Send As SMS

The View from the Lot

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Stand and Cheer for the Fight Song

Just one preseason game down and already there is a bit of controversy brewing in the Queen City. After Jake Delhomme hit Drew Carter in the endzone for the go ahead score in Saturday nights game, a familiar yet somewhat different sounding tune began emanating from the stadium PA system. It took several seconds to fully register, but when the chorus kicked in it brought back all sorts of memories from the bygone days of Panther innocence. In case you forgot the words, here they are:



Oh, nothin' could be finer
Than to be in Carolina For a Panther football game!
Stand and cheer for the Panthers
Stand and cheer for the team
The pride of both Carolinas
And city of the queen
Carolina!
Stand and cheer for the Panthers
In our grand ol' name
Nothin' could be finer Than to be in Carolina
For a Panther football game!
From the mountains To the Ocean
Carolina, Carolina best of 'em all!
From the endzone To the endzone
Carolina, Carolina carry the ball!
Oh, nothin' could be finer Than to be in Carolina
For a Panther football game!
Nothin' could be finer Than to be in Carolina
For a Carolina Panther football game!
Carolina!

Did you forget how the tune goes? Well you can click here to download it.

Put it on your I-Pod, make it a ring tone. Burn it to CD and play it at your next party. Sure, it is about as corny and stupid as they come. However one cannot deny, or suppress, the fact that this song is part of Panther lore. And right now this tradition is under attack. Even within the placid waters of the Pantherfanz mailing list, there is a divided house on the continued use of this song during the games. Too many people associate our fight song with the losing ways of past. However the dissenters in the crowd should realize that the song was ousted from the loudspeakers of then Ericsson stadium in the 1998 season and yet the team still managed to fall apart just 3 years later. Lets get real here. The American economy thrived in the 1990's in spite of Mill Vanilli, so there is no way 'Stand and Cheer for the Panthers' is going to send this team back into the 1000 to 1 Superbowl team odds.

It should also be noted that our stupid song sucks less than the other offerings from the NFC South. Check out the lyrics for the Falcons song

Go Falcons, Fight Falcons, Fight hard today.
Go Falcons, Win Falcons, Rise up for the fray.
Rise to glory, stand united, zoom to fame.
Mighty Falcons, noble Falcons win this game.
Go Falcons, fly Falcons, fly hard all the way.
Fight for you colors and score today.
Go! Go you Falcons.
Let's win a victory.

The song is so lame it does not even have music associated with it. Just a bunch of words that look like some moonshine drinking hillbilly's dyslexic version of a Haiku.

However there is one thing even worse than a horrible set of lyrics lacking any music and that comes in the form of the New Orleans Fight song which is When the Saints Go Marching In. <click here for music>

When the Saints, go marchin' in,
Oh when the Saints go marchin' in,
I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marchin' in.

When the sun, begins to shine,
Oh, when the sun begins to shine,
I want to be in that number
When the sun begins to shine.

Now lets just forget for a moment that the use of this music as a fight song for an NFL team is nothing short of a blatant form of plagiarism. The purpose of the song is for use as a funeral march taking dead bodies to the cemetery expressing the wish to go to Heaven through the illuminated Pearly Gates. Not the kind of imagery I need at a football game, regardless of how good it sounds with a talented brass band.

And lastly there are those friends of ours down on the Gulf Coast. I am not sure how many of them know it as they are probably more familiar with the latest Budweiser jingle, but they do have a song called Hey, Hey Tampa Bay <click here for music>

B-U-C-C-A-N-E-E-R-S
Go Bucs!
B-U-C-C-A-N-E-E-R-S
Go Bucs!

Hey, hey Tampa Bay
The Bucs are hot and ready to play
Got a job to do, gotta win today
Hey, hey Tampa Bay!
Let's scream and shout, set the sail
Tampa Bay is about to wail.
Gotta fight the fight, not about to fail
Hey, hey Tampa Bay!
Go Bucs!

What sort of idiot makes up a song that spends half of its time spelling out 10 letter word twice? And that is perhaps the greatest lyrical quality of this tune. The rest of the song appears to be made up from sound bites taken from the last Girls Gone Wild in Clearwater pay per view special and then someone had to add the word 'Sail' because oh yeah, they are about Pirates.

Well I for one am proud to say I want the song to return. During its last run, most people would sing it after a score. It was the only thing outside of POOOOOLE, MOOOOOOSE and HOOOOOVER that our fans could ever do in unison. Anything that can get the majority of our 73,000+ voices engaged during a game is worth standing up and supporting.

3 Comments:

  • BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

    By Anonymous, at Tue Aug 15, 05:19:22 PM EDT  

  • Given the proper level of Touchdown induced euphoria and just a touch of alcohol, the Panthers Fight Song becomes the "Ziggy Zaggy Ziggy Zaggy Hoy! Hoy! Hoy!" chant of the scoring drive, for me at least. Even when it was used in losing games, I would still sing it with a cynical eye roll and a few "blah blahs" replacing some of the lyrics.

    By Brian, at Wed Aug 16, 08:15:01 AM EDT  

  • Hey Brian, as long as your voice is being heard and helping the home field advantage out then the song has served its purpose.

    By Pantherfanz, at Wed Aug 16, 08:17:06 AM EDT  

Post a Comment

<< Home