Go West (song)
Go West is a title of the American disco band Village People from 1979 and is based on the harmonies of the canon and gigue in D major by the German baroque composer Johann Pachelbel . The single wasn't a huge commercial hit, but it became more popular in the cover version of the Pet Shop Boys . Today the melody is also popular as a football song , especially in England and Germany , without its origin being known.
song
The title of the song refers to the slogan “Go West, young man” of the US Manifest Destiny doctrine, but is understood as the glorification of San Francisco as a goal of the gay liberation movement.
The song is based on the melody and harmony of the national anthem of the Soviet Union and Russia. Whose underlying chord progression comes from Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D .
Cover version of the Pet Shop Boys
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On September 6, 1993, the Pet Shop Boys released a revised dance version that also contained an additional verse. In contrast to the original, this version, like most of the Pet Shop Boys' songs, was recorded primarily with electronic instruments (synthesizers, computers, etc.).
The computer-animated music video put “Go West” in a different context. Various pictorial elements based on the Soviet Union and a group of uniformed men marching up a long flight of stairs at the end of which the Statue of Liberty awaits make the piece appear as an expression of the longing for the "Golden West" that was widespread in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Pet Shop Boys single reached number 1 in the German charts and number 2 in Austria, Switzerland and Great Britain.
In an almost ten-minute extended version , for which a video was also shot, the piece changes from the until then poppy sound into a kind of acid techno from about halfway through .
Edits
As a football song
The tune of "Go West" has been picked up by supporters of various clubs, such as Arsenal London and West Bromwich Albion .
In German-speaking countries, the song was first used by fans of Borussia Dortmund at the UEFA Cup round of 16 at Bröndby Copenhagen on November 25, 1993 (1: 1) with the text "Olé, now comes BVB". Hundreds of Dortmund fans - many of them bare-chested in winter temperatures - sang this version continuously during the entire second half, in which the Dortmund equalizer fell.
Supporters of other clubs usually use the text Stand up when you […] are sung ([…] stands for supporters of a club).
The fans of FC Schalke 04 allegedly invented this football anthem in 1997 in the Uefa Cup semi-final second leg against CD Tenerife with the intention of encouraging the guests in the grandstand in the Park Stadium to get up and take part in the wave that emanated from the north curve. Schalke won 2-0 in the second leg after 120 minutes. The invitation to stand up was particularly noticeable to the general public at the victory celebration in the Parkstadion after the UEFA Cup, when spectators asked other spectators to honor the team.
FIFA adopted an orchestral version under the title "Stand Up!", Sung by Patrizio Buanne , as the anthem of the 2006 World Cup . The song was always played after the final whistle of each game.
On the occasion of the European Football Championship in 2008 , Mickie Krause published the blacksmith's song "Orange only carries the garbage collection" directed against the Netherlands to the chorus melody , alluding to the traditional orange jerseys of the Dutch national football team .
ice Hockey
The song is also very well known among ice hockey fans. During the live broadcasts of the DEL through Premiere in the mid-1990s, the song including the video was used as the intro of the program and has since had the status of an unofficial ice hockey anthem .
As a film score
In 2006 another cover version with the title "Stand up, if you like dwarfs" appeared, which was used in the movie " 7 dwarfs - The forest is not enough ".
In the film " Summer Storm ", the song sounds like the victory music of the rowing team "Queer Schlag".
Cover
JBO parodied this song in 1997 under the name Ein Fest . The Excrementory Grindfuckers covered it with the name Music Make Others and wrote for it, just like JBO, a completely new text. The distinctive main riff is also used in the piece What for by the band Emscherkurve 77 .
Web links
- Connell O'Donovan: Go West - This is Our Destiny : Arcadia, Gay Flight, and the Idea (l) of California , June 1999 - Review of "Go West" in the gay liberation movement
- Matthias Tischer: Go West - Village People / Pet Shop Boys. songlexikon.de, July 23, 2014, accessed on August 25, 2014 .
- Videos:
Individual evidence
- ↑ Norbert Linke : On the difficulty and necessity of securing melodic proof of origin. In: Deutsche Johann Strauss Gesellschaft (Ed.): Neues Leben , Issue 53 (2016 / No. 3), pp. 54–59, ISSN 1438-065X .
- ↑ JD Considine: Pet Shop Boys - Very , Rolling Stone, November 25, 1993
- ↑ Norbert Linke : On the difficulty and necessity of securing melodic proof of origin. In: Deutsche Johann Strauss Gesellschaft (Ed.): Neues Leben , Issue 53 (2016 / No. 3), pp. 54–59, ISSN 1438-065X .
- ↑ "Go West (Pet Shop Boys)" in the German single charts ( Memento from January 29, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ "Go West (Pet Shop Boys)" in the Austrian single charts
- ↑ "Go West (Pet Shop Boys)" in the Swiss single charts
- ↑ Go West (song) in the Official UK Charts (English)
- ↑ release date on 45cat.com
- ↑ release date on rateyourmusic.com
- ^ Ian Balfour: Queen Theory. notes on the Pet Shop Boys. In: Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook and Ben Saunders (Eds.): Rock Over the Edge. Transformations in Popular Music Culture . Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina 2002, p. 368.
- ↑ Olympiastadion is black and yellow ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Ruhr Nachrichten, April 19, 2008
- ↑ They were first on Schalke , n.tv, June 25, 2006