h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is Football all you can think about, what about all the other wonderful sports in the world like Rugby - which by the way the English have a brilliant team - Tennis, Tim Henman has managed to get to the semi Finals in the past 2 years, best an English player has done in years, and Cricket - the English Womens Cricket team is one of the best in the world. I'm English living in Germany and proud of my heritage, if you don't like England then why live there, the world is a big place go and live in the country you feel deserve's your support!

OK - so maybe we don't have a decent anthem to sing at football because we don't have particularily much to sing about (OK, the game against Argentina was one of the best in world cup history for drama, but that's neither here nor there)..but what about a song to sing when a drink or two has been drunk?

The Irish, Welsh and Scots are masters of this - but the English no longer seem to do it at all. (After the demise of the, possibly mythical, "roll out the barrel" East end sing alongs...)

Anything from HMS Pinnafore would do for a start...anything better?

I always sing Hearts of Oak when I get pissed but that is another thing!

Or the 'Minstrel boy to the war has gone' but that is Irish so no good there then!

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Well it's a song written in England, by a Scotsman and most recently made famous by an Irishman.

Liechtenstein's National Anthem uses the same tune as God Save The King/Queen....check out Encarta on CDROM if you don't believe me

I'm sure they sing different (ie German) words to it though. Being English and living in USA, I found it amazing this last weekend to experience the almost euphoric reaction people of all ages have here to the American national anthem and the allegiance to the flag speech.
Last night there were literally thousands of flag-waving people at the Independence Day fireworks/fair. Makes you wonder why the only time we (British) get excited and wave flags is at football/rugby matches and at coronations.

England should have "Yesterday" (Lennon/McCartney) as an appropriate National Anthem these days....

Oh by the way, the people who say Jerusalem cannot be an anthem because it's now a hymn, might not realise that most other languages (such as German/Dutch/French) translate the word "anthem" as "hymn" (L'Hymne Nationale)

Why don't we all go with Billy Connolly & adopt the theme from the Archers?

Rum-ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tum
Rum-ti-tum-ti-tuum-tum

Yes, yes. As he pointed out, now words to learn. new immigrants could sing it by the time they got off the airport bus."Yesterday" is too difficult for those of us who can't sing in tune ( a significantly large proportion of the English)

I have come across a few "songs" which nearly ebveryone in England knows, the words are easy to learn, they don't offend any other nationalities or promote overt nationalism and yet they are very much part and parcel of being English namely ....
"I feel like chicken tonight" and "You can't get quicker than a quickfit fitter". Now if they could be combined somehow...?

ROFL
You can't get fitter than a quickfit chicken, for example.

Incidentally - talking of chicken, as we were, you must go and see "The Chicken Run".
We went to see it last night and didn't hardly draw breath for laughing....and if you do see it, stay for the credits. The "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" routine is great.

Interesting discussion. On a slight tangent, I've long heard a story about our (the USA) National Anthem, aka "The Star Spangled Banner." That is, everyone knows it contains words written by Francis Scott Key at some point during our Country's early history - but less is known about the music, it seems. Entertainingly, I've heard from several people that the music is taken from a once-popular old English pub song. I have no idea what the name of that song is, although I seem to recall some Englishwoman telling me what it was a couple of years ago, and of course I've forgotten what it was she said. Anyone else know?

I also think this story has some element of truth about it because not too long ago, there was a revival of some kind sponsored by a some group of folks here in the USA that wanted to have our National Anthem changed to "America The Beautiful." That's a really nice song, and much easier to sing, but it lacks the traditional (if somewhat outdated) panache and swagger of the original that ... well, to be honest, suits us as Americans. "America The Beautiful" just ain't as patriotic, dagnabbit. Heh.

Whatever the reasons for attempting to change the anthem were, if the story is true about the tune being an old English drinking song, I think we oughtta keep it, and I'll tell you why. It seems fittingly ironic for our crazy mixed up World that we Americans have a National Anthem that sings about the glory of our Revolution from the UK, the very same country from which we stole the music. Heh. I just like that little bit of irony.

