Research Missing Team Songs

[emuboy]

Thanks to Youtube, the songs of the AFL clubs and the elite state league teams (VFL, SANFL & WAFL) can be found there. You can find the previous songs of the South Melbourne Swans and Footscray Bulldogs before they changed their name, some rare and pretty weird variations of the Richmond and Essendon theme songs from the 1990s. There is also the ill-fated attempt to change the Sydney Swans song from 'Notre Dame March' to 'Up There For Sydney' (to the tune of 'Up There Cazaly') in the late 1980s.

Yet two songs remain elusive. The first is the full version of the Brisbane Bears' second song, sung to the tune of 'Glory Glory Hallejulah' and used by the club from 1993-1996. There are several recordings of the first song, 'Dare to Beat the Bear' on YouTube, but all there is of the second song is some poor quality footage of the team singing it in 1996, a show choir singing part of it at a centenary celebration the same year and about 40 seconds of the song uploaded as part of a slideshow.

Totally forgotten is the Woodville Warriors club song, used prior to the merger with the West Torrens Eagles in 1990. The merged club adopted the West Torrens song, and the original West Torrens Eagles song can be found on You Tube. Not so with Woodville, the song used is not on Youtube, described on the Woodville Wikipedia page nor or the WWT Eagles website. Does anyone know what the tune and lyrics to the Woodville Warriors' song were?

 

[35Daicos]

Totally forgotten is the Woodville Warriors club song, used prior to the merger with the West Torrens Eagles in 1990. The merged club adopted the West Torrens song, and the original West Torrens Eagles song can be found on You Tube. Not so with Woodville, the song used is not on Youtube, described on the Woodville Wikipedia page nor or the WWT Eagles website. Does anyone know what the tune and lyrics to the Woodville Warriors' song were?

I posted this a while back in another thread. None of the lyrics were provided by me, and I have no idea how accurate any of it is (I was around back when Woodville used the Woody Woodpecker song, that one sticks in the mind a lot more!):- https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/footy-team-songs.1063158/page-3#post-44326512

This was on the same page on BigFooty as the Peckers song, hopefully it's quite accurate:-

We're the Warriors from Woodville,
Woodville Warriors we are.
All fair dinkum to the green and gold,
Um er, um er, um er.
Through rough and tough we stick together,
Determination will be there.
One for all and all for one,
As one we shall achieve it,
For we are the mighty Warriors.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/woodville-warriors-peckers-club-song.336006/

I've no idea what the "Um er" bit is meant to represent, presumably the poster couldn't remember the words from that line! The Peckers song probably never inspired the team to reach great heights, and the club's image certainly needed to be toughened up, so the change to the Warriors was a sensible one!!

Edit: Here's another version, who knows which is more accurate:- https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/club-songs.113257/

Woodville (to the tune of Yankie Doodle)

We're the Warriors from Woodville
The mighty Warriors we are
Australias colours mighty Green and Gold
****( Cant remember next line ) ******
The premiership is what we aim for
Determination will be there
Lets hear a cheer for its our year
As one we shall achieve it
For we are the mighty Warriors

 

[emuboy]

I posted this a while back in another thread. None of the lyrics were provided by me, and I have no idea how accurate any of it is (I was around back when Woodville used the Woody Woodpecker song, that one sticks in the mind a lot more!):- https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/footy-team-songs.1063158/page-3#post-44326512

This was on the same page on BigFooty as the Peckers song, hopefully it's quite accurate:-

We're the Warriors from Woodville,
Woodville Warriors we are.
All fair dinkum to the green and gold,
Um er, um er, um er.
Through rough and tough we stick together,
Determination will be there.
One for all and all for one,
As one we shall achieve it,
For we are the mighty Warriors.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/woodville-warriors-peckers-club-song.336006/

I've no idea what the "Um er" bit is meant to represent, presumably the poster couldn't remember the words from that line! The Peckers song probably never inspired the team to reach great heights, and the club's image certainly needed to be toughened up, so the change to the Warriors was a sensible one!!

Edit: Here's another version, who knows which is more accurate:- https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/club-songs.113257/

Woodville (to the tune of Yankie Doodle)

We're the Warriors from Woodville
The mighty Warriors we are
Australias colours mighty Green and Gold
****( Cant remember next line ) ******
The premiership is what we aim for
Determination will be there
Lets hear a cheer for its our year
As one we shall achieve it
For we are the mighty Warriors

Thanks 35Daicos, I've never heard the Woodville song before.

