—by Nicky Weisenfeld

It's 2016 and the Timbers Army still sings a chant that includes the line, "Shag your women and drink your beer." In late 2014, Orlando City FC sent out an ill-conceived tweet advising that the best way for their supporters to get their wives/girlfriends to watch soccer was to buy them clothes. Last week, NASL club Miami FC attempted to sell tickets by posting a video of two young, blond women, encouraging their fans to "join these babes" instead of, you know, come watch a soccer match.

In both instances, most TA members I know and follow were rightly horrified and embarrassed for those tone-deaf clubs. And that makes sense; the TA prides itself on championing women in the sport and showing respect for all supporters. Yet we still sing a verse that encourages our fans to "shag your women," every match. We continue to gleefully chant a line that is mildly threatening, heteronormative, and divisive at best. How can we expect other clubs to respect female fans if the TA - the most influential supporters group in North America - continues condoning and reciting a chant that reduces women to objects to be shagged, possessions to be conquered, "babes" to be ogled?

The systemic objectification of women is so ingrained that many people who read this will wonder what the big deal is. It's just a few words, it's just a good time, it's just a football chant. People argue that it doesn't imply lack of consent, and the "your" could mean "one's own woman," as if that makes it any better. But we're not living in the dark ages, or even the 1950's. The perpetuation of the idea of women as objects without agency — as possessions who exist only for male pleasure — is a big fucking deal, and it's flat out wrong. It's not just words, it's not just a chant, and it's not a good time; it's using specific oppressive words that do damage. What all these words lead to is very real and very dangerous.

People contend the chant is a hallowed tradition and shouldn't be messed with. But tradition is a construct, a living thing that can and should change with progress and context. Tradition is only worth something if it's something to be proud of, if it represents the people who strive to uphold it. So ask yourself: does this tradition reflect your own values? Is this the best the TA can do? Ask yourself – better yet, ask the organization that can move mountains when it wants to – is it really that difficult to change one line or stop singing it entirely? Is it really that hard to stop chanting something that doesn’t represent who we truly are?

My friends and I have come up with many alternatives to this line (sometimes classy, sometimes raunchy, sometimes we say nothing at all), but it's not about one person or group finding the perfect replacement - I'd love to hear what this chant means to other TA members, and if we even need to keep it at all. Post your thoughts below and get the conversation started. Sometimes a little progress does take an army.

—by Scott Jeffries

The Timbers Army songbook began as a grassroots operation, but since our rise to MLS, that grass is increasingly feeling as plastic as our pitch. Much virtual ink has been spilled over how to keep our chants fresh and several attempts have been made with mixed success to impose new chants by edict. Most recently, Bickle penned a two-part history that perfectly illustrated how we got from the bottom-up, fan-driven culture of the USL era to the top-town, choreographed experience we have today, culminating with the issuance of three new songs we have been told we are to do, plus an official contest offering one lucky winner the chance to contribute your own chant (within the specified rules, of course). I could not be more opposed to this process. Imagine how we'd have responded to this blog post if it were on some fishy northern team's blog a few years ago. How far off is this from reading words off a Jumbotron, except that they happened to be penned by a fellow fan? This contest should be scrapped and those new chants put before the court of public opinion along with the many other great ideas that have been floating around for years but don’t have the official weight behind them to make them immediately happen.

I get it. In a sea of 5,000 people, it is nearly impossible to make anything happen organically. Chants are born within sections but rarely make their way beyond, drowned out by distance and dissonance. The few songs that do find devotees suffer from a bad game of telephone. ("What was the last line of Diego Plays for Rose City? 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'?") Player chants are plagued by competing versions with no way to reconcile them. We no longer meet in the same bar, have the same conversations, and only need to shout loudly enough for people to hear us a few rows away. We somehow need to spread our ideas to sixteen different sections and finally reach critical mass with the beating of drums, blaring of trumpets, and leading of cheers. We're all just pissing in the wind.

