'here we go' chant origin?

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 12:17 PM

Greg Stephens

Yes, you can get it on Youtube, the one which says ' On the Ball City, the original' by andyjzr. It's an old gentleman singing it to a piano accompaniment.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Brian Peters
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 11:07 AM

||: Father's pants will soon fit Willie.
Will 'e wear 'em? Willie will. :||
Will 'e wear 'em? Will 'e wear 'em?
||: Will 'e wear 'em? Willy will. :||

My Dad always sang:

Will 'e wear 'em?
Will 'e Hell!

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 08:49 AM

What's the tune of that one? Any link to a recording?

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 07:45 AM

Norwich City (UK) FC song is regarded as the oldest in the world, and is still sung today on the terraces.
The chorus is:-

Kick it off, throw it in, have a little scrimmage,
Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die!
On the ball City, never mind the danger,
Steady on, now's your chance,
Hurrah we've scored a goal!

Very restrained and elegant!
It was apparently first sung in the 1880's. I always smile when I hear tough lads singing "Hurrah! We've scored a goal!" In the Norwich accent it sounds like "a gool.."

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 06:03 PM

At St Andrews University in 1958, the words to Cwm Rhondda were:

||: You must eat when you are hungry.
You must drink when you are dry. :||
You must rest when you are weary.
||: Don't stop breathing, or you'll die. :||

||: Father's pants will soon fit Willie.
Will 'e wear 'em? Willie will. :||
Will 'e wear 'em? Will 'e wear 'em?
||: Will 'e wear 'em? Willy will. :||

The "Lloyd George" words to "Onward, Christian Soldiers" somehow managed to become a Girl Scout song in the U.S. From that, it was taken up, at least at Caltech, as a drinking song. I learned it there in 1954, and was confidently informed that the knowledge referred to was carnal. Far from home, in space, time, and sentiment!

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Tootler
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 05:39 PM

Sorry Greg, you are quite right, it was Onward Christian Soldiers. CRAFT moment :-)


I do remember some other words to Cwm Rhondda, though.

Bread from Evans's
Cheese from Jones's
Beer from the Collier's arms, Collier's arms
Beer from the Collier's arms.

Unfortunately I don't know any words to the main part of the verse, though there likely were some.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: greg stephens
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 05:33 PM

Tootler: repetitive tune confusion syndrome there, I think. "Lloyd George knew my father" goes to "Onward Christian Soldiers", not Cwm Rhonnda.
(A fact of interest to folkies is that the original words to the hymn were written by song collector Baring-Gould).

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Gervase
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 04:46 PM

Oh dear - that's summed up perfectly the average English rugby fan once he's exhausted the possibilities of the one verse of 'Swing Low' that he knows.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 04:40 PM

Drifting slightly there's the simplified Danny:

"Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Danny Danny Boy,
Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Danny Boy Boy...

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Tootler
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 04:34 PM

There is also

Lloyd George knew my father, Father knew Lloyd George

Repeated over and over to the tune of Cwm Rhondda.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 03:51 PM

I first heard "Here we go" sung by the supporters of Aberdeen F.C when they won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983 predating the Miner's Strike by a year. It could well have been used by other football team supporters around that time but they were the first that I heard.
As for "Your Web Footed Friend" the verse continues :-
"If you think that's the end of the song,
Then it is but to prove that I'm a liar,
We'll have one more verse,
Only this time sing a little higher"
and so it continues rising an octave per verse until eventually "...well it is" concludes the song.

I'm distressed to learn that the EDL have hijacked the former version.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 02:53 PM

That was the end, as I remember - but I think there may well have been some other lines in between.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 02:39 PM

Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's mother
Who lives all alone in the swamp (clap clap)
Where it's awfully cold and domp ...

How did this ditty end please? I seem to remember "and if you think that this is the end... well it is!" But that can't be right surely?

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 02:36 PM

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 01:47 PM

"Ere we go" belongs alongside "We're (Here Because We're Here" (to Auld Lang Syne) and "Why are we waiting" (to "Come all ye faithful").

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 01:25 PM

I rather assume "Ere we go" would have come from the army in either World War. I'd guess the second.

Though of course Les Barker has an alternative origin...

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 01:14 PM

My mother told me her school music teacher, Maggie Bagwash (not her real name, I think!) taught them the duck words as well! Not quite what one would have expected from Leith Academy in the 1930s/40s.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 06:50 AM

Sousa's trio has a history of being used for other things. We used to sing, "Be kind to our web-footed friends" to it when we were kids.

Subject: RE: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: greg stephens
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 06:47 AM

Haven't a clue where its chant use started, but it would probably be in America I imagine. The tune, for sure, is the trio of Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes"

Subject: 'here we go' chant origin?
From: mayomick
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 06:02 AM

I was wondering whether the "here we go , here we go here we go" chant was first used by UK soccer fans or by striking UK coal miners in 1984. Also ,where does the brass band-like tune come from ?
Watching a youtube video last night of the EDL chanting "here we go here we go here we go" made me wonder whether it didn't go back further . It sounded like the sort of thing that members of some army regiment or other would have chanted as they went over the top in the first world war.