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Canes Country Goal Song Power Rankings

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock this past week, the Hurricanes opened up fan voting for their new goal song. Polls close tonight at midnight, so head over to Hurricanes dot com and make your selection.

Since there’s literally nothing else going on in the hockey world at the moment, I thought I’d weigh in with my own personal goal song power rankings. As for qualifications? Well... I own a lot of CDs. In college I burned mix tapes for our sorority parties. I’ve spent a lot of time in the arena watching hockey games over the last 13 years. And I represent an important demographic.

@NHLCanes

Factors I took into consideration:

• Hook/Hype – Is it catchy and engaging? (Fluxland, Let Me Clear My Throat, The Whip)
• Team connection – What connects it to the fan base? (I Love LA, Let’s Go Crazy, Howling For You, Puck Off, When The Saints Come Marching In)
• Troll factor – Is it annoying to opposing fans? (Chelsea Dagger, Whoa/Let’s Go Rangers)
• Fit – Does it work with other aspects of the goal celebration? I’m assuming the Canes aren’t replacing the goal horn, the Ric Flair Wooo, or John Forslund’s call on replay.

In order of worst to first:

#8 – Brass Bonanza (Techno Remix)

Even if you can get past the song’s history and the fact that history belongs to the Hartford Whalers and not the Carolina Hurricanes, IT’S. NOT. A. GOOD. GOAL. SONG.

The tune has that kitschy earworm quality, but you can’t ‘do’ anything with it. You can’t dance to it and you don’t really clap to it either; there’s nothing to sing along or chant with. As for the troll factor, well, who’s being trolled here? It feels like the Canes fans themselves for co-opting another team’s memories, amirite? Nostalgia and respect for the legacy is great and I support the song returning to the arena in some capacity, but wedging a square peg into a round hole to make it our goal song? Nope.

#7 – Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin)

This song was released in The Year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-One. It’s a great rock song by a legendary band and I’m pretty sure I own it myself in a CD set. I’ve also heard it about a million times in various arenas including PNC and I can’t say that it’s ever done anything to pump me up or engage me in celebration. Maybe we could find something from this century? Besides, is “been a long time” really the best catch phrase for a Hurricanes goal song?

#6 – Jump Around (House of Pain)

I love this song. The horn fanfare gets me every time. It’s catchy and recognizable and it makes me want to, well, get up and jump around. You know who else likes to jump around when he hears it? Danny Green. And he played for the Tar Heels in the mid-2000s so they’ve been using it as their player intro song for well over 10 years now. This feels like another instance where the Canes would be co-opting a song that already identifies with another local fan base. And while that’s not an insurmountable obstacle, the song doesn’t offer anything else that’s uniquely Hurricanes hockey so why not find a song of our own?

#5 - Uprising (Muse)

I love Muse. I loved “Hysteria” when the Canes used it as a pre-game hype song. “Uprising” is another one of the goal song choices I actually own and I’ve even seen it performed live and going into the voting I really wanted to love it for the Canes goal song. But I don’t. Something doesn’t feel right and I can’t describe what it is. The instrumental riff is awesome, and there’s a “Hey Hey” chant built into the version the Canes published, it’s more unique than some of the overplayed songs that made the final cut, but it feels disjointed and awkward, and it doesn’t inspire me or excite me when I hear it and that makes me very sad.

#4 – Lithium (Nirvana)

Hey, another song I own IRL! I liked this one better than I expected, because I never considered the song itself to be goal celebration material. But the snippet that’s used for the goal song and the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” chant fit well and I think they would tie in with the other aspects of the overall presentation. That’s probably because it sounds an awful lot like “Song 2” by Blur, which was used as the Canes goal song for so many years. And that’s my biggest beef. It’s just a generic stadium song with a lot of mileage already.

#3 – Party Up (DMX)

This selection is less about the music and more about the words and getting people on their feet to chant along. It feels similar to “Let Me Clear My Throat” which has been popular for the Sabres. The Predators use it as their power play song. I like it. It’s a fun song. I enjoy hearing it in the arena now and it usually brings me out of my seat. I’m surprised it’s ranked as low as is is on our Ranker poll. It was the consensus pick by Section 328 on their podcast. My biggest complaint is the same as with Lithium; it’s a generic stadium song that we already hear every game anyway.

#2 – The Nights (Avicii)

This ranking is going to earn me the wrath of several colleagues (too bad, write your own power rankings article). I’ve been a fan of “The Nights” since it was introduced as our goal song two seasons ago. I like Avicii, the song is catchy and family friendly, it has a crowd participation aspect (though admittedly the “Hey Hey” chants in the arena never quite took off), it’s easy to clap along with, and it works well with Forslund’s replay call. It’s also from this decade (!) and isn’t long in the tooth like some of the other selections. On the flip side, it’s reminiscent of the old culture the Canes are trying to shed, not really associated with a lot of good arena memories, and the song’s lyrics combined with the circumstances around Tim Bergling’s tragic death shortly after last season ended cast a pall over the whole situation. I’m cool with keeping the current goal song, but I also appreciate and support the desire to move on.

#1 – Raise Up (Petey Pablo)

North Carolina, c’mon and raise up. This song has everything – local connections, chanting, crowd participation, shirtless dudes on Canesvision highlights, and merchandise/branding opportunities. But what I like most about it is the troll potential. Opposing fans are going to hate it. That said, Canes, don’t even pretend y’all don’t already know as soon as the first goal is scored, people are going to yell “Who am I? SEBASTIAN AHO, [EXPLETIVE DELETED]!!!” so you’d better go ahead and work that out before the first preseason game.

By the way, the Canes Country brain trust held an informal vote and here’s how it broke down across our staff:

Raise Up – 10 votes
The Nights – 3 votes
Lithium – 1 vote

Don’t forget to get your vote in before midnight at the Canes website. Our Ranker poll will be open through the end of the day as well.

Here’s hoping that whatever goal song is eventually chosen is played early and often.

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Just a couple of Assignments today:

• If you’re not already a Canes Season Ticket Member, and you want to attend the FREE Caniac Carnival preseason game between the Canes and the Preds on Sept. 30, grab your tickets this morning starting at 10 am. [Hurricanes website]
• NBC will release their NHL national broadcast schedule later today, said to feature “a record 109-game regular-season schedule with a greater diversity in team selection than in the past”. Will the Canes get more than one token game after being bumped last season for a bigger name? Update 11:00 am: Schedule released. CMND+F “Carolina”. [Narrator voice: They will not.] [USA Today]
• Canes Country member Andrew Elliott created a poll asking which Canes newcomer will have the most impact next season. Check it out, give him a vote, and discuss! [FanPost]
• Canes employees headed out into the wilderness to do good things for the environment yesterday:

• Hockey fans came from near and far on Sunday to pay their final respects to Blackhawks legend Stan Mikita in a public visitation service held at the United Center [Blackhawks].
• Former Hurricane Jussi Jokinen held his 8th annual charity All Stars event on Saturday in his hometown of Kalajoki, Finland. I spy a current Cane in the roster pic.

• Last time, we promise. Here’s the Goal Song Ranker poll, again.