Through whatever colorful means, we Americans proudly have our anthem and we try to sing it very loudly as a show of patriotism, even though the song is very challenging in it's wide range for the average sports event attendee, and is thus one of the few songs that tortures BOTH the signer and the listener. Most of us just nod along/doff our hats/mouth the words/salute, and thank whatever deities may shape our ends that at least Rosanne Barr will never again be allowed to sing it at our baseball games.

FWIW, I quite like listening to other's anthems. I personally find well-written music to be very stirring, emotionally, and an anthem can stir up great pride in one's homeland. The one's I've heard that I've liked from other countries (I've heard 'em at various Olympic Games and so on) are Russia's (not the USSR's), Canada, Mexico, Austria, Italy, France ... it's just fascinating to hear them. I can't say as I recall hearing many anthems from the Asian or Australaian continents and surrounding areas, but if I might be so bold to speculate, I'd say that Aussie's was probably compused by Rolf Harris. Heh. Sorry, I've just listened to Rolf's "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" or whatever the official name is. Great little tune.

has another difficult to sing thing called "Advance Australia Fair" There have been periodic attempts to replace it with "Once a Jolly Swagman" or , more recently, "I still call Australia Home" which was used as an airline commercial and is a much better sentiment. Maybe they'll manage to change it when they get to be a republic. This is also a good reason for getting rid of the British monarchy - can't sing "God save the king" if there isn't one.

I've heard this gripe quite a lot, and I listen carefully to things as a result.

I think the Beeb has taken this complaint on board on the whole. They tend to describe, e.g., David Coulthard as Scottish, but if he were to do the business in the F1 championship this year, he would be the first British driver to win it since Damon Hill. This, in my opinion is entirely justifed, since it would be ridiculous to say that he's the first Scot to win it since Damon Hill. The Beeb for the most part only call Scots, Welsh and Ulster people British in those situations.

This doesn't seem to apply to English people, though - Nick Faldo was never English, nor Daley Thompson, nor Sebastian Coe.

I'm told that the irish national anthem is not meant to be sung, though whether this is due to having heard my "Fields of Athenry" or whether it is true is unknown.

I too like both French and Italian anthems as having some oomph. The "aux armes, les gens de France" bit in particular.

Also - if memory serves (though it often does not), the National Anthem for Cameroon was something along the lines of "papapadum Paul Biya, pababadum Paul Biya" although I assume they will have had to change their anthem if and when Paul Biya stopped being president.

Hmm - time to go a surfin' methinks

Wrong again - it's "aux armes citoyens" there do seem to be a lot of holes in your expensive education. The French anthem's too long. You can't be standing around in the driving rain singing that lot.

Anyone ever noticed how the Norwegian National Anthem sounds like the start to "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly"?

"O Canada" has one of the most stirring tunes I think, as does the Brazilian anthem. During the last FIFA World Cup I was amazed how "into it" the Chiliean players were when they sang their anthem. I read somewhere that the Greek anthem has about 150 verses and that only the first dozen or so are actually used...

Maybe FIFA could introduce a new rule - full national anthems to be sung. Then teams with lengthy efforts would be too tired to actually play after kick off. It's the only way the England team will get anywhere whatever the anthem they use.

Perhaps then the New Zealand team could abstain from singing.

*goes back to a previous posting by Demon Drawer, like picking at a scab*

"On the subject on Nationality. Every time an Irish, Scottish or Welsh sportman is doing well he is Bristish, but when he starts to falter he reverts to being Irish, Scottish or Welsh."

I'm watching Sunday Grandstand at the moment, and I've just been told that 'Scotland's Colin McCrae finished third. Britain's Richard Burns had to retire from the rally when his car failed to start on the final morning.'

I don't think I've ever heard Richard Burns referred to as English, or Colin McCrae as British for that matter.

Feeling better now.