 

[GiantsTragic]

I missed this one attheground. Too young. You can see whyit was changed with the gay reference, but it's a classic. Beats the crap out of copyingTigerland in my view.
Oddly it probably wouldn't be changed today if it lasted this long.

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&...YQwqsBCDMwAw&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov

 

[Nate37]

Been a while since someone posted in this thread, but here goes...

1) Not all the WAFL songs are available in their entirety. Claremont and Swan Districts have longer versions with instrumental portions. Here is the Claremont song, now here is the 1981 WAFL Grand Final, skip to 2:05:40 and you can hear a version of the song in the background with an instrumental bit similar to Richmond's. Here is the Swan Districts song. In this hilights video, if you skip to 6:50 you can hear the instrumental part of the song in the background. I contacted both clubs via email, Claremont haven't responded, but Swan Districts are apparently going to send me a CD in the mail.

2) Earlier this year, the Woodville Woody Woodpecker song was uploaded to YouTube for the first time. Still looking for the Warriors version. I contacted WWTFC but they had nothing. I'm wondering if it's any use contacting the SANFL itself

3) emuboy mentioned 40 seconds of the second Brisbane Bears theme was uploaded to a slideshow. Does anyone have a link to the slideshow? In this thread it is mentioned that the master copy went missing, but the song was released on the AFL 1996 Centenary CD

 

[emuboy]

Been a while since someone posted in this thread, but here goes...



2) Earlier this year, the Woodville Woody Woodpecker song was uploaded to YouTube for the first time. Still looking for the Warriors version. I contacted WWTFC but they had nothing. I'm wondering if it's any use contacting the SANFL itself

I listened to the 'Woodville Woody Woodpecker' song on Youtube, and having done so I can perhaps understand why Woodville lost so much in those days - the players didn't want to hear the song playing over the public address system, much less have to sing it themselves after a match! The only thing I could compare it with is if North Melbourne abandoned their theme song and replaced it with the Kangaroo Song from the 1999 Adam Sandler movie 'Big Daddy'. I don't think the Kangaroos would win too many matches

It's odd in the case of both Woodville and the Brisbane Bears that the earlier theme songs survived in their entirety, but the later songs both used in the 1990s are missing.

 

[Nate37]

I listened to the 'Woodville Woody Woodpecker' song on Youtube, and having done so I can perhaps understand why Woodville lost so much in those days - the players didn't want to hear the song playing over the public address system, much less have to sing it themselves after a match!

Yeah, I honestly really like it to listen to as a song, but it just doesn't work as a footy song. I can't imagine it being very easy for the crowd to join in or even for the players to sing after the game. I think it's let down by some gaps in the pacing.

On a different note, literally an hour or two after my last post, the CD arrived from Swan Districts. It will be premiering tomorrow on YouTube. After listening to it, I think the full version is so much better than what they currently have, but I see why they shortened it down. Too much of it was instrumental.

 

[Nate37]

Today has been a great day in terms of finding old WAFL Songs, just found an archived page with a longer version of the East Fremantle song and and instrumental version of the song. Will be posting soon.

 

[Nate37]

Got this back from the SANFL regarding the Woodville Warriors Theme Song

 

[Nate37]

Also, here are the East Fremantle songs

 

[emuboy]

Just think, if Woodville and West Torrens had never merged and were still separate SANFL clubs then there would be three teams with theme songs to the tune of 'Yankee Doodle' - West Adelaide (We're a Happy Team at Westies), Central Districts (We're a Winning Team at Centrals) and Woodville (We are the Mighty Warriors).

Two SANFL teams use 'It's a Grand Old Flag' - Norwood and Sturt - and the others are 'Notre Dame March' Port Adelaide Magpies, 'Row Row Row' (Tigerland) Glenelg, 'Lily of Laguna' South Adelaide, Glory, 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' West Torrens and 'US Marines Hymn' for the Adelaide Crows Reserves. The North Adelaide Roosters have an original song, although the North Ballarat Roosters song is to the same tune.

