All Day and All of the Night" and "Celluloid Heroes". My own suggestion would be "You Really Got Me".

I suggested "You Really Got Me" on a previous thread about anthems.

On reflection it's probably not an anthem but would be a good song to sing and to be associated with the team, similar to teams such as West Ham singing Twist and Shout.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'.
Girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I can't sleep at night.

Girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I don't know where I'm goin',
Girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I can't sleep at night.

You really got me
You really got me
You really got me

Please, don't ever let me go,
I always wanna be by your side.
Please don't ever let me go,
I always wanna be by your side.

Oh girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'.
Girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I can't sleep at night.

You really got me
You really got me
You really got me

(SOLO)

Girl, you really got me now,
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'.
Oh yeah, you really got me now,
You got me so I can't sleep at night.

You really got me
You really got me
You really got me

[MK Gould]

Sham 69

If we were going for something from this era then I'd prefer for it to be associated with a gooner. John Lydon, Roger Daltry? Sham 69 did once have a song which included a United chant, which could mean West Ham infuence. Albeit that they come from Hersham in Surrey, so more likely ManUre!

[ruthless]

Yeah, I know, I know. I just think that the songs that people have come up with make me want to fall asleep. It's obviously difficult to find something that fits across the diverse cross section of society that constitute the Arsenal fans, let alone their different ages. Let's have something a little bit rousing.

[whl7104]

To begin:

Yes, this has been discussed, but it is a relevant point:

This past season, I flew over from my exile at university in the US to make my pilgrimage to the Grove. I was accompanied by 4 mates (all local lads) and we all sat in the same row. During an early point in the game after the early build-up has subsided and the hush was overtaking we started attempting to sing, my mates had advised me that we would probably be the only ones, and lo and behold, they were correct. One cheeky punter even turned to us and said "well, looks like that's not catching on" to which my mate replied "Well then sing up" to be laughed at by the guy.

5 minutes later, a steward came over and told us to sit down and be quiet because we were disturbing a fellow patron, when we asked who (the people behind us were standing as well) we were showed who it was... A corpulent female yank wearing a ridiculously stupid looking pink cowboy hat who was stuffing a chip into her face.

So we waited 15 minutes, then started singing "Come on Arsenal" again as the action had died down and the team looked as if they were going through the motions, when the supporters help the most. 5 minutes later, the steward is back, the same person, with the same problem. So I looked at him, and I asked if football had changed much in the 1 year I'd been in the States, as I was able to stand and sing for much of the game in the Clock End. He asked me to just sit and be quiet...

But I persisted, saying that after all costs of getting to London, getting a hotel, plus my ticket to the match I'd spent approx. 800 quid, and if I was going to spend that much to see the 1 football game I was going to get in 2 years at the least (life is tough for a working class 21 year old student, even with the jobs) I was going to enjoy it. He was disinterested and walked away.

60th minute, things were picking up on the pitch, other sections of the ground were starting to make some noise, my mates and I start, and 5 minutes later we're asked to leave, as we'd bothered the manatee with the *******. I WAS KICKED OUT. For singing. Nothing bad either, we didn't even swear, and I WAS KICKED OUT, 800 quid, for 70 minutes of football (which is what some of our season ticket holders who don't bother to show up on time or decide to leave pay, but they get more than 1 game). I certainly didn't have the dosh for that.

And I know others with very similar experiences.

And you think you're going to convince these people we need and anthem????? In 1 section maybe 35 people will sing, while the rest look at you like you have 8 heads and tell you to sit down and shut up because they're trying to watch the game, and that'll be one of the better sections.

So, with the naff bunch of songs being discussed, you'd be lucky if anyone sang at all.

But I like the idea of a song, and I wish to contribute, so I look to the past, our past, for a song that should be our anthem...

Gunners, Kings of London.

It's Us, it's not some naff pop song, but something right off the terraces, where some of the best songs have come from, the older ones will know it. It expresses the truth, that we are the best team in London, Take that s***s and CSKA Fulham, real clubs have history. It expresses us as SUPPORTERS, something we get shit for from other clubs all over the nation.

So if you're going to choose an anthem, at least make it something having to do with the club.

PS. If anyone wants the lyrics feel free to ask.

[sebasvard]

To begin:

Yes, this has been discussed, but it is a relevant point:

This past season, I flew over from my exile at university in the US to make my pilgrimage to the Grove...

That is a completely disgraceful experience to have been through mate, commiserations and I'm sure you're not alone.

But I don't think the fact that a section of the home crowd (possibly a majority now?) aren't passionate enough, is a valid reason to abandon attempts to improve matters. It does feel forced, it does feel slightly pathetic, that we have to artificially construct atmosphere in this way. That is a result of changing social structures and the Sky/Playstation era where people just don't interact anymore, therefore the idea of singing in public is just embarassing for many. This is precisely why an official song might help. If they crank up the volume and make lyrics available for those that want them, I would say The Impossible Dream could be a rare moment of communal spirit for just about everyone at the ground. If the club are pushing this HARD then people's reservations will drop, the song will catch on, and we will have something very very rare in top class football and incredibly valuable to the team.

