Breathing Orange Fire
Somehow this has become sports week in my journal.
Years and years ago, there was a football team in Houston...not the one we have now, who can't win a game, but one that fit the Houston sports scene more by just getting far enough to choke in a big game. They wore powder blue, which didn't seem quite so effeminate back in the sixties and seventies, and in true Texan spirit, fans seemed to Love 'Em, despite the fact that the never quite kicked the door down.
For some reason, someone thought they needed a fight song. Now high school and college teams have fight songs, but pro teams are usually above the fray, but when the Dallas Cowboys got a set of Cheerleaders, suddenly teams had band and mascots and all the other trappings of their nonprofessional brethren.
Houston's fight-song didn't sound like a regular fight-song, something that would be played by a marching band and sung at a pep rally by the students that cared, or actually remembered the words. Houston's fight song sounded something like a honkey-tonk bar song mixed with a New Orleans funeral march. The words, were worse, and seemed to be written by someone who was lucky enough to be given a rhyming dictionary for Christmas.
What was worse is that the Miami Dolphins were given the same exact song, with a change of the team name. Both songs claim that the team is "the greatest football team." So who's right? Given that the Dolphins won Superbowls, I'd have to say it wasn't the Oilers.
Look out football, here we come, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Houston has the Oilers, the greatest football team.
We take the ball from goal to goal like no one's ever seen.
We're in the air, we're on the ground - always in control,
And when you say the Oilers, you're talking Super Bowl.
'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
We've got the offense, we've got the defense,
We give the other team no hope.
'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers,
You know we're gonna hold the rope.
Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One -
Five - Seven - Eight, We're the best from the Lone Star State!
Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Now if that wasn't bad enough, because the Oilers had a song, then the Astros had to have one. This was back in the 1980's, when the team still wore the uniforms with the big orange stripes across the belly. Certainly the most flattering look a baseball player has ever worn (of course the White sox did have the shorts that one year).
Unfortunately I can't find the lyrics to this total abomination, but one of the phrases is: "Here come the Astros, Burning with desire, Here come the Astros, Breathing orange fire." It's no wonder those Astros teams ended up losing.
Now, in this modern age such songs are passe. I'll admit I've played my share of fight songs in college and high school, and trust me, few people really cared in college if we played the fight song or the latest Gloria Estefan ditty. fight songs are silly, and often poorly written, but in a way, they are tradition for the school set.
The professional athlete comes to the plate to the latest rap song, or to some old classic rock song. Nothing revved up a crowd at Enron Field like seeing the closer coming out to the strains of Metallica's "Enter Sandman". Certainly no one would get excited about a rousing chorus of "Orange Fire" again.
Then again, baseball is the sport that trots out "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" every night.
Still, what's the song now? Besides the pulled together montages of a song with baseball calls produced by local radio stations, we have a version of "Turn It Up" by Chamillionare, some Houston rapper that I know nothing about. Of course I'm not sure if Drayton McClain, the Astros' owner quite knows what "crunk' is, either.
So maybe fight-songs are just a little out of date these days. They are a little too "patriotic" in this grey world. Just a little hokey where we have decided that the struggle between millionaires is just not that important.
Still, we could just go back to just claiming that we're number one. What's the harm in a little bit of boastfulness. Heck, the entire rap world seems to be built on it. So I guess that we can sing to the fact that our millionaires are number one. Fight, Fight, Fight.
Years and years ago, there was a football team in Houston...not the one we have now, who can't win a game, but one that fit the Houston sports scene more by just getting far enough to choke in a big game. They wore powder blue, which didn't seem quite so effeminate back in the sixties and seventies, and in true Texan spirit, fans seemed to Love 'Em, despite the fact that the never quite kicked the door down.
For some reason, someone thought they needed a fight song. Now high school and college teams have fight songs, but pro teams are usually above the fray, but when the Dallas Cowboys got a set of Cheerleaders, suddenly teams had band and mascots and all the other trappings of their nonprofessional brethren.
Houston's fight-song didn't sound like a regular fight-song, something that would be played by a marching band and sung at a pep rally by the students that cared, or actually remembered the words. Houston's fight song sounded something like a honkey-tonk bar song mixed with a New Orleans funeral march. The words, were worse, and seemed to be written by someone who was lucky enough to be given a rhyming dictionary for Christmas.
What was worse is that the Miami Dolphins were given the same exact song, with a change of the team name. Both songs claim that the team is "the greatest football team." So who's right? Given that the Dolphins won Superbowls, I'd have to say it wasn't the Oilers.
Look out football, here we come, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Houston has the Oilers, the greatest football team.
We take the ball from goal to goal like no one's ever seen.
We're in the air, we're on the ground - always in control,
And when you say the Oilers, you're talking Super Bowl.
'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
We've got the offense, we've got the defense,
We give the other team no hope.
'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers,
You know we're gonna hold the rope.
Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Yes, we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
'Cause we're the Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One -
Five - Seven - Eight, We're the best from the Lone Star State!
Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Number One.
Now if that wasn't bad enough, because the Oilers had a song, then the Astros had to have one. This was back in the 1980's, when the team still wore the uniforms with the big orange stripes across the belly. Certainly the most flattering look a baseball player has ever worn (of course the White sox did have the shorts that one year).
Unfortunately I can't find the lyrics to this total abomination, but one of the phrases is: "Here come the Astros, Burning with desire, Here come the Astros, Breathing orange fire." It's no wonder those Astros teams ended up losing.
Now, in this modern age such songs are passe. I'll admit I've played my share of fight songs in college and high school, and trust me, few people really cared in college if we played the fight song or the latest Gloria Estefan ditty. fight songs are silly, and often poorly written, but in a way, they are tradition for the school set.
The professional athlete comes to the plate to the latest rap song, or to some old classic rock song. Nothing revved up a crowd at Enron Field like seeing the closer coming out to the strains of Metallica's "Enter Sandman". Certainly no one would get excited about a rousing chorus of "Orange Fire" again.
Then again, baseball is the sport that trots out "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" every night.
Still, what's the song now? Besides the pulled together montages of a song with baseball calls produced by local radio stations, we have a version of "Turn It Up" by Chamillionare, some Houston rapper that I know nothing about. Of course I'm not sure if Drayton McClain, the Astros' owner quite knows what "crunk' is, either.
So maybe fight-songs are just a little out of date these days. They are a little too "patriotic" in this grey world. Just a little hokey where we have decided that the struggle between millionaires is just not that important.
Still, we could just go back to just claiming that we're number one. What's the harm in a little bit of boastfulness. Heck, the entire rap world seems to be built on it. So I guess that we can sing to the fact that our millionaires are number one. Fight, Fight, Fight.