There has to be a better way. We need to leverage the way we as a fanbase communicate today to better enable fan-to-fan exchange, and, more importantly, fan-to-capo exchange. Absent the resurrection of SCUSA (to say nothing of the 107ist forum whose active users are probably outnumbered by Nevernudes), it could be as simple as a Facebook group and Twitter account where people can post, like, comment, collaborate, and share. We no longer fill the two hours before kickoff with nonstop song. We can fill that dead air with new ideas, and we can get the word out to fans that we are trying those new ideas. If they work, they work. If not, they don't. The capos, drummers, and trumpeters can see these posts, hear these chants, and, if they seem to be catching on, support their growth. But it's going to require them being open to ideas that didn't necessarily come from them or even people they know, acting less as gatekeepers and more as facilitators, following the lead of the fans, not dictating to them.

This is just one suggestion, and like the chants themselves, should be subject to debate. Is there a better way to promote chant ideas? Who should be allowed to participate? Do we make it open to the public? Registration only? 107ist members? When does a popular chant reach “official” status? I don’t know if this is the best solution, but it’s a start.

We’re having a two-stick party.

On April 30th, the Timbers Army will be hosting its first Two-Stick Party.

What’s a two-stick? Those are the fan-made signs you see in the stands every match that are being held up by two PVC poles. They are probably the smallest element of tifo in our stadium every match.

The TA will supply everything you need to create your two-stick, except the idea (more on that below). We will have banners, paint, and brushes. We’ll have poles available inside the stadium for the match on May 1st.

For a design, there are two ways you can go:

Freehand: Just come on down, grab a brush, and go to town. Paint the design or message of your choice.

Traced: We will have a few projectors available the day of the party, but you will need to make sure you have your design ready, and that’s a bit more complicated.

Our banners are 4’ wide by 5’ tall, so your image will need to fit into that aspect ratio. The best way to do this is make sure your design fits in either a vertical rectangle or square. A design that is horizontal won’t work very well because it will leave a lot of space at the top or the bottom.

You will need to get a digital copy of your design to us. You can do this in advance emailing it to mikegcoleman@gmail.com or you can bring it down the day of the party. We can accept JPG, PNG, PDF, PSD, and AI files.

Once we have your design, we’ll project it down onto your blank canvas and help you trace it out. From there you can grab some paint and go to town.

Regardless of the method you choose to create your two-stick, there are a couple things to remember:

1. This is a pretty small sign, so designs should be as simple as possible and BOLD. Lots of small details will be lost when your sign is viewed from the pitch. Of course, this is a balance. It doesn’t need to be GO TEAM simple, but nobody is probably going to notice the filigree on your Norse warrior's battle axe.
2. Signs that promote bigotry or contain foul language will not be allowed into the stadium.
3. Each attendee can paint one two-stick. 

OK, now that we have that out of the way: In order to keep things as orderly as possible, we are using a timed entry system. You can register at the Eventbrite below and pick your time. This helps to ensure that we don’t get too backed up on the projectors and we have enough volunteers.

You can sign up and get location information here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/timbers-army-two-stick-party-tickets-24634623823

—by Shawn Levy

(Read part one here)

A (NOT SO) BRIEF HISTORY OF CHANTS AND CAPOS, CONTINUED (feel free to skip if the history of Our Thing isn't your thing)

Liam teaches; Pong (red hat) learns

Starting from the night in September, 2005, when Liam Murtaugh came from Chicago and showed us how they used capos to coordinate their singing, the Timbers Army accrued a cohort of perhaps a half-dozen capos.  Over the next few seasons we learned how to spread them out through sections 106, 107 and 108 to get optimal coordination of what had become several hundred singers.  We added a couple more drummers and drums, including larger toms to replace the snares.  The capos and DnT would huddle before and after matches to coordinate plans and take stock of outcomes.  We were literally getting our act together.

In this era, quite a bit more of our standard repertoire emerged:  “When I Root,” “We're the Timbers Army” (the Twisted Sister chant), “I Am a Timbers Fan” (the Sex Pistols chant), and more.  Among the new tunes, one had a very particular birth:  “The Greek Chant,” aka “North End Noise,” aka “So who are we?”  For that, with its complex structure and torrents of words, we tried a new system:  posting the lyrics and a clip of the melody on social media (which at the time meant the SCUSA message board), printing lyrics to distribute in the stadium, rehearsing with the crowd before kickoff, and deciding to perform it at a certain minute in the match.  It took some doing, but it too became canonical, and its birth gave us a new way to introduce new material.

