G
Guest
Posting for S's and G's since it's discussed here quite often. I agree with very little if any of this, but here ya go.
http://videogameblog.tuscaloosanews.com/default.asp?item=2306421It's a time-honored tradition. When the game is sealed, the Million Dollar Band strikes up, and Bama fans join in a rousing rendition of the RammerJammer. This catchy tune allows fans to celebrate their victory, congratulate their team, and inform the opposing team that they have, in fact, been defeated, all in one fell swoop.
They lyrics are:
Hey (Insert team here)
Hey (Insert team here)
Hey (Insert team here)
We just beat the hell out of you!
Rammer Jammer, Yellowhammer, give 'em Hell, Alabama!
Still, as a Bama fan myself, I find too many problems with the song to justify singing it. Allow me to count them down for you in that ever-so-popular 10 item format.
10. It's stolen from Ole Miss.
No matter how much I criticize the Rammer Jammer, it will never be as bad as the song it's ripping off. That's Ole Miss' Hotty Toddy.
The lyrics to that one are:
Are you ready? Hell yes! Damn Right!
Hotty Toddy, Gosh almighty
Who in the hell are we - Hey
Flim Flam, Bim Bam
Ole Miss By Damn!
Hell, Damn, Gosh. They were really living on the edge back then, and they wanted nothing more than to remind the fans exactly who they were. This helpful phonic device accomplishes just that. Considering the amount of drinking that goes on at games, that's probably as much help as fans will get until schools start making customized life alert bracelets.
Still, ripping off a rival school's crappy cheer hardly makes a song worth singing.
9. Sportsmanship
Let's get right down to it. The Rammer Jammer is bad sportsmanship. Granted, most schools have one form or another of bad sportsmanship as well. Yet, expounding on the amount of Hell recently liberated from an opponent reflects poorly on the victor.
A song of celebration, to me, implies that victory is a result that is significant enough to require song discharge. That also implies that victory was, at one time, not a given. So what fans are really saying to the other team is that they were scared. So scared, in fact, that they feel the need to further punish the opposing team, hoping to affect future games, because those, too, might be in doubt.
Unfortunately, the practice of humiliating someone else to make yourself feel better never works out well. Instead of making yourself appear stronger, it really just shows everyone how weak you are.
8. It's really not a great song.
The entire song is approximately six-seven notes broken apart by frenzied chanting and capped off with more frenzied chanting. My theory is that somewhere down the line someone got lazy and decided to let the crowd do all the work. Clearly they weren't being paid per note.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I don't care for marching band music. The Million Dollar Band clearly works hard and practices hard, and I salute them for doing an excellent job. It's just not my thing, I suppose.
7. Rammer Jammer, Yellowhammer
If the purpose of a song is to brag, then the writer should seek out verbage containing a bit more bad assiosity. "Rammer Jammer, Yellowhammer" just doesn't work. Hey we just kicked your ass. Here's a magazine we like to read and our state bird!
6. Tense agreement
And while I'm on the subject of lyrics, that brings up the problem of tense. Specifically, the song is a bit ambiguous about when it should be sang. One one hand it says "we just beat the hell out of you." That should go at the end of the game. However, it then says "Give'em Hell Alabama."
I guess it depends on how you read that line. If you read it as Alabama the football team, then it's too late to be giving anyone Hell because the game is over (as referenced in the previous lines). If it's Alabama the school, it makes more sense, yet the verbage isn't still ambiguous in regard to the degree to which the singer is including themselves in the action.
The most ridiculous use of the Rammer Jammer came when I was at an oyster bar before the SEC championship game. We were enjoying our meal when Alabama fans walked by. A few of the guys at my table were Florida fans, so naturally there had been good-natured ribbing going on.
A woman actually quasi-sang "We just beat the Hell out of you" while walking past the table. Seeing as the game hadn't happened yet, we were immediately concerned that she might have suffered a stroke and somehow succumbed to pre stages of dementia.
5. What level of Hell beating?
I'm not going to bother alt-tabbing over to Wikipedia or Google. I'm just going to guess that beating the Hell out of somebody refers to days of yore when nice, upstanding people were probably severely beaten for no good reason other than somebody thought they had some evil in there.
So, I'm guessing the claim "We just beat the Hell out of you" means a significant victory. So wouldn't that rule out close victories, come from behind victories, victories over inferior teams, victories where the Tide was supposed to win, and pretty much everything except unexpected blow outs of heated rivals?
Beating the Hell out of someone implies that they weren't able to muster a competent defense. In which case, a victory over that person is hardly a big deal.
4. Mind control.
When you think about it, the Rammer Jammer is really a form of mind control. 'Nuff said.
3. Alabammer
Every school has derogatory nick names for its rivals' fans. Alabama fans are called Bammers.
Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer
Give'em Hell Alabama
Clearly the hammer and bama are supposed to rhyme, which would mean Alabammer. Now, you could be like my mother and refuse to pronounce Rs across the board, but that almost just as bad.
2. "We"
The players spend hours every day working their muscles until they can hardly move, learning opponents' complex offenses and defenses, eating right, staying healthy, maintaining intensity, smashing mental barriers, coordinating every action in unison with their other team mates, being bashed, thrashed, dashed and smashed around, upended, rundown and thrownaround... all so the fans can take credit in the last minute? I don't think so.
1. WWBD?
What would Bear do? I think he said it best...
"It's awfully important to win with humility."
"I always want my players to show class, knock'em down, pat on the back, and run back to the huddle."
Oh well. There are 10 reasons.
