- Jun 20, 2012
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It's the bubble machine that gets me...like the ones that toddlers have at birthday parties.Apologies to anyone who may have mentioned this in the last 800 odd pages.
I was looking at their bubbles song; I've always found the following highlighted lines really odd:
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air,
They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams they fade and die.
Fortune's always hiding,
I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air.
Why on earth does a sports team proudly belt out that their dreams soar high then fade and die??? and to top it off, they admit that fortune is always hiding... well... too right, West Ham's dreams are ridiculously high and their fortune always seems to be hiding... but they're proud of this?
I thought perhaps there may be some underlying reason so I had a wiki (which I appreciate isn't always reliable but should be for this):
Turns out that a former manager 'introduced' the song in the 1920s. One of the players had a nickname, Bubbles because he looked like a boy in a painting called Bubbles which was used in a soap advert. Some headmaster then began singing it when the players played well. It picked up from there.
So I can see how it formed as a bit of a joke between a few guys. But for it to pick up steam with a load of fans who weren't really part of the inside joke with those ridiculous lyrics is crazy. You'd think they would give it a bit more consideration before growing it in a big way.
And now, every time I go to Stratford as an away fan, or see them on TV, I can't help but laugh when they come out of the player's tunnel proudly to a song that basically says.... 'We're sh*t.'
What a club.