By 2010, when MLS was a sure thing and we could predict a (physical) end to the growth of the match day Timbers Army, we had achieved something very near the current situation: capos in front of 108, 107, 106 and sometimes 105, and a central drums section up toward the then-center of things.  In the stadium renovation, the front office, previous iterations of which had dealt with the “problem” of Timbers Army singing with scorn and threats, actually rebuilt the North End to accommodate capos on a permanent basis:  the big stage in front of 107, the nests (or, as I always think of them, go-go cages) along the rails from 101-108, and the storage area at the top of the 200s for drums, flags and whatnot.

And as we quickly discovered, we needed it all.  The scale of the MLS-era Timbers Army was beyond anything anyone had ever imagined:  Dozens had become hundreds had become thousands in something like six years' time.

For one thing, even with the massive boost of the drums and horns, it was difficult to coordinate the capos and keep all sections of the North End on the same beat and verse; we tried a megaphone and earpieces and finally settled on hand signals (similarly, the main stage capos needed a way to cue the drums, and that, too, came eventually to be accomplished through a system of hand signals).  Also, spontaneous responses to what was happening on the pitch became nearly impossible: sure, a small group could start singing something witty and in-the-moment, but there was no way to convey the tune or words to folks sitting seven sections away, and certainly not in a timely fashion; by the time word spread –if it spread – the moment had long passed.  Trying to keep the old spryness alive was like trying to run an obstacle course from inside a tank; we realized eventually that the best we could do was just aim it forward and make only subtle turns.

I remember in early 2011 standing on my corner of the capo stage, looking up into the 200 level, and being stupefied by the enormous mass of No Pity-scarved, standing, singing people in front of me....and then turning to the right and seeing the same sight repeated another 7 or 8 times.  It was like a CGI tsunami of green-and-white and faces and bodies and voices.  It was overwhelming.  It was awesome.

The author vows to finish the fight; 2012

And it required us to think again about what we sang and how we coordinated it.  In the first few MLS seasons, we made a few tweaks to the idea of how the Timbers Army sings.  Inspired by the ambient sound of overseas matches, we chose to orient ourselves toward what we called “epic” chants – repetitions of standard chants lasting several minutes which formed a truly 'atmospheric' sound and would make it immediately evident that one was at (or tuned into) a Timbers match.  We introduced a new chant or two each year: selecting melodies from elsewhere in the world (our current repertoire includes songs inspired by Greek, English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Argentine, and Moroccan originals, among others), writing lyrics, and teaching them via social media and in-stadium rehearsals.  These include “Somos Timbers,” “Party in Portland,” “Bury Me,” “Onward,” and the two most recently introduced chants:  “Keep it Up!” and “Green and Gold,” which were launched at the tail end of 2012.

WHERE WE ARE NOW, AND WHERE WE'D LIKE TO GO
Which brings us up to today and, more pointedly, tomorrow.

Since the end of the 2012 season, for a number of reasons, the capos and DnT haven't introduced a new chant, but there's a feeling in the air that things have started to get a little routine and we ought to try to come up with some new stuff.

We're in a new age, though.  Many of the sea of fans who've joined the North End since the advent of MLS have their own personal, emotional connections to the songs they sing and want to share in the creation and development of new material.

It requires a delicate balance.

On the one hand, the capos and DnT have learned pretty dang well what works and how and why: what can be sung (and, especially drummed) for a few minutes by a massive group; what kinds of material are needed to keep up the flow of songs throughout a match; what material would be unique to the TA (at least in North America); what chants have already been done and/or dismissed previously.  Plus, of course, the capos and DnT have to lead and play the material.  Their combination of expertise, expressivity, and volunteerism ought to be respected.

On the other hand:  there's a lot of good material out there (my own BRILLIANT ideas aside); I can point to the “Urruti!” chant that began in the front of 108 and rose to canonical status as a pointed example.  We ought to be able to incorporate the best ideas from the whole community into our repertoire.