PS Have to just say that

the manatee with the *******

cracked me up no end xD

[Herd]

The problem is we have supporters who watch Arsenal as a pastime not as a passion.

For all the efforts of the well meaning Red Action mob we will never get the old atmosphere back and putting up a stupid anthem will make us a laughing stock.

When I saw the list I thought it was a Joke and began to laugh but now i see your serious .

Im not sure who the folks of the Gooner think they are but they dont represent me OR the vast majority of Old School Gooners who are most peturbed by this latest attempt by the trainspotters to drag our proud name through the gutter

Angry of Aberdeen Park !

well all we try and do is provide a platform for debate, but there is one policy of which we are guilty. and that is wanting a better atmosphere at home matches. there are many different ways of achieving this. the suggestion of an anthem is only one. the choices listed were those based upon two months of debate by all interested parties who contributed to a thread on the forum. some of them i do not like myself, but the problem with democracy is that what is most popular is not always what an individual would choose. i accept that some people are going to fold their arms and refuse to have anything to do with attempts to improve things at the new stadium. fair enough. you pay your money, you do as you please. all those such as redaction and the people within the club who are trying to improve things can do is attempt to change the habits of the majority. never will we have 60,423 people singing an anthem. but if, on big nights, 40,000 will join in we will have one hell of an atmoshpere before the teams enter. YNWA is played over the PA before games at Anfield to cue up the crowd. The timing of that song is only organic during injury time at the end of the game. Before the match, the club starts it off. That is what the club will do at Arsenal once an anthem has been decided upon.

if you enjoy the current pre-match atmosphere, good on you. but i don't. we need something to lift the atmosphere aside from the bayern munich call and response thing with the players names. the anthem suggestion is only one initiative. there will be more over the course of the next few months as the gooner, in co-operation with redaction/redsection, the club (where relevant) and any other interested parties. we are trying to work against the tide of what football has become to actually turn arsenal's new stadium into a place where our players feel at home and the opposition do not. at the moment, much of the time it is pretty neutral.

you may not like the attempts to change this situation. i would be intrigued to hear any suggestions you and other doom-mongers may have. the 1970s and 1980s are gone. sad but true. football will never be like that again for obvious reasons. we have to now make the best of the situation and try to get an atmosphere going in whatever ways we can. an anthem is one. so we are going to give it a try. if you don't like it, simple. don't join in.

we don't claim to represent anybody, just provide a platform for supporters interested in moving things forward for the best of the club. you don't like the way we are doing it, fair enough. maybe the herd website can offer an alternative, assuming that's where your loyalties lie.

Ed no need to throw the dummies out the pram,my comments are critical but please don't give me the "if u aint part of the solution your part of the problem" type of argument.
The songs you have chosen are nearly all 18 carrat crap,and whats more deep down you know it ,I may be harsh but im telling the truth.

The continuing chanting of the mantra "an anthem will improve atmosphere" is in my opinion fatally flawed.
Many of the so called fans we have dont want to sing and those
who try are subject to bieng thrown out or bieng banned,we see that happening every week.
The posters story of bieng thrown out for making a noise is not unique by any means.

If the Club thinks that people are going to sit glued to their seats whilst polite and hearty anthems are sung then they are misguided.
In reality though they actually dont give a flying F if theres atmosphere as long get the revenue they simply are playing you.

How ?

Gooner/red action complains theres no atmosphere ?
Club says : well come up with a solution
Gooner red/action;comes up with Dido singing Up you Arsenal
Anthems fails
Cubs says ...........well it was your idea not ours ?

meantime issues like overpricing,shit quality products,shit food and crap ber get swept under the carpet.

What i fear is that we will once again be made a laughing stock with this anthem thing and id rather do nothing rather than do something that makes matters worse.

I'l ignore the barbs about the Herd site ,I dont run it nor do i have anything to do with it except post on it ,as i post on a number of forums when alerted to issues i care about,trust this clears things up on that score.
Similarly il not go into the debate on the gooner and its patronising editorial staff,at the end of the day we are all Arsenal.


Im

[donaldo]

Right at the start of this debate my choice was "The wonder of you" by Elvis.It didn"t make the final short list but the great "Cant Help falling in love with you" did make it so that would be my first choice.I think 60,000 singing it would take the roof off. I also think "Stand by me" is a great shout. I just hope we have not been wasting our time and that the majority of fans will join in singing what ever song is chosen.As for the comments of Herd dont you think we are a laughing stock already because of our lack of vocal support.At least some fans are trying to change this.It was embarassing last season to hear West Ham fans singing"It still the library" Well done Gooner Ed for making an effort to change this.