 

[Nate37]

A lot of the SANFL clubs use really crappy new recordings of their songs with fake instruments. Have a listen to West Adelaide's uninspiring song and then compare it to what they used to have. The old song is so much more upbeat, and has that charm that all the 70's and 80's recorded club songs have.

Many SANFL clubs changed their tunes to sound more like AFL clubs. I get that Glenelg had to change from 'a tiger for me' cause of the gay reference, but at least do your own recording of Tigerland like Claremont did. I would absolutely love it if Glenelg did a remaster of their old song and changed a couple lines. Even if it has those fake instruments, it's so much better than ripping off an AFL tune. Then there's South Adelaide, who used to have an old tune called 'fight for the right'. I'll admit that it isn't very good, but again, it's so much better than ripping off Carlton. And Central District too, not only did they rip off Hawthorn, they ripped of West Adelaide, a team in their own competition, when they already had a good song in 'This time, we'll get it right'. Then Norwood and Sturt, I don't know who had the song first, but could one of them have done something different? Or at least Norwood could have made the second verse 'Oh the team played fine in the year 29' the main part of the song, so at least it felt different.

That being said, I will give credit to North Adelaide for keeping on to their original tune, and not becoming the third team to use grand old flag. Although I find the disco version of the song a bit weird, it's certainly more exciting than their old recording. And with Woodville West Torrens, I think it was a great choice to use West Torrens' song, and they definitely have tried their best to make the recording sound uplifting. I feel like a lot of the SANFL songs feel quite uninspired, and I get that certain teams had to change their songs for certain reasons, but then there are teams who had great songs and changed them for no apparent reason. Compare this to something like the WAFL, where East Perth is the only club to replace their old song, and at least they still kept the tune and didn't replace it with an AFL clubs song. And when Peel Thunder were established (around the mid to late 90's), they tried pretty hard to make it sound like one of the old songs. I wish the SANFL clubs would either go back to their old recordings or at least re-record their old songs.

 

[Nate37]

Here is the Woodville song sung by the players in full (Skip to 47:14)

 

[Nate37]

Here's something I stitched together by looping West Adelaide's old song and adding a clip of the players singing. Until we get the actual song, this is the best we have. Enjoy

 

[108CAM]

lost songs i'm looking for are the Brisbane Bears second song used from 1994 until 1996, The 1997 version of the Adelaide Crows song and the Woodville Warriors song
I've got 2 copies of the Bears song but they are both in the background of games and there's lots of noise.
I made this remaster of the 1997 Crows song however there is still some noise.



I also made this recreation of the Warriors song


And here's the Bears song in the background of a game

 

[108CAM]

lost songs i'm looking for are the Brisbane Bears second song used from 1994 until 1996, The 1997 version of the Adelaide Crows song and the Woodville Warriors song
I've got 2 copies of the Bears song but they are both in the background of games and there's lots of noise.
I made this remaster of the 1997 Crows song however there is still some noise.



I also made this recreation of the Warriors song


And here's the Bears song in the background of a game

Apparently the AFL still has a copy of the second Bears song but are refusing to release it. A recent edit on the Wikipedia page for the Bears suggests that someone tried to contact the AFL about it and the edit is an indication of the response they got.
Also, in another thread, someone mentioned that 40 seconds of the song’s official recording exists in a slideshow uploaded to YouTube. This makes me think that a copy does indeed exist however the current whereabouts of said copy are unknown. Other lower quality copies may be present in umpire’s tapes or in the background of archived TV and radio broadcasts. I’m trying to find a copy of the end of the 1996 semi final as the song is very easy to hear. All but one game that the Bears won between 1994 and 1996 have a person talking over the song telling the crowd not to run onto the field. The one video with the song is missing the second chorus. This is the copy uploaded to my channel. I found a second complete but very low quality copy of the song on one of my VHS tapes. I have been working on using audio editing to get a clearer version of the song, similar to what I did with the 1997 Crows song.

