As editor of MyFootballWriter, I’ve been thoroughly spoilt this week.
First up there was Martin’s fine and inimitable take on the win at Hillsborough, followed on Tuesday by the wonderful Bowles family’s insightful take on their day in Sheffield and then Anita Byrne-Phillips’ stirring plea for the Yellow Army to ‘believe’.
Yesterday was Connor’s turn, who, as ever, found the right words to put into perspective just where City are right now, and today Emma’s lovely piece has highlighted just how much the Class of 2019 actually care.
Five wonderful pieces of writing across four days, all of which combined to make my job an easy one. Each one beautifully written, interesting, amusing, heartfelt and, at times poignant, with not even a hint of gobbledegook or gubbins in sight.
So… my turn. Time to redress the balance. I’m about to fill that void. Be gentle…
***
It’s hard to recall a spell in the club’s recent history when things – however temporary – have been going quite so swimmingly.
The football has been glorious.
We keep winning.
We’re keeping clean sheets.
Fans and players are united.
Even board and fans appear united.
There really isn’t much to find fault with – something that, as a City supporter, doesn’t sit comfortably – with the only source of angst right now being of the contractual variety (another column for another day).
So in order to bring some semblance of order to proceedings, I’ve scratched around and found something. Something that’s been grating for ages. Something that occurs every single time City play – without fail – even when they’re coasting to a 4-0. Something that irks almost as much as a Luke Chambers fist-pump. Something that grinds the gears like the face of a smirking Chris Wilder.
Bet you can’t guess…
Well, I’m loathe to even say it, but the root of it is On the Ball City.
‘But, it’s the oldest and greatest football song known to man’ I hear you say, and you’d be right, but in my – admittedly non-musical – eyes, it’s only the greatest when it’s being sung properly. And it’s not being sung properly – not even close to it.
And I’m not even talking about the whole song being sung at a slower tempo – something that the Along Come Norwich boys and I tried and failed to highlight a couple of seasons ago.
No, we’ve given up on that. Our Utopian view of On the Ball City being sung as it was so beautifully in Wembley during the 1975 League Cup Final (@ around 17:05) has long since floundered amid the cacophony of a thousand Y’Army voices belting the old girl out at thunderous, breakneck speed.
It was a nice idea, but never really had a chance of becoming embedded as the norm in the way us dreamers had dreamt.
But I still draw the line at that absolute $hitfest that is the final line of the song as it’s sung 21st century-style. You know, the one that’s followed by a punchy and raucous, “CITY… *clap, clap clap*… CITY… *clap, clap, clap*… CITY… *clap, clap, clap*…”
For those that don’t know (and I’m not sure there can be anyone), the lyrics are…
Kick it off, throw it in, have a little scrimmage,
Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die;
On the ball, City, never mind the danger,
Steady on, now’s your chance,
Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal.
City!
City!
City!
The purists will argue the opening line, if staying true to the original version, should read, “Kick off, throw in…” – as opposed to the accepted version, which has a couple *its*chucked in to smooth out the required number of syllables.
But that’s semantics… I can live with a couple of superfluous *its*, but what I can’t live with is a final line that bears not even the slightest resemblance to Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal.
Not even close. Nothing like it. May as well be in a different language.
Instead, we get… “Hurra… we-sca-da-g… and that’s on a good day. On a not-so-good-day it can be abbreviated to “Hur… w-sc-dg”.
I mean… for the love of god, is it really too much to ask for it to be slowed down from breakneck to just plain old rapid, in order to accommodate a couple of additional syllables? Syllables, I hasten to add, which have always been there, but over the years have been forgotten?
Or, has that final line become the football song equivalent of a LOL, LMAO or a TMI? If so, why not go the whole hogg and just go for HWSAG? – although that too would be a syllable overload.
I just think WTF.
How would you feel if you were a ‘we’ve’, a ‘scored’ or a ‘goal’, whose place in the greatest football song in history has been virtually erased?
I know we all love rounding the whole thing off with a rousing … CITY… *clap, clap, clap*… but would it hurt so much to wait an extra second before reaching said crescendo, allowing the actual words of the song to be sung in full?
Are we really in that much of a rush?
I realise, of course, I’m edging into territory beyond my remit – and I apologise in advance to the good folk of ACN and Barclay End Norwich, who have collectively done sterling work in stoking up the Carrow Road atmosphere this season – but minus anything else to whine about, this feels like the right time to get this niggle off my chest.
Oh, and while I’m at it, it’s not ‘spend it rush’, it’s ‘splendid rush’. Just saying.
But hey… I suspect that, not for the first time, I’m the one who’s out of step and no-one else is the slightest bit bothered.
I did promise you some gubbins though – and hopefully, I’ve delivered. ?
You’re exactly right, Gary! Our wonderful anthem is a mess, and it’s horrible! I don’t even join in these days. Perhaps the words could be printed in the programme each week, or displayed on the big telly karaoke-style, along with the song properly sung that people could follow along. It needs to be brought back to how it should be!
Cheers Gav … the rendition in the link (Wembley ’75) is a thing of beauty.
Same here – can’t bring myself to join in with the current mess.
Much to the amusement of those around me, I once utterly lost it when the stadium PA Announcer referred to the pre-match version as “Kick It Off”.
