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Canary On The Wire

On The Ball City: The 2013 Version

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So were you also the mysterious ''Chop Suey'' behind the Pyongyang Daily Star''s You Say You Wanna Revolution? music column, before it was disappeared? I''d always wondered, as a regular reader/consumer during my internment back in ''92-''02.

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Thanks all for the continued support.

Just wanted to clear one thing up,

I KNOW it is ''scrimmage'', not ''scrummage''.

However, such is the prevalence of the mispronunciation among our support that I chose to not enunciate the ''i'' vowel sound properly, leaving it halfway between ''scrimmage'' and ''scrummage'', just for those who do chant ''scrummage''....it''s a dialectal variant of the word ''scrimmage'' anyway, I don''t see why so many people get their backs up about it

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[quote user="Lavanche"]

It is not perfect, but right way to go in my opinion and it would sound amazing if we would get +10k of our fans sing it around the CR :)[/quote]always used to start up at a night game. incredibly atmospheric rolling round the groundnot sure if the newbies realise it was usually something that was occasionally sung, rather than as now being shrieked out every 2 or 3 mins we need this to be sung at home to West Ham in Nov (5.45pm) - live on the TV going around the world ... supposedly 100''s millions watching, best time possible

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I''m in. What would be great would be to have played at the ground though, over the PA, every match before kick off. Then those who don''t know the actual song could learn it and soon it could be left to the crowd.

By the way, does anyone work at, or have contacts at BBC Radio Norfolk or NNR or any local stations to try and get it played?

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Absolutely fantastic effort, would love to hear this played at FCR!!

Just one thing though, not sure about the name dropping. I think it would work better if it was in reference to past legends such as Hucks, Holt, Roberts, Gunn, Keelen etc....just my opinion though.

Lets keep pestering McNally, I''ll drop him a tweet later...

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[quote user="Josh". Absolutely fantastic effort, would love to hear this played at FCR!!

Just one thing though, not sure about the name dropping. I think it would work better if it was in reference to past legends such as Hucks, Holt, Roberts, Gunn, Keelen etc....just my opinion though.

Lets keep pestering McNally, I''ll drop him a tweet later.. quote]

That''s actually not a bad point Josh. Particularly if this takes off, you wouldn''t want Isaac to have to change the names every year. Maybe Isaac, you could choose names of your, or your old mans, favourite Canary legends and do a tiny little rewrite lol.

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Yeh exactly, if it takes off then a version that doesn''t need to be updated every year would probably catch on better. Plus people would probably feel more nostalgic and emotional hearing the names of past City greats in such a wonderful update of OTBC. Players such as Pilks and Bassong are currently great players for us but probably haven''t worked their way into our hearts just yet...

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I''ve just had a quick listen... it''s a nice attempt, certainly different. And I do like your style.Although you asked what makes a good football song? I don’t really think folk songs are really right for football, more for a festival perhaps. Before a match there is a sense of ‘pre battle’ and a build-up, where we should be stirring the motions, summoning the feeling of adrenaline and not necessarily playing mellow camping themes. The best football anthems, and those which have remained timeless, are those that follow the simple rules:
  1. A constant beat and tempo throughout (generally a march-esque beat works best);
  2. A simple melody (no over complicated structures or dynamic changes);
  3. A crowd of singers (usually the team at the time singing as a group);
  4. Something that can’t be dated (not mentioning current managers or players etc.); and
  5. A style that doesn’t try to be too experimental or overtly modern (or it ironically risks sounding out-of-date quicker, like those awful 80’s club songs).
The best anthems are usually those from the 60’s. A good example of this, and probably one of the best club songs, is Chelsea’s “Blue is the Colour” (they are of course mistaken). It follows the rules above and is still sung proudly by them today.So what am I getting at? A way of turning OTBC into something that follows the rules above; a task that sounds hard, but theoretically possible and could be something to liven up the stands allowing all to easily sing along.

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[quote user="Robornio"]I''ve just had a quick listen... it''s a nice attempt, certainly different. And I do like your style.Although you asked what makes a good football song? I don’t really think folk songs are really right for football, more for a festival perhaps. Before a match there is a sense of ‘pre battle’ and a build-up, where we should be stirring the motions, summoning the feeling of adrenaline and not necessarily playing mellow camping themes. The best football anthems, and those which have remained timeless, are those that follow the simple rules:
  1. A constant beat and tempo throughout (generally a march-esque beat works best);
  2. A simple melody (no over complicated structures or dynamic changes);
  3. A crowd of singers (usually the team at the time singing as a group);
  4. Something that can’t be dated (not mentioning current managers or players etc.); and
  5. A style that doesn’t try to be too experimental or overtly modern (or it ironically risks sounding out-of-date quicker, like those awful 80’s club songs).
The best anthems are usually those from the 60’s. A good example of this, and probably one of the best club songs, is Chelsea’s “Blue is the Colour” (they are of course mistaken). It follows the rules above and is still sung proudly by them today.So what am I getting at? A way of turning OTBC into something that follows the rules above; a task that sounds hard, but theoretically possible and could be something to liven up the stands allowing all to easily sing along.[/quote]Something like this?