 

[108CAM]

Update for May 2, 2022 regarding the Bears 2nd song
I can confirm that the 2nd Bears song was indeed released on CD. I know this because when I emailed The Gabba about the Bears Song, they told me they didn't have a copy because the CD would be returned to the club so they could take it to the next game. I don't know how many CDs were pressed but it wouldn't've been many.
It was commonplace for stadiums to have a CD player connected to the speaker system in order to play the team songs via the existing speaker system.
I don't have a credible source for this but I read in a YouTube comment that the master recordings of the song were destroyed after the merger in 1996.
The fact the lyrics for the entire song are on Wikipedia confirms that a copy existed until at least 2001, the year Wikipedia was founded but may have been around for longer depending on when the article was written.
The song is still out there. It's just a matter of searching and waiting until one of us finds a copy of it

 

[clarkoscluster]

Does anyone remember a different version of the Swans theme song from the late 90’s (not the up there for Sydney) with a very consistent low tone instrumental? Feel like this lasted a good while until the Swans replaced it with the old South Melbourne (current) version of the song!

 

[108CAM]

Does anyone remember a different version of the Swans theme song from the late 90’s (not the up there for Sydney) with a very consistent low tone instrumental? Feel like this lasted a good while until the Swans replaced it with the old South Melbourne (current) version of the song!

Interesting. I'll have a look at some old Swans games and see what song is played

 

[clarkoscluster]

Interesting. I'll have a look at some old Swans games and see what song is played

Just did a youtube search myself. Sounds like it can be heard in this match -

 

[Nate37]

I can confirm that the 2nd Bears song was indeed released on CD. I know this because when I emailed The Gabba about the Bears Song, they told me they didn't have a copy because the CD would be returned to the club so they could take it to the next game. I don't know how many CDs were pressed but it wouldn't've been many.

I think I posted this in another thread, but rerecorded versions of all the club songs were released as a set of CDs in 1993, and I believe Richmond and Adelaide's songs are the only ones on YouTube. If the Bears second theme song was released on CD, I'm sure it would have been this, and if not, whatever version of the song is on the CD would most likely be different to the 'Dare to Beat the Bear' recording.

 

[108CAM]

Although this isn't a team song, I still consider it to be a lost football song and I really want to find it.
The original recording of One Day In September is nowhere to be found and apart from some live performances at various AFL Grand Finals, the only recording that exists has the Up There Cazaly chorus overdubbed into the ending. I'm trying to find a recording of the song that doesn't have the messed up ending but have come up empty handed. I have the Carlton and Adelaide team songs on cassette and they have Up There Cazaly and One Day In September included as bonus tracks. Unfortunately, both cassettes have the messed up recording of One Day In September. Does anyone know how the messed up version came to exist or if another recording without the messed up ending even exists. The fact that Mike Brady has performed the song live in it's original form suggests to me that he still has an unaltered copy of the song. Any ideas?

 

[108CAM]

Even though this isn't football related, it still fits into the subject of lost/missing team songs.
I'm looking for high quality recordings of all the Brisbane Rugby League (BRL) team songs.
So far, high quality recordings of the Easts Tigers, Norths Devils and Fortitude Valley Diehards have been uploaded to YouTube.
The songs for the Brisbane Brothers, Souths Logan Magpies and Redcliffe Dolphins are also on YouTube but the quality of the recordings is quite poor. I have been working on restoring these 3 songs as the quality is adequate enough that I'm able to restore them which that crosses these off the list of BRL songs that I have high quality recordings of.
This leaves the songs for the Wests Panthers and Wynnum Manly Seagulls missing as the only audio of these songs on YouTube is incomplete recordings taken from a VHS recording of the pre match entertainment at a BRL Grand Final. With these songs, the endings are cut off and the songs fade out early.
If anyone has complete copies of the Panthers and Seagulls songs, please let me know.

 

[108CAM]

Just did a youtube search myself. Sounds like it can be heard in this match -

They did indeed have a different song in 1997. Definitely not Up There For Sydney or the Fable Singers song from 1972. I'm trying to find a match with a clear enough recording so I can get a feel for what it should sound like in high quality. Another song for the list of songs waiting to be found.

 

[108CAM]

Just did a youtube search myself. Sounds like it can be heard in this match -

This match against Richmond has the clearest audio I could find. The intro is very different to the 1972 Fable Singers song and it has a different person singing. The song appears to have been used as early as 1996 and continued to be used until 1999.
Unfortunately, trying to restore the audio will be hard due to heavy background noise (commentary, post match interviews, crowd cheering etc.)
It also has slightly different lyrics to the 1972 song.