Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur
This is that unusual topic which allows me to indulge my passion for football, and, well, the passion that got me my day job teaching 19th century American literature.
If you are lucky enough to visit White Hart Lane on match day, you might hear the Tottenham fans chant “Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur” to the tune of the song popularly known as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
This is a patriotic American song — the sort of thing one hears sing over a loudspeaker at a fireworks display on July 4th, or belted out by a High School marching band around Thanksgiving. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, for example, does a nice, sober version of this patriotic melody.
It was weird to hear Spurs fans rooting on their team with the music from this popular but staid American anthem. Almost as weird (and weirdly moving) as hearing Liverpool fans sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” — a song from the Rogers & Hammerstein musical Carousel — popularized by singers like Anita Bryant (pictured), Doris Day and Judy Garland (whose version is used here to animate a photomontage celebrating the fellowship of the ring!). And let’s not forget Jordan Sparks, who belted it out for American Idol.
You have to understand: for those of us raised outside the UK, there’s something fundamentally incongruous about the idea of Liverpool fans knowing the words to a song from Carousel.
Inspired by a song she’d heard Union soldiers sing, Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics for “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1861. Many of you will know at least the first two lines of the opening stanza:
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage
Where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning
Of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
As loaded with images of God’s wrath as it is, this is a neutral, ‘cleaned’ up version of the original song sung by Union soldiers marching into battle during the Civil War. Then it was known as “John Brown’s Body” (also known as “John Brown’s Song”). (PBS has a great web page with audio clips & text about its origin, and University of Virginia professor Franny Nudelman has written the book about this stuff.)
There are different versions of the song lyrics – but here’s a simple one that gives you a sense of its peculiar, and peculiarly moving images:
John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on.Chorus:
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
His soul goes marching on.He’s gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,
He’s gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus:
John Brown’s knapsack is strapped upon his back,
John Brown’s knapsack is strapped upon his back,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus:
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
John Brown died that the slaves might be free,
His soul goes marching on.
Chorus:
The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down,
The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down,
His soul goes marching on
Other versions have more complex lyrics – like:
“He captured Harper’s Ferry with his nineteen men so true
He frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and through
They hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew
His soul is marching on.”
Or,
“Oh, soldiers of freedom, then strike while strike you may
The deathblow of oppression in a better time and way;
For the dawn of old John Brown was brightened into day,
And his truth is marching on.”
The song became, as evidenced by the above lyrics, a popular vehicle for celebrating the story John Brown the abolitionist — a white man who was so opposed to slavery that he took up arms and led a raid on Harper’s Ferry, a munitions facility — an arsenal, in fact. (No kidding!) His aim was to set an example with a successful raid that would lead to massive internal rebellion against the slave holding governments of the southern states. The raid failed, and John Brown and his comrades were hanged by the US government.
Amazing, then, that only a few years later soldiers fighting “to preserve the union” would honor a man executed by the government for trying to start a civil war. John Brown’s story is one of the most fascinating in American history — it is, however, not often taught in schools. One can imagine why — because in telling that story, we find ourselves confronted by ugly truths about how violently the United States committed itself to slavery, and for how long. From this point in history, John Brown’s raid looks like the right thing to do: but it raises the question as to why more people didn’t throw their lot in with those held in bondage.
Today, he is largely remembered as a religious fanatic.
Anyway, it is without a doubt one of the all time great political songs. Not in melodic beauty — JBB is mind numbing, relentlessly repetitive. But it’s thus a marching song well suited to Spurs fans who (and you know I love you) can’t seem to do better than sing “Come On You Spurs” or “If You Hate Arsenal, Stand Up” — over and over again. “John Brown’s Body” is up there with “Strange Fruit” as one of those songs that changed the world. It is a song with a crazy history — and it is a song about crazy history. Once you know who John Brown was, why he fought and why he was hanged, when you hear that music you can’t but feel a certain crazy determination in your bones to just get out there and make something happen. Audere Est Facere indeed.