So:  We we've come up with a few ways to generate some new material, and we'll be jazzing up the songbook a little during the coming months.

First we're gonna introduce a couple of chants devised by the capos and DnT.

Then we're gonna reach out to the Timbers Army, the North End Choir, to nominate and elect new chants for regular use.

To start, here are three new chants from the capos and DnT:

1) “Rose City” – Easy-peasy and, in fact, an oldie but goodie.  (Short chants like this make really good palate-cleansers or rev-ups when things get a bit stale during the match.) Two words, sung to this melody (which some of you might know as “Start the game!”).

2) “We Love You Timbers” – Another somewhat-oldie, sung to the famed “I love you, baby!” portion of “Can't Take My Eyes Off of You” by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (at 1:35 here).  The lyrics are also a cinch:

“We! Love! You! Ti-imbers!
Nana nana nana!
We! Love! You! Ti-imbers!
Nana nana nana!
We! Love! You! Ti-imbers!
Nana na nana naaaa!” 

3) “Adi! Boma-Ye!” – Nearly launched as a Kalif chant, it was made famous as a celebration of Muhammad Ali during his “Rumble in the Jungle” fight in Zaire, and it literally translates as “Adi! Kill him!” The melody is at the beginning here.  (Note:  Short chants make the best chants to celebrate players as they allow for a quick start/stop in response to action in the match; hopefully we'll have lots of chances to use this one while there's smoke in the air!)

Give 'em a whirl as you drive around, do the dishes, prefunk at the pub, what have you.  We'll be trying them out at the upcoming Dallas and San Jose matches.

And then turn your minds to this:

The first-ever (perhaps anywhere) Crowdsourced Chant Competition/Election.

Later this year, we will be setting up a means for anyone in the North End to submit a chant for the TA, who will then vote and select not one but two new chants that will be incorporated into the match day repertoire.

It will work something like this:  through an as-yet-to-be-finalized process, prospective chant-writers will submit a clip of the melody of their suggested chant along with lyrics; an election period resembling that used for 107ist board members will follow; and the top two chants, as described below, will be incorporated into the mix. Some details:

• For this particular election, we are seeking player chants only – i. e., songs celebrating our on-pitch heroes (Nagbe, Valeri, Chará, etc.).
• Anyone (including the capos and DnT) may nominate as many as two songs, but only 107ist members can vote (this prevents ballot-stuffing and interference from the Fishing Village, among other ills).
• The top vote-getting chant and the next-highest vote-getter for another player will be selected (e.g., if the top vote-getter is, say, a Jake Gleeson chant, the second chant will be the highest vote-getter for, say, Ben Zemanski, even if Jake's got the overall second-most-popular chant as well).

We'll be announcing the start of this competition/election later this spring, along with specific details about how it will work and some pointers as to what we've learned about what makes for the most effective chants (and, for those who haven't been singing with the TA since 2001, a list of songs that have already been used for players now departed).

So consider this an early heads-up:  If you want to contribute a chant, think up something short, punchy, catchy and celebratory for your favorite player (or two), and start looking for a short video or audio clip of the melody.

Who knows:  Maybe someday some long-winded mofo like me might write an epic post for this very blog telling a new generation of fans how that classic melody of yours first came to be sung in the North End.

Because every legend's gotta start somewhere....

---

Shawn Levy capoed the North End on and off from 2006-2012 and has led the TA in LA, New England, Denver, Seattle, Vancouver, Columbus, and (heh) Guyana.  Among the melodies he contributed to the TA songbook are “Bella Ciao,” “If You're Not Jumping,” and “Does Your Mom Go?”  These days he sings next to the drums in 106 and serves on the board of Operation Pitch Invasion.

