Jim, I don't know if there's a complete song known to some fans, but what I've heard sung (by fans of Chelsea, West Ham, and Manchester United, and probably others) is the chorus:

Sign on, Sign on/ With a pen in your hand/ And you'll never get a job/ You'll never get a job

The is a) part of a wider repertoire of "scousers are all theiving/ unemployed" songs that seem to circulate among fans of non-Liverpool teams, and also b) an example of the important practice of taking one team's 'anthem' and turning it against them. Another example of this would be Liverpool fans taking Manchester United's anthem "Glory, glory, Man United" and, in the 1980s, turning it into the 3 verse song "The famous Man United went to Rome to see the Pope", which culminates with the Pope asking "Who the fuck are Man United?" (This song subsequently taken up and abridged by Aston Villa fans)

I would say that in these contexts, the tradition of parodying the other team's song RELIES on the idea of the fans treating the performance of the original song as traditional. But that's just my opinion.


I don't want to stray off topic too much, but I'm sorry to hear about your innoculation against football! It's no doubt impossible to work against this, but I have to say in my experience, I've often found football to be the catalyst to make things happen (I know of music that is sung, political associations that were formed, and magazines that were printed that would never have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for people being brought together in the shared interest of football). I'm not in a position to say whether this is more or less true than the G&S society, as I'm thankfully innoculated against G&S, but I can speak from personal experience by saying that the shared experience of football fans is something that reflects the reality of a community well beyond the match itself...