So, in the end, “John Brown’s Body” has a meaning very similar to “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. It means something like: Everyone else in the living world might think you are crazy — but we’ll follow you even if it means following you to our graves, knowing that we have righteousness on our side as we do so. Especially if you are taking on Arsenal.
Editor’s note: this post is adapted from the original post at Jennifer’s excellent blog, From a Left Wing.
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It’s this kind of topic which really intrigues me and has kept me following football. It truly is a sport which encapsulates the spirit of unity between fans and I think without this my interest in the game would not be a t such a high level.
It is an interesting article, I just wish that I could find other websites which had even more on the subject of supporter chants and songs.
Keep them coming!
What a delightful and informative post! Thank you very much – from someone who has a special love for, and association with the “Battle Hymn”.
Hi Jennifer… Just wanted to echo the views of Mormon Soprano by saying how much I enjoyed your article. As a weather-beaten English fan of West Ham, I’m more than used to hearing songs like ‘Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ being sung every week, yet I had very little knowledge of the background to them. It’s great to have learnt something new today via your posting – well done!
Chris, “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” is yet another old American Broadway/Tin Pan Alley hit that crossed over to England to become the anthem of a football club.
Great post, Jennifer. I especially got a chuckle out of remembering some of the other popular uses of the “John Brown’s Body” melody around Premier League grounds—I wonder how Julia Ward Howe would have felt about “Who the Fuck Are Man United?”
It’s fascinating to think about all the American songs being belted out from the terraces. Apart from all the Rodgers and Hammerstein/Rodgers and Hart numbers (“Blue Moon”), so many of them seem to have a spiritual or anthemic background (“The Halls of Montezuma,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” etc.) It would be interesting to read more about this.
I agree with you Brian, this topic has so much scope for further writing yet I struggle to find any blogs, never mind websites dedicated to the subject.
Does anybody have an idea where I can find books or journal articles on the subject.
To be honest, this is a sub-category to my University dissertation and I would be grateful for any details.
It’s a fascinating subject, but a very difficult one to research, because to do it properly one essentially needs to do sociological research at each club in question. The two most interesting aspects for me are how a song like the Battle Hymn first gets adopted as a “terrace anthem” and then how and why the words change over time and/or the tune falls out of favour and/or is adopted by other clubs (the adoption of YNWA by the likes of Borussia Dortmund would be worth an article by itself).
To give just one perplexing example, the ultras at Inter have a song for each regular. The one for Julio Cesar, the keeper, is to the Flintstones Theme Tune. I’ve asked several of them why, and no one seems to know, other than the fact that “it works” (and it does).
That is the kind of question that you will never get an answer too from a book that just collects songs (which I understand the Dicks Out series does, though I don’t have a copy of either volume).
Even funnier is the fact that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings this…….especially since Mormons have been taught that Blacks carry the mark of Cain with their skin color. That’s a little ironic to me.
Great to see this topic hit a cord! I’m probably most amazed by the whole “You’ll Never Walk Alone” thing – I think that has to be one of the most wonderful fan songs ever – there is nothing quite so moving as hearing a whole crowd sing such a tender, complicated song. A song that’s been covered by Nina Simone, too. So much is expressed in these songs, and revealed by how they get appropriated and re-worked. It is a great topic – one I’m sure has been touched on in some of the books out there about club histories?
Soccer fans at my alma mater (Earlham College) have adapted the Battle Hymn of the Republic with their own words (the Quake thing refers to the fact that the school is Quaker, which also explains the irony of fans challenging opposing players to a fight):
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Quake
We turn the dust to red and we make the goalpost shake
We’ll meet you in the parking lot; YOUR BIRTH WAS A MISTAKE!
And the Quake goes marching On! On! On!
Glory, Glory Earlham Quakers! (x3)
And the Quake goes marching On! On! On!
great post! you are now making me think about the many and various origins of Italian football songs… hmm perhaps a future post along these lines is in order.
@ ursus arctos,
You mention that there is literature out there on this subject. I’m not sure what the ‘Dicks out’ books are, could you shed som ligh on the situation?
