Song For A Doomed Youth

by Ron Waller

The announcement of The Death of Cool, and the results of The Vote of the C&A Jacket Men has rocked Wycombe Wanderers support to its core. The club’s long historical links to the world of Rock and Roll, Ska, Reggae, Drum and Bass, Rare Groove, Rocksteady, Acid Jazz, Funky House, Hip-Hop, Northern Soul and Philadelphia Groove appear to mean nothing to those fans who raided their parents/funky Uncle’s/dismal cousin’s record collections when deciding on what to vote for.

WE MUST HAVE A CLUB SONG scream the hoards. Something original. What? Like Ride of the Valkyries? The song that at least three and four clubs currently run out to, the song Wasps run out to. Eiffel 65? To see them appear in a Poll that isn’t “The worst novelty records of all time” makes me ashamed, and tired, and gassy. Paul Gambaccini logged on to the Official Site that day, and cried himself to a deep, harrowing sleep.

The ridiculousness of the whole situation is that there is already a club anthem, rarely heard, but completely, utterly, beautifully relevant to Wycombe Wanderers FC: Always on My Mind – the Willie Nelson version.

Get the wet wipes ready, and we’ll walk and talk our way through it:

Maybe I didnt treat you
Quite as good as I should have
Maybe I didnt love you
Quite as often as I could have
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

Let’s face it, there are quite a few Wycombe fans that go to every game. Home and away. They sing all game, they bang drums, they make up songs for the players. But let’s think about the Wycombe fans you know, the ones you know well, the ones you’ve known for years. They don’t do that. They did, for a bit, at some time in their lives, but things have changed. People move, people get jobs, people stop putting a small football club in south Buckinghamshire ahead of everything else in their lives. People meet girls, and boys, and then make their own boys and girls. Yet for all Wycombe fans we all know, dotted all over the country, all over the world, WWFC were always on their mind.

Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasnt died
Give me, give me one more chance
To keep you satisfied, satisfied

For one thing always stands out for me, and it happens at least twice every season. You see a face you recognise from the corners of your mind, from the corners of Adams and Loakes Park, that you haven’t seen for years, for decades sometimes. And it’s always at some bizarre away game or meaningless pre-season friendly. No matter how far away we move or how disenfranchised or completely bored stiff with watching Wycombe we become, we always give them one more chance.

Maybe I didnt hold you
All those lonely, lonely times
And I guess I never told you
Im so happy that youre mine
If I make you feel second best
Girl, Im sorry I was blind

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind

Some things need to be accepted. Be it the non-league roots or being within 30 miles of London and its football clubs, there is no doubt that a large number of Wycombe fans have wandering eyes. They dally elsewhere. Some have busy hands. For the hardcore band who tell tales of Leatherhead away may have the moral high ground, but when it comes to the numbers, an incredibly large one have tried things elsewhere. You only have to look at the mascots in the programme from the mid-eighties onwards – other club supported. Anyone reading this who went to school around Wycombe in the eighties and early nineties had their stock answer to who they supported as “Wycombe and…”. But at the end of the day, we all see the light, we all grow up. We all stop worrying about the stigma of supporting a small, local side, and admit we’re ok with it. We’re proud of it. If we made the club feel second best, sorry eh, we were blind.

Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasnt died
Give me, give me one more chance
To keep you satisfied, satisfied

Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time
You were always on my mind
You are always on my mind
You are always on my mind

And of course, there were games we should have gone to, trips we should have made, times we should have supported the side, but didn’t. We couldn’t be bothered, we were hungover, we got lucky, we had to work, we had to go to a school fete, we took up golf, we got fed up with the ticket prices, we were sickened by greasy commercialism, we were bored with football and everything to do with it. We looked at an away game at Bury, Chester or Stockport, the result of which meant only the difference between 11th and 12th, and thought fuck it, we’re too cool for this. We’re Wycombe, things happen. Shit goes down. We’re Wycombe, sometimes we look at the clock and don’t fancy it. Sometimes we want to be there and can’t be. Little things we should should have said and done, I just never took the time. It may not make us the super-fans some think we all should be. But they were always on my mind. I checked the score in an Internet café in Malaysia. I went to a pre-season friendly on my own, and loved it. You were always on my mind.

So next time the club appeal for a “unique song”, you know what to tell them. We know what it is.

Belting tune as well.

10.08.2007. 09:39

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