The greatest Hibee songs ever
Neil Turnbull
Christmas brings them out in their droves - the dire compilation CD's with titles such as 'The greatest Love Ballads Ever'. Got me to thinking about football songs and particularly those I hear at Easter Road. What would be on an album of greatest Hibee songs? Indeed, what is THE best Hibs song of all time?
There is a fashion at Easter Road at the minute of trying to orchestrate the crowd in their singing. The three songs that appear to have been selected for attempted mass crowd control are 'Glory, Glory to the Hibees', 'Sunshine on Leith' and 'Hey Baby'.
Unfortunately, there are problems with all three. 'Glory, Glory' is a good number to get the crowd going but I'm afraid that the old Hector Nichol 78 is just too slow to stay with and the crowd always end up ahead of the tannoy. 'Sunshine on Leith' only works well if the whole crowd are enthused because it takes a long time to get through it. (It sounded fantastic at the AEK game - unfortunately, it appeared to inspire the wrong team). 'Hey Baby' does, I admit, get an enthusiastic response every time because it is a real singalong song. However, every time it gets going, I can't help thinking, 'What the hell am I singing this for?' The relevance of this song to Hibs is lost on me - maybe somebody out there could enlighten me.
The other Proclaimers number which is being used overtime at the moment is 'I'm gonna be - 500 Miles' which is currently boomed out after every goal. You do get other Hibs songs over the loudspeakers which are not singalong but work pretty well. 'Hibernian Heroes' - the one that goes 'Hibee, Hibernian' and hits high notes that no-one in the crowd is goping to get anywhere near - springs to mind. Well out of fashion down ER at the moment however - haven't heard this one in a long time.
As I have said, getting the crowd to sing, 'Sunshine on Leith' is difficult but it can work well, especially when all the scarves are raised. The first time I heard the crowd doing this, it took me back to another slow song that Hibs fans used to sing. This is really showing my age, but do any of you out there remember the days when we belted out 'Sailing' by Rod Stewart? Seems like only yesterday.
Like a finely tuned Welsh choir
Then I got to thinking about what songs are sung when the crowd is not being controlled by the sound system (which incidentally, in the West Stand, is the loudest, tinniest sound reproduction I have ever heard). 'Glory, Glory' again is a favourite but this time sung at about five times the pace of the old country dance band version. Other songs which you always hear include, 'Hail, hail the Hibs are here', 'We are Hibernian FC, we hate Jam Tarts ...' - sung to the tune of Lord of the Dance and 'We hate Glasgow Rangers, we hate Celtic too ...' - sung to the tune of Land of Hope and Glory.
I think the rest of the commonly heard stuff could be classed more as chants than songs. I am thinking of 'Hibees, Hibees', 'Hibernian , clap clap , clap clap', 'Ooh to be a', 'HIB, ERN, IAN, Hibernian' and player's names - current favourite 'Luna, Luna'. The one you don't hear any more since they pulled down the old wooden main stand is the old Hibs end standard, 'Hibees, Stamp,Stamp,Stamp'.
Of course taunts form a big part of any support's standard repertoire and the same taunts are often used by followers of many different teams. Current Hibs favourites include, 'can you hear the ****** sing' and 'You're no very good'. The problem with taunting other teams, of course, is you get it right back when the boot is on the other foot. Still, at least the most common chant of my formative years seems to have died out - this was, of course, the charming 'You're gonna get your f****** head kicked in'.
So a fair variety to choose from, and the choice rockets when the opposition is the Jambos. Then you can add to the above, favourites such as The Alternative Hearts song, 'Cheer up Craig Levein', 'Jingle bells', 'In your Gorgie slums' and many more. The most imaginitive one I have heard in a long time was the 'Happy Birthday 6-2' at the derby on the anniversary of that result.
Greatest Hibs song ever then - has to be 'Glory, Glory'. Why don't Hibernian get The Proclaimers to do a cover at a decent, singalong pace? That really could become the ER anthem.
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