It was discussed on the Scrimmage on Radio Norfolk last week – they rightly said it needs updating, but also correctly pointed out it’s actually quite a difficult song to do 21st century style. A few had a go, but both the attempts I heard started “Kick It Off…you can guess the rest…
Big ha!
I’m in total agreement here.
The only semantic I’d go for is that (at least in the UB) it’s “splendid rush” without the “a” before it.
Our youngsters (I always call them the under-fives) haven’t had the 30 or 40 years of singing it that us older folks have.
There are other verses too, probably long forgotten. I’ve seen them written down but they’re never sung. A bit more Stairway to Heaven than White Riot.
I think most of us get it roughly right and as soon as “Kick it off” begins everybody from eighty to twenty in the UB joins in pretty well. On our feet, those of us who are able. Luckily that still includes myself at time of writing. On the right night, in the right light, that song still sends shivers down my spine.
From my view/sit/standpoint it’s always the Lower Barclay who set off the premature clapping. Maybe just cos everyone’s excited the game’s about to begin?
A good, fun read.
Ha! Glad you didn’t take it too seriously mate – just needed to lighten the mood 🙂
Agreed bloody awful as a chant. It dies at the end instead of reaching a crescendo like all good footy songs. Lets restore the proper version now!!!
I am old enough to remember Saturday mornings at the “pictures”. Kids would sing along to the ABC Minors song with words on the screen and a bouncing ball above the words to keep time. I’m sure the Club could organise an App for the song.
I remember a comment from way back (last century) that there was always an awkward mumbling of the line “Hurrah we’ve scored a goal” when it was sung at a point in the match when we had not scored a goal. These days it is mainly sung just before kick off so clearly before we have scored (unless we overrun the singing and score in the first few seconds. This got me thinking. When did we first start the communal singing of OTBC? My guess is about 2004 maybe a vital promotion match and we kept it going to the point that it is a tradition
I think singing it before kick off became a thing after the play off final in 2002, so beginning of 2003 season. I could be wrong though
Started the communal singing of OTBC in 2004?!!! It’s the oldest football song in the world, and goes back way before I was joining in with it in the 1950s. I particularly remember it being sung in the ’59 cup run, and it didn’t need an announcer geeing the crowd up to sing it then.
I blame the invention of the microwave oven. Since then we’ve tried to rush everything. Evidence? T20 cricket and OTBC.
I think I know what General Melchet would say.
Bah!
I think singing it before kick off became a thing after the play off final in 2002, so beginning of 2002/2003 season. I could be wrong though
Amazed your angst is not against the lower Barclayites who sing rather win or die. Does my head in. BRAVO!!
When I started going to games in the early 70s, the first two lines would be sung (shouted) by a single person in the Barclay before the whole stand joined in with ‘On the ball City’.
I’d like to hear that tried again
Still happens near me, especially at away games!
But what I hear from many of the youngsters is scrummage!!! It’s SCRIMMAGE!!
Wholeheartedly agree. The song used to bring tears to a glass eye, much slower in pace and aggressively belted out so that each syllable was straight from the heart.
The current “cover version” is an embarrassing, tuneless race to the bottom, with nary a pause for a breath or gap between each word. “Kick it off” ? It’s bloody “kick off”, do people really say “rather win or die”? Good grief!
As for the way the cacophony finishes, which sounds like “hauummmmannanrerrrrr”, a noise akin to a cat bringing up a rather large and irksome fur ball, totally cringeworthy and embarrassing.
I recall the FA cup semi final at villa park, where having taken early residence in the holt people end to soak up the atmos, a small mob of us loosened our vocal chords with a fine eye bulging, chest thumping, blood curdling rendition of the old standard. An Everton fan standing nearby festooned in scarf, hat and clutching a flag and bizarrely the wrong side of the fence, visibly blanched and as if suddenly aware that these Norwich people mean business slipped back to his own side with the help of a policeman who opened the gate. Should the same situation ever recur, I’m sure the Everton fan would just laugh, or ask the policeman for ear plugs.
If there is some movement towards reclaiming the song in its glory, then I for one, will be right behind it.
Surely the biggest issue with OTBC is those who think we are watching Egg Chasing and sing about a little “scrummage”. It’s probably the same people who want us to be in The Premiership (again chasing the egg sport), not The Premier League. Properly does my head in…….
One of my guilty pleasures in life is selecting the random play option on Spotify and blasting my favourite tunes through a Bose speaker while taking a hot shower, joining in with some of the chorus.
Nestled in amongst Bauhaus, Magazine, Killing Joke, Theatre of Hate, Souixsie, the Stranglers et al., is a 1959 music hall rendition of On the ball, City, which sometimes terrorises the neighbours. I recall about a decade ago, the team actually came out of the tunnel to this recording and I would strongly urge the MC to introduce this again in an attempt to rectify the problem.
No doubt, this would be a pre cursor to much eye rolling from my City-mad offspring, who see no wrong with the current desecration, but might help to re-install the proper use of the song in future generations.
Also, the club could print the words of the song in the programme to prevent the lyrics being subverted by the current nonsense and poor grammar.
For crying out loud, it can’t be that hard a concept for people to grasp can it? I was taught the song by my Mum at the age of 6.
This trimmed version is surely doable for 2020?
Kick it off, throw it in, have a little scrimmage,
Keep it low, splendid rush, bravo, win or die.
On the ball, City.
Never mind the danger,
Steady on, now’s your chance,
Hurrah!
City!, City!, City!