Plus if anyone else would like to drop me a few paragraphs on their experiences at football matches for use in a university dissertation or any information on useful books on the subject of fandom please send me an e-mail at: TASCdissertation@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks.
OBK,
Take a look here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dicks-Out-Definitive-British-Football/dp/1874546002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202227552&sr=8-1 and here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dicks-Out-Singing-British-Football/dp/0952661039/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202227552&sr=8-3.
On the general academic topic, you should take a look at this journal: http://irs.sagepub.com/.
Cheers Ursus,
Just had a look at the amazon website link you provided, seems like it will come in really handy for my University work an I’m very grateful. I’ll be checking the journal out in the near future, is there a particular article that I should be looking at?
Plus does anyone know how I can get in touch with the authors on this site, particularly Jennifer Doyle or Thomas Dunmore, I can’t find an e-mail address anywhere on the website.
OBK, it’s tom@pitchinvasion.net
Hi Ursus,
I know nothing about football fandom in any way useful to a dissertation. Glad to know someone is working on it! My next left wing post will be about fandom & women’s games – again, all very non-expert. You can reach me by posting comments on my site. But, again, the only academic writing about football I know doesn’t address fan culture – and is about women’s football. If you are interested in the latter, check out “The Beautiful Game” by Jean Williams – the bibliography is really solid. JD
Oops. My above comment is for OBK.
OBK, feel free to email me if you wish (spanglyprincess@gmail.com) on the issue of fan cultures – I’m actually a historian by academic training but have a side interest in this department.
Hi to all the above that responded to my post. I’ll take down the addresses etc and be in touch soon, my real name is John Ford but I’ll prompt my e-mail with Online Betting King.
If anyone else reads the post and would like to contribute feel free to leave your address or e-mail me at the address posted above in comment number 11.
To Jennifer, thanks for replying anyhow and I’ll keep checking your posts and drop you an e-mail none the less.
I enjoyed that very much. So many of the traditional songs that the terraces belted out had their origins in religious or spiritual themes.
Regarding the ‘incongrous relationship’ between the Liverpool fans and YNWA, was the reference point for the Kop not the fact that it was a number one hit for the Liverpudlian group ‘Gerry and the Pacemakers’ back in 1963? I’m not 100% sure on this, but I think that the Liverpool supporters started singing it from that point onwards.
The musical ‘Carousel’ may not have registered as much on their radars!
i do believe historyman is right on this – hard to imagine they had shirley jones or doris day in mind! but i love that football fans share a song or two with judy garland and nina simone. as well as the mormon tabernacle choir.
was the reference point for the Kop not the fact that it was a number one hit for the Liverpudlian group ‘Gerry and the Pacemakers’ back in 1963?
Yes, it is. YNWA was adopted in 1963 and the “arrangement” sung by the fans – such as it is – is recognizably the Gerry and the Pacemakers version.
There’s no doubt that Liverpool supporters’ association with “You’ll Never Walk Alone” started with the Gerry & The Pacemakers version. Part of the pre-match ritual at Anfield in the early 1960s was for a number of singles to be played over the loudspeakers – the first ever episode of “Match Of The Day”, recorded in 1964, starts with Kenneth Wolstenholme almost being drowned out by The Kop singing “She Loves You”.
They could have done with a bit of that this afternoon, all things considered.
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY OF THE CUPS AT WHITE HART LANE
AND THE SPURS GO MARCHING ON.
Its also the song used for the team song of Australia’s greatest rugby league team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs (see http://www.souths.com.au)
I’ve also heard “You’ll Never Walk Alone” reinterpreted from the Manchester United terraces as “You’ll Never Walk Again”, when Manu U were playing Liverpool in the 1977 FA Cup Final.
Don’t forget that Celtic also adopted YNWA as one of their anthems and imagine what it’s like when supporters of both clubs bellow it out together in a game, especially at Anfield. Absolutely spine-tingling.
I am not really a fan of football but I can appreciate how football fans are hooked with the game. The lyrics of the songs posted reflect how the players really love the sport and how dedicated they are to the sport. It is inspiring.