Has started playing Tom Petty’s song “I Won’t Back Down” at the Swamp between the third and fourth quarters. Petty, if you weren’t aware, was a Gainesville native who died about a year ago.
I was trying to think of any Arkansas musicians who might be honored similarly. Johnny Cash, I guess, but he’s been dead for a long time. Glen Campbell also died last year and was more identified with Arkansas than Cash was, since he recorded a song called “Arkansas” about growing up here that I like a lot more than the official state song.
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I guess there’s Amy Lee and Evanescence from a more recent genre; Lee wasn’t born here but went to high school at PA and formed the band in Little Rock. Levon Helm was associated with the Band but no real solo career that I know of. Ronnie Hawkins has a solo career but is more associated with Canada than his home state. Then there’s Bret Bielema’s favorite singer, Justin Moore.
Of course the best song about Arkansas to me remains Waylon Holtfield’s Arkansas You Run Deep in me, which ran for the longest time on AETN when they used to end their programming day.
Yep, that’s right kids - there did not use to me 24-hour TV.
Holyfield was born in Mallettown, Arkansas, graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1965, and moved to Nashville in 1972 to write songs for a living. He found great success in country music, scoring his first number one hit in 1975 with Don Williams’ recording of You’re My Best Friend.
But they maybe is not the best fire up the crowd song going into the 4th quarter.
I love Ring of Fire so much I downloaded different versions from Johnny Cash, one live in concert and one from a studio. My wife thinks that’s a little much when I have them both in my favorites at different spots.
Years ago when doing talk radio with Chuck Barrett we were talking about how to liven up the crowd at Walton Arena. I suggested that they ought to play Ring of Fire. Guess what, the next night at the basketball game, the band played it. Now I would speculate that they had it dialed up and ready before I mentioned it on the radio. I don’t think they could change there plans that quickly. I just don’t think that’s how getting a band ready for a game is done.
Chuck and I both talked about it at halftime. I started to ask someone in the band if they had been listening the day before, but I didn’t.
I think it’s a great song.
As far as Justin Moore, I like: I’m Going to Kick Your Ass. But I doubt that gets played in the stadium.
Fleetwood Mac is certainly not from Arkansas but their song, “Don’t Stop,” was the theme of a certain president during his campaign in 1992. It would be a good song (not because of politics), but something more Arkansan would probably be better. I always loved it when the band director ran around Barnhill to “William Tell Overture.” Not sure how that would work in football, and again not Arkansas.
If you go to an LSU home game you’ll hear the crowd doing some pretty x rated chants, and the players love it, students love it, hell even the fans love it. Play it and get the fans involved, our game day atmosphere needs a boost. We had a half filled stadium, almost every week. I know we aren’t good, but we still need to improve the game day and stadium atmosphere.
Actually, the SEC told the LSU band to stop playing “Neck” because of the X-rated chant that went with it. Odell Beckham Jr. came back for a game last year and told them he’d pay the fine to the SEC himself because he wanted them to play Neck. So they did.
I’m old and hope the younger set will forgive me for saying this but smelling like corn dogs and chanting x-rated songs would not be something to which I aspire, would not be a great example for our kids and would not seem to be sustainable.
But I am far from the normal 55-year-old white guy - that just happen to drive El Dorado this week to see Sheila E, Morris Day and the Time and 78-year-old George Clinton head up Parliament/Funkadelic.
You can call it thick skin, but I call it vulgar and no need for X-rated language. Games ought to be a place where children can enjoy without asking parents about what certain words mean. You can say they hear it already, but you don’t know that for a fact. Enhance the gameday atmosphere with inoffensive music and chants–there’s plenty of it out there that’ll work quite well.
I went to my first LSU game this year against South eastern. The stadium was sold out. I have never experienced a game like that at Arkansas. The student section absolutely puts ours to shame, it’s not even close. They come, and they are a force. Ours barely show up, and do the same crappy chant over and over.
The fans are so energetic and into the game. There is barely any advertisement over the speakers.
We need our student section to make a trip down to BR and learn how to do it, the other fans could also take note as well. It’s pretty incredible.
Listen, I’m fine with making it more lively. Most definitely. Just keep it clean. You can do both. The student section can get in the other team’s grill; they can get up-close-and-personal. Just leave the x-rated part at home.
I don’t think you have to be x rated. However, the LSU thing absolutely works and gets those players going like I’ve never seen, crowd too.
I think it can be done with out it. Should our student sections get after the other team? Absolutely. do they? Not very well. I think that most older fans need to relax a little with what music is played at the stadium, and remember they aren’t the ones on the field also, that’s one of the most constant complaints I used to hear.
We need to get rid of all of the ads in the game.
Basically there is just a ton of room for improvement, and I didn’t fully understand it until recently.
