OT: DePaul, Devo and the "We Are [School Name]" Chant...
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:09 pmIn a little break from game analysis here, because I notice this a lot and started thinking back over the years:
So here in 2014, in almost every game I watch, college basketball fans at some point start chanting:
"WE ARE... [INSERT SCHOOL NAME]...!"
A bunch of schools print signs with this chant on it and wave them in the crowd. Some, like Missouri, practically use it as their athletic motto, and have websites like wearemizzou-dot-com, and a zillion others have t-shirts and other related items.
Examples:
SOUTHERN CAL:
KENTUCKY:
What's my point...?
Ok, from my memory, which may be a little screwed up:
The originators of this chant were the fans of our compadres, the DePaul Blue Demons, from back in 1978 or 1979, around their Final Four year.
The original use of it by DePaul made sense, because it's a play on the album by new-wave band "Devo" from around 1978.
COVER OF ORIGINAL ALBUM FROM 1978:
The band had a running theme of the "de-evolution" of man, which led to them calling themselves "Devo" (best known for their song "Whip It" in 1980). They were a new-wave alternative electronica band with some funky, cutting edge, confusing sounds and messages. Funky plastic hats and yellow hazmat suits or metallic jackets like something out of "Metropolis". Actually pretty brilliant stuff that could take 89 pages to explain, and I don't even understand it myself exactly. But their main question was "Q: Are We Not Men...? A: We Are Devo...!"
See---> DE-vo. DE-paul. And as Devo sang: "We Are... DE-vo...!" And as Blue Demon fans chanted: "We Are... DE-paul...!"
The point is, the cool fanbase of DePaul back then had the creativity to link "Devo" with "DePaul". The rhythm used when chanted matches the old Devo style. The chant was stolen by other schools soon after DePaul used it, because those other schools must not have understood the original reference. It's continually been used over the years so that Kentucky and other use it and have no clue that it makes no sense. Actually, the only schools that could use it with any meaning would be DePaul, DePauw and Detroit Mercy.
So next time you hear a bunch of drunk college kids from Columbia, Missouri, chanting this, you now have the opportunity to turn to people at the bar and smugly say, "you know, DePaul invented that chant... they got it from Devo...!"
A LATER DEVO ALBUM:
So here in 2014, in almost every game I watch, college basketball fans at some point start chanting:
"WE ARE... [INSERT SCHOOL NAME]...!"
A bunch of schools print signs with this chant on it and wave them in the crowd. Some, like Missouri, practically use it as their athletic motto, and have websites like wearemizzou-dot-com, and a zillion others have t-shirts and other related items.
Examples:
SOUTHERN CAL:
KENTUCKY:
What's my point...?
Ok, from my memory, which may be a little screwed up:
The originators of this chant were the fans of our compadres, the DePaul Blue Demons, from back in 1978 or 1979, around their Final Four year.
The original use of it by DePaul made sense, because it's a play on the album by new-wave band "Devo" from around 1978.
COVER OF ORIGINAL ALBUM FROM 1978:
The band had a running theme of the "de-evolution" of man, which led to them calling themselves "Devo" (best known for their song "Whip It" in 1980). They were a new-wave alternative electronica band with some funky, cutting edge, confusing sounds and messages. Funky plastic hats and yellow hazmat suits or metallic jackets like something out of "Metropolis". Actually pretty brilliant stuff that could take 89 pages to explain, and I don't even understand it myself exactly. But their main question was "Q: Are We Not Men...? A: We Are Devo...!"
See---> DE-vo. DE-paul. And as Devo sang: "We Are... DE-vo...!" And as Blue Demon fans chanted: "We Are... DE-paul...!"
The point is, the cool fanbase of DePaul back then had the creativity to link "Devo" with "DePaul". The rhythm used when chanted matches the old Devo style. The chant was stolen by other schools soon after DePaul used it, because those other schools must not have understood the original reference. It's continually been used over the years so that Kentucky and other use it and have no clue that it makes no sense. Actually, the only schools that could use it with any meaning would be DePaul, DePauw and Detroit Mercy.
So next time you hear a bunch of drunk college kids from Columbia, Missouri, chanting this, you now have the opportunity to turn to people at the bar and smugly say, "you know, DePaul invented that chant... they got it from Devo...!"
A LATER DEVO ALBUM:
