cantagalo wrote:
Green Fields of England
[copyright M Charles]

Deep in my soul you find the things that I stand for.

Grandfather fought for in the wars



I don't think this fully does justice to the cadence of that line. It's actually;

Deep in my soul you find the things that I stand for.Grandfather fought for




(big gap)




in the wars

Which gives the impression that the singer realises as an afterthought that he should be clear his Grandad wasn't just brawling in the street for his and his descendant's values.

The video really drives this home by showing you a fucking great Mark I tank, just in case like.

While we're at it, if there are any more patriotic songsmiths out there, who have written a chest-thumping World cup anthem that can bring a tear to the eye and a tremble to the bottom lip of even the most neanderthal browed bulldog tattooed skinhead, then please put a link on this thread. We really look forward to hearing from you.

It's the best thing about the World Cup, you know, the way it brings these unheralded genii out of the woodwork. I had to do an article for WSC before the last World Cup rounding up the more obscure pro-England anthems, and by Christ it was startling. I've just discovered to my delight that a few of these mp3s have survived in a distant corner of my hard drive, so I thought I might share some of them with you.

Unknown Artist - Come On England

Sadly, some of these tracks arrived without artist credits, so I have no fucking idea who came up with this. Apologies if it's anyone posting here. The great thing about this one is that it's actually quite proficiently done - a fairly serviceable pastiche of early 70s pop, through a Robbie Williams prism - which just makes it all the funnier. Warning: not only did this get stuck in my head for about three weeks in 2006 (found myself at bus stops singing "Michael Owen scoring goals - and Frankie Lampard hitting his stride!"), but it actually got stuck in my head again about two months ago despite me not having heard it for almost four years. Now that's catchy. LIKE SWINE FLU HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Branded - Tits Out For The Lads

I seem to remember that Branded had high hopes for this one, setting up a website and some sort of SMS scam. Who can blame them, as it clearly has all the hallmarks of a monster hit. "Tits out for John Terry!" is fair enough perhaps, as at least you can imagine he'd find it some kind of motivating factor, but "Tits out for Michael Owen!" is a bit unfortunate. Calls to mind the poor lad staring into some woman's exposed stomach, looking like he's just been transported to Narnia.

Unknown Artist - On The Road Again

Another masterpiece of unknown provenance, this one updates Sheena Easton's classic whatever-it-was-called into a stirring ode to "Lampard, Gerrard, Joe Cole and Sven". He's crazy mad for them. Makes "Soccer Superstar" by Jess Conrad look like a load of crap. Still can't quite work out if this one's supposed to be some sort of joke, but I fear not.

Sadly, I appear to have lost the track by Gaylord Vincent, a name which I recall saying at the time sounds less like a terrace hero than something you might shout at Vinnie Jones if you were suicidal.

That last one sounds like the early attempts to create John Shuttleworth that Graham Fellows rejected.

Ah research done for me. Thank you.

Unknown Artist - Come On England
It is not without it's charms... Though one hearing of it is enough.

Unknown Artist - On The Road Again
I'll admit it but I quite like this one.

All the others mentioned so far, bar these should be destroyed. Erased from our memories.

(GeorgeDragon - never darken my door. Don't even think about it.)

As Sean of the Shed mentioned there will be more out there. The base of that barrel hasn't even been reached yet.

Webbie - just to remind you that those horrors I posted are from the last World Cup. The lyrical reference to "Michael Owen scoring goals" should make that clear, although God knows it was outdated then as well.

Taylor wrote:
Webbie - just to remind you that those horrors I posted are from the last World Cup. The lyrical reference to "Michael Owen scoring goals" should make that clear, although God knows it was outdated then as well.
Forgot to mention in my previous about how I sniggered at the mention of the Neville and others.

Before I get inundated with those efforts attempting to fill the vacuum left by the F.A. I want to do give a mention (if anyone hasn't seen - over on my day job) of the horrors that have come before.

The debate has been good fun, thanks for the comments...either way!!!

For the record, the line re Grandfather fighting in the wars was true. He was born in 1900 and caught both the first and second World Wars. Used to stand for the Queens speech at Xmas etc etc. Long gone, not forgotten.

