Asymmetrical Information

I envy that singing thing.

Just taking a stab at the etymology that gave rise to the post, though, a "punk" in prison jargon is a male prisoner sexually abused by others. Thus, being "punk-assed"...you get the idea.

Football songs are alive and well in America (in both English and Spanish). You just have to know where to look for them.

http://www.barra-brava.com/songs/songs_chants.asp

What's more astonishing is when your sitting in a "lost in the 80's" club* in Hamburg, and suddenly some weird folksy song comes on, and suddenly the entire dance floor is singing along. This happens every few hours, and seems to happen in just about every club. As I understand it the performer of this particular song is a famous person out of Hamburg or something, so that's the rationale I suppose. However that makes it no less a spectacle for the eyes (and ears).

* This is a whole other post.

Adam's right. The modern usage of 'punk' comes from a word reclamation project on the part of NYC lowlifes who were denigrated by the word circa '75, something akin to the modern usage of the word 'fag' (which, when not used as a specifically homophobic slur, still carries a hint of its original meaning - but mostly just means 'loser').

Americans don't do songs; short chants will do. "yan-kees suck" may be only 3 syllables but it gets the point across. not as unifying, though, I'll admit.

Interesting that we've never quite gone that route with our sports, though I guess the outlier is the degree to which the British have done so. Of course this ties in somehow with hooliganism, which English soccer (sorry, football) fans are world-renowned for. In general the overall pitch (pun there) of fandom is cast at a lower level here. I suppose one could make some appeal to English football passions being a holdover from an earlier time when we weren't expected to get along quite so well with everyone, and rivalries were not quite so fully sublimated into the abstract realm of, as Jerry Seinfeld quipped, 'pulling for laundry.' These days, nothing like the vulgarity and studied offensiveness of the linked songs would be tolerated if they popped up as a new phenomenon - it's presumably only the history of them that makes them accepted to the degree they are.
I have no answers - just some historical contingency most likely; it's just interesting.

There also seems to be something to the European penchant for spontaneous group singing, or at least an assumption that a bunch of people will join in. Or was that just Oktoberfest?

Given the pace of soccer, I'm not surprised that its fans take up time-consuming hobbies. Maybe they'll learn knitting next, or translate epic poetry.

American songs do seem much much shorter.

"I can't skate! I can't see! I wanna be a referee!"

New York fans are all a bunch of good-for-nothing punks, but us Bostonians certainly have a song..."Boston! You know we love to hear the crowd ROAR to the Sound! Don't give up if we ever doubt ya', you know we couldn't live without ya'", etc.

The real dirty songs are in the college ranks, though: "Fuck 'em up, Fuck 'em up, BC Sucks!" to "We don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan, cuz we're from O-hi-O," among many, many others.

Actually, it doesn't take much to get a high school bleacher crowd to sing nearly anything by Queen.

Maybe the reason we don't have many traditional drinking or sporting songs left in the States is that the tunes were all converted to hymns 100-200 years ago?

As Adam said, "punk-assed" isn't really very confusing when you realize that in prison, someone's "punk" is under his sexual control.

Paralytically inebriated? Maybe 20 years ago, but it's a pretty sober sport these days. Much more so than our other favourites sports, rugby and cricket.

"Fly Eagles Fly on the road to victory."
Redskins also have a song they sing after TDs
(not so many lately, though). "Hit em low, hit em high, and watch our Eagles fly."

"Maybe the reason we don't have many traditional drinking or sporting songs left in the States is that the tunes were all converted to hymns 100-200 years ago?"

Or national anthems. The original lyrics of The Star Spangled Banner were a drinking song, called "To Anacreon in Heaven".

I guess we're just unclear on the whole "drinking song" concept.

One thing thats really enjoyable about the singing at British football games is that it is often a dialogue between the two sets of fans, and is often used to comment on current events. Its often much more intelligent and witty than the very crude lyrics would suggest.

The wikipedia article is worth a look.