Can someone explain to me why the first verse of the war hymn has been thrown by the wayside? The first verse is awesome! And the war hymn was obviously meant to have it. With the talk about SECeding, I feel it's reinclusion deserves some conversation.

(Edit to include the lyrics)

Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck
Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck
All hail to dear old Texas A&M
Rally around Maroon and White
Good luck to dear old Texas Aggies
They are the boys who show the real old fight
That good old Aggie Spirit thrills us
And makes us yell and yell and yell
So let's fight for dear old Texas A&M
We're gonna beat you all to Chigaroogarem
Chigaroogarem
Rough, Tough, real stuff Texas A&M


EOT




[This message has been edited by mid90 (edited 7/24/2011 2:13p).]

Singing both verses in the future in the SEC will be awesome!

This will not end well

I was thinking of this the other day. If we bounce, and continue to play t.u. then there isn't much need of change.

However if we sever ties then we just swap them out. Not sure how to update the saw em off though.

To clarify, even if we never play tu again (which I hope it doesn't come down to that) I don't think we should edit the war hymn to remove references to tu. I'm just curious why we only sing the second verse.

as a current student, i'd be in favor of singing both when/if we get to the SEC.

Who doesn't sing both?

I have no idea.

We always sing the second verse twice for some reason.

I like the first verse as it makes us look like a normal school.

Singing the 2nd verse twice only makes any sense on Thanksgiving night or at Bonfire but some reason we do it every week.

Anyone who knows why>> >I would also like to know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP3jE2KaikI

Keep sawing off, sing both both verses aginst non tsip opponents, sing the second verse twice against the sips. Easy solution and everybody wins.

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Who doesn't sing both?

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99% of us who until this topic came up several years ago, never knew that there was a "first verse"...

Probably for the same reason I don't sing the "new" lyrics to the Spirit, with A-M-U, instead of A-M-C. Doesn't sound right.

We need a sticky for questions that come up every year. The first verse wasn't thrown by the wayside. Its never been anywhere else. It was written AFTER the verse we actually sing. Pinky hated it and it was never really adopted at any point in time.

because we are obsessed with tu

I'm going to enjoy singing "goodbye to the orange and the white..." when we head off the SEC and leave them behind!

I love the first verse! I really do wish we sang it.

Teach your kids first verse. It'll catch on eventually. I wish we sang it exclusively unless we were playing tu.

Here we go again............why do people think we need to "update" the War Hymn due to conference realignment? Is t.u. going to alter their "texas fight"? NO. Shoot, we're not the only school whose "fight song" (term used loosely) calls out a rival.

[There was a thread on this some time ago, haven't gone back and dug it up, but there was something in the neighborhood of 10-15 schools whose fight songs are similar. And not all those schools even play the rival their song referenced]

No one else's song talks about their rival more than their own school except ours.

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There was a thread on this some time ago

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There have been about a thousand of 'em.

...same song, second verse, could be better but it's gonna be worse...

...not the War Hymn, just the subject.

MA

This was an article by the batt a few years ago on this very subject.

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For decades, people have complained about the Texas A&M fight song that we refer to as the Aggie War Hymn. These critics apparently discovered that the verse of the War Hymn sung at sporting events is not the only verse, but apparently the second verse in the hymn. Naturally, they begin preaching the necessity to sing what they believe is the first verse and was originally intended to be sung, but this opinion, though well intended, is uninformed and misguided.

In order to form an appropriate opinion, one must do the proper research, and the best place to research such a long-standing tradition is the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives. There you will find numerous articles and documents dating as far back as the late 1800s about everything from JV "Pinky" Wilson to the Aggie War Hymn. Using this almost inexhaustible resource, we can eliminate misconceptions and reveal the true intentions behind our time honored fight song.

The first and most common misconception is that the author of the War Hymn was the famed Pinky Downs, Class of 1906 and famed former yell leader who created the "Gig'em" hand sign. However, the actual songwriter was James Vernon "Pinky" Wilson, Class of 1920. According to the September 1980 issue of "The Texas Aggie," an alumni magazine, Wilson came to A&M in 1915, only to leave before graduating to enlist in the Marines and fight in World War I. Wilson returned to A&M after the war to re-enroll as a senior in the veterans' unit.

The other misconception - and this is the kicker - is that what is referred to as the first verse of the War Hymn wasn't actually written until 1928. According to a news article published in The Battalion in 1980, Wilson told John A. Adams Jr., an authority on A&M history, all about how he wrote the War Hymn on the back of a letter from home while standing guard on the Rhine River in 1918. The song is a combination of several Aggie yells from back then such as "Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!" and "Saw Varsity's Horns Off." The song was originally sung slowly, as a ballad, by a quartet, and it had a different title: "Good-bye to Texas University." After returning to A&M, Wilson organized a quartet that sang many tunes. In exchange for passes to the movie theater they would sing during the intermission of the show. One evening, several of the Aggie yell leaders were in attendance and heard them sing "Good-bye to Texas University." They approached Wilson and asked him to jazz it up and let them present it to the student body. At a yell practice in the fall of 1920, they did just that and, though several songs were in contention for the official fight song, the "War Hymn" was adopted.

Years later, the yell leaders and some former students requested that Wilson write a new verse in order to get away from a rivalry-oriented fight song, but all attempts to promote the verse have failed. "Just as well, the spirit is with the student body - they'll sing what they want to," Wilson told Adams.

Wilson couldn't have put it better. The story behind the original verse of the War Hymn practically defines the spirit of A&M which ultimately defines the student body. Whether you're in the Aggie Band or you live in Walton Hall, you still sway to the same tune. That same tune that was ranked No. 1 in college fight songs by USA Today in 1997. It was the same tune that NASA Flight Director Terry Griffin, Class of 1956, used to wake astronauts in space in 1983 and 1995. That tune is the famed War Hymn that has survived almost a century, and whether we sing the old verse or the new one, JV "Pinky" Wilson, God rest his soul, would be pleased to know that his words and music still survive to this day.

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http://www.thebatt.com/2.8482/war-hymn-is-fine-the-way-it-is-the-spirit-is-with-the-students-1.1201504

Damn Fish Camp

Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck
Hullabaloo, Caneck, Caneck
All hail to dear old Texas A&M
Rally around Maroon and White
Good luck to dear old Texas Aggies
They are the boys who show the real old fight
That good old Aggie Spirit thrills us
And makes us yell and yell and yell (SEC!)
So let's fight for dear old Texas A&M
We're gonna beat you all to Chigaroogarem
Chigaroogarem
Rough, Tough, real stuff Texas A&M

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"Just as well, the spirit is with the student body - they'll sing what they want to," Wilson told Adams.

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Looks like the student body may adopt the first verse in the 21st century.

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Looks like the student body may adopt the first verse in the 21st century.

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Don't count on it. People have been trying to "bring it back" for ages.

It doesn't stick because it sucks.

BRING BACK THE 1ST VERSE, DAMNIT!!!

Ags are all about history and tradition....why should this song be any different?

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.why should this song be any different?

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You're absolutely correct. It shouldn't be any different which is why we should continue singing it the way WE HAVE ALWAYS SUNG IT.

thanks for the insight. I'm a first generation aggie and I've had a texags account for just 6 months, so I haven't heard this conversation before.

Many SEC fans don't like tu. Let'em hear the Ags sing the Traditional version. It'll make them feel good and at the same time hear the 12TH Man and Aggie Spirit. (hogs are hearing it but the current lsu and 'bama fans need a good dose of the Traditional version)