Let`s hope England bring it home this time!!!

Best wishes

George

Nobody else going to post their England 2010 WC songs ?
Ah gone on... don't worry about what we say, our opinions don't matter. You know how gullible the English public is when it comes to buying any crap that's England related. You'll make a few quid.

In the meantime then I've got a few previous attempts for your listening pleasure(?)

Perusing through the ones I've collected about 70% of them take the easy/lazy route of just adding new lyrics to old familiar tunes. As exemplified with the first two:

MC Mickey and DJ Brettski - Now Is The Time
(originally the Jimmy James & the Vagabonds tune)

Entirely 4 minutes longer than it should be that one, but compared to the next it is Grammy Award worthy.

Sweet FA - I Am An England Fan
(original tune from Black Lace - Music Man)

and I don't think I have to say any more than that.

Lastly a geezer/blokey one which if they didn't mention the WC in Germany in the song they could have used again:

The Lion's Roar - Savva Nuvva

A punningly terrible title there, but quite a catchy one which I like. I think because at least they tried to do something original.

This should be England's World Cup Song this year.

This isn't actually too bad. In a way.

This re-working of Go West, however, is truly appalling. The musicians(?) behind it had the good sense to stay out of the video, thus avoiding being recognised as a bunch of talentless fuckwits, unlike the nameless performers of This my dear is England, which, oh dear, is awful.

Bottom of the pile so far though, is When England Rule The World. If you hate England World cup songs, and you hate Coldplay, then you're going to want to pierce your eardrums with a rusty tent-peg when you've heard this atrocity from Chris Martini. (Chris Martini! Do you get it? Hmmmm.)
Even the name, Chris Martini, shows a complete lack of effort by the writer. He had so many other options:
Goalplay
JoeColeplay
Coldday(inhellbeforeanybodywithevenamodicumofgoodtastedownloadsthisheapofshit)

Personally, I'm hoping somebody brings out a dance tune under the name of Fabio and Steveryder.

I'd tell you what Rock Me England sounds like, only the player seems to be broken. I prefer the local news story, specifically his claim that he's reissuing it because it was released too late to make an impact in 2006. With a January release he seems instead to be trying the opposite end of the spectrum.

Simon T wrote:
I'd tell you what Rock Me England sounds like, only the player seems to be broken. I prefer the local news story, specifically his claim that he's reissuing it because it was released too late to make an impact in 2006. With a January release he seems instead to be trying the opposite end of the spectrum.

I managed to get the player to work, and the first two things I heard were the sound of a crowd fading in over the top of a Timmy Thomas-style cheap keyboard beat.

I daren't go further.

Coward. The rest of the song might have been a masterpiece.
It wasn't of course. The bloke who sang it was more Reggie Kray than George McCrae. The last time I heard somebody attempt a tune with such an inadequate voice was when Stephen Hawking turned up at our local karaoke night and attempted "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us".

I can't be arsed checking those links to see if you've clocked the Cherry Red campaign, or Spizz's effort, but CR is here

www.cherryred.co.uk/football/world_cup.htm

and Spizz

"Legendary Spizz has recorded some of the finest world cup songs over the last few years - who could forget from 2006 - Were the England - In Berlin In Berlin Were gonna Win Gonna Win Gonna Win
And now its time for the Man to record and release another masterpiece to inspire the England team to victory.
Come on Mr Spizz make our dreams a reality!"

Thanks to Taylor for posting those previous World Cup attempts. I've gathered those - plus the ones I had and you can find them here.


Additional to that I've gathered a few done by some well known acts.

I'll be looking at the 2010 candidates soon...

Well maybe. Have to think about it.

There's got to be something (slightly) better out there than this lot. There has to be.

Taylor wrote:
Sadly, I appear to have lost the track by Gaylord Vincent, a name which I recall saying at the time sounds less like a terrace hero than something you might shout at Vinnie Jones if you were suicidal.

Sadly, I have it.

I'm told Chris Kamara is recording "Can't take my eyes off you" with some England fans ...

FUCK OFF KAMARA - IT'S OURS!