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Great effort!   Like the style too.   Slight reservation in  that  "kick it off, throw it in" has become the accepted way of singing the words for the last thirty years or so and works better rhythmically.  The garbled ending that happens at matches is not good though and if your version was played, I am sure it would catch on, but for me it needs the "it" word in too.

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Anything that gets rid of that moronic shouting that, when it is not shrieked by some of the witless, is barked out by others like some 1970''s British tourist on a foreign holiday trying to speak to a waiter "kick it off ..... throw it in .......................................... you comprende ?"

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I like it. The more publicity this old song get''s, the better. The full version is, and always will be, a ''hairs up on the back of the neck'' experience.

Your version has enhanced and not diminished this.

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If you do I will. The more people that ask the better tha chance. Come on guys and girls, let''s all get typing!!

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After an initial burst of tweets and support to McNally and others, the interest kind of subsided and I wasn''t sure how to approach promoting it anymore. I''d love for as many of you as possible to send it in to Radio Norfolk/the club/tweet McNally/tweet players....it''s the closest I''ve got to a marketing campaign, anyway.

Cheers!

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keep banging the drum pal... no one will accuse you of blowing your own trumpet and so what if they do...its a quality version it really could be a turning point in pre match atmosphere if we can get this on... ps isn''t the bloke who does the prematch tannoy and music from radio norwich ? would it be worth bending his ear ?

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recognise your name as i live in Lowe. Like what you did with the song, good effort. Have to yell when your playing Lowe again, might well pop down take a look.

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Isaac. I have just posed the question to Mr McNally on the clubs Facebook page for his Q and A on Tuesday. I see that someone called Luke has already posted the link too. Get your friends to put the question to him as well. The more you get the more chance of the question beig asked. And to all you pink in posters out there who have supported this thread, get posting on the NCFC Facebook page too.

Oh, and Isaac. What did you think about someone''s suggestion of the slight rewrite with Legends names instead of the current squad? I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

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Thanks very much Scooby, i''ve done likewise.

As for the Legends suggestion- I''m all for it. Any ideas on decent names? Could have Hucks, Holt and.... (someone with two syllables, but there are many to choose from, i''m up for hearing suggestions) I initially chose Bassong as the last name because the original lyric ends in ''song'' (though I can''t remember what it is now)

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Iwan sounds weird because the melody permits it to only be ''yew-aaaaaaan'' which really would sound forced

what makes Bassong work is the short first syllable ''Ba'' followed by the long held ''song''.

Iwan doesn''t work because it''s pronounced in reverse, it starts with a long ''yew'' and ends with a short ''an''

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Lol. I bow to your greater wisdom my friend. Song writing is definitely not my niche and definitely seems to be yours. Keep up the great work and I hope to be singing along with your rendition at FCR soon.

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I like the way the song has been slowed to its original tempo but are you all saying that this actual recording should be played at the ground over the PA system?

If so it does not get my vote. Frankly it would not sound good to the ears. I appreciate I am almost on my own with this opinion but the holding of certain notes simply grates.

It''s a great effort by the OP and if it could be recorded professionally then I would love it.

BTW City1st also made a good point that OTBC is not only sung too quickly but too many times during a game.

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[quote user="Green and Yellow fellow"]It''s pretty good, but I can''t help think this isn''t quite finished, just needs something which I can''t put my finger on.

Good effort though nonetheless.[/quote]

I kind of agree, although it is terrific in many ways.   What do you think of some of the suggestions?   The "kick it off" "throw it in", the changing of names so it doesn''t need constant updating, and the making the scrimmage clearer?   I know you''ve mentioned these in passing, but if  you take these on board and re-record it, imo it would stand a much better chance of becoming something that would become a club classic.  

To be really popular across the whole fanbase, young and old,  it maybe needs those tweeks and  then no-one would have cause to think it doesn''t sound quite right.   After all,  if it is to be played every week, week after week, if it doesn''t sound quite right to some people, it could start to grate on them.  I''m not saying it would, but to be a classic and played regularly for years, there needs to be nothing in it that people could get irritated with over the course of time.  Having said that, it still gave goose-bumps when I played it again! [:)]

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