Of all the muses Brian Wilson would have called upon as he composed the Beach Boys’ many masterpieces, few would have expected one to be former Cardiff City winger Chris Burke.
Well, in truth, he wasn’t. But the diminutive Scot was the subject of a chant from Cardiff fans which borrowed its tune from the Beach Boys’ classic single ‘Sloop John B’.
Unlikely as the correlation may be between a ginger Scottish footballer and a lilting musical landmark from the 1960s, there is in fact a fine tradition of pop music supplying a soundtrack to even the most intimidating of stadiums.
From a Dirk Kuyt-inspired take on ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ to a grunting, non-lyrical rendition of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’, genre is no barrier for the terraced masses.
Most grounds may be bursting with machismo hatred as crowds bay for opponents’ blood, but the musical inspiration for chants are not always an expression of tribal hostility.
Boney M, for example, are purveyors of the kind of pop fodder which seemed to have been written with wedding discos in mind, yet a number of their songs have been adopted by football fans.
Their single ‘Daddy Cool’ was used by Leeds United followers in homage to Harry Kewell, while ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ has been modified by countless sets of supporters in tribute to anyone from Ruud van Nistelrooy to Leo Fortune-West.
A hooligan is unlikely to profess a penchant for the Pet Shop Boys in order to exemplify his grisly credentials, but Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have supplied a number of tunes which have been recycled at numerous matches.
Their 1985 hit ‘Go West’ has been used so frequently that it has become a sort of jazz standard for terrace singalongs. Its chorus has been modified to accommodate cries of ‘Ooh, ah, Eric Cantona’ and ‘Outside, it’s a massacre’, yet the original version is likelier to instigate a conversation about synthesizers than a fight.
It is not necessarily the simplicity of a song which dictates its suitability for a chant. Neither does the song have to be current.
Stoke City fans, despite supporting a team whose rugged playing style seems suited to the thrashing brutality of Rammstein, have demonstrated a taste for retro irony by adapting Kajagoogoo’s ‘Too Shy’ to include three of their players with ‘Tuncay-cay, Huth, Huth, Abdoulaye’.
However dextrous the Potters’ faithful may have been in their use of Kajagoogoo, though, it takes a brave fan to propose a new chant to their fellow supporters.
My attempt to work Alan Lee into Eric Prydz’s solitary success ‘Call on Me’ failed to immortalise the former Cardiff striker, while my alteration of the Beach Boys’ ‘Surfin USA’ to incorporate John O’Shea was met with similar disinterest.
Devising and instigating a chant is a difficult craft and, until the Millennium Stadium is heard bellowing a Super Furry Animals b-side single, it is something I doubt I will ever master.