—by Brian Cheney

Nigel de Jong: a living, breathing bag of human shit. By now, most of us have probably watched de Jong maliciously curb stomp our beloved Nagbe’s leg. That tackle was meant to injure Nagbe. What’s worse: this is the third game in a row where a malicious foul has been committed on the Timbers, with no serious in-game repercussions. Did you notice that Asprilla wasn’t even in the 18? That might have something to do with Shea’s suspension-earning tackle last week. Nigel’s tackle certainly stole the spotlight this weekend. But for us, for our fanbase, it wasn’t the only big event. Merely a day before, our very own Timber Jim gave a heartfelt speech at the TedX Portland conference. The topic of his speech could not have been more appropriate or more immediately applicable: Timber Jim talked about the conquering power of love.

For those who did not get to hear the speech, Timber Jim spoke of the powerful effect of meeting darkness and disaster with love. He talked about his battles with cancer, the loss of his father, and the loss of his daughter. His words were so powerful that I was, frankly, at a loss as to how to tie his thoughts into the world of soccer. Where does the power of love fit into the beautiful game?

The events on Sunday were the perfect answer to this question. Soccer may just be a game, but for so many people it has become a major, physical part of life. This is nothing new. Likewise, losing or being unfairly treated in the game has led to a lot of death, hurt, and destruction. Just four years ago, 74 people were killed at an Egyptian soccer match in a massive riot following a 3-1 loss. 74 people.

Back then, the Port Said riot seemed like nothing that would ever happen here. Following the game yesterday, though, I read the whispers of anger, hate, destruction, and the unspoken wish for revenge coming from Timbers fans. Nagbe is one of us, and the cruelty of another has put him in a large amount of pain. You may think that our committed and passionate fans would never hurt someone, but it has been done by many people for less of a reason.

We all face choices now. We could choose the violent path: the path of angry words on the internet, the path of throwing beer at traveling fans, the path of breaking the windows of traveling fans’ cars. Or we could choose the path of love. Timber Jim’s words were meant for exactly such a situation. He said: “We all face the instinct of fight or flight. Your best option is to run, run from the hate and the desire to hurt. Run until you can turn around and use your anger as a fuel for your love.”

This could not be more applicable than it is now. Our desire to choose love has been something that has defined us Timbers fans, but only to a limit. We welcome fans of other teams, and we buy beers for rivals of other teams when it suits us. But we still ferociously take part in our rivalries, and we are still a group of angry fans. We can do better, and we can do more.

On Saturday, July 23, the LA Galaxy will be in Providence Park. It is likely that their fans, some of whom have defended Nigel de Jong, will be among us in the stands. Likewise, de Jong will be on our field. For this game, our love must be fueled by our anger. We must be ready to stand together and shower the Galaxy with our hospitality, our welcome, and our good intentions. We cannot resort to violence and anger. In fact, our love and humanity should shine like a beacon from the moment we stop running.

This ideal must not be held back by the fact that we are fans of a sports team. Just as fans across the world cause hurt and destruction, we must accept that our good actions can have real consequences. Our charity, acceptance, and welcome can be real factors in the world of a game, and not just for the sake of traveling LA fans.

Our group may be an army, our mascot may wield a chainsaw, our scarves may say ‘No Pity’, but our big hearts must be filled with love.

—by Shawn Levy

Prefunk

You hear it before you see it – before you see the stadium, even.

The drums; the horns; the voices.

My God:  the voices....

Thousands of them, singing, in unison – and not just ditties, but complex melodies with call-and-response parts and choruses and veritable cascades of words.

With all our friends now!

Up to the city!

We're gonna shake the gates of Hell!

And we do:  We shake those gates.

The Timbers Army is renowned for its colorful, ingenious tifo displays, for its immense, cheerful traveling cohorts, for its truckloads of handsome, iconic merch, for its staggering efforts in charity and community engagement, and for its sheer, overwhelming size.

But the first way folks get to know the Timbers Army is through the ears:  the 90-plus minutes of non-stop chanting that comes out of the North End or whatever corner of a faraway ground has been turned into the North End for an away day.

The Timbers Army does lots of things. But mainly:  It sings.

OUR SINGING/DRUMMING/TOOTING HEROES

The TA has always been the noisiest bit of the stadium, whatever stadium it's in, whether that meant 2003's few dozen singers and a couple of pickle barrels, or today's massive bank of thousands of standing chanters, 8 large drums, and a handful of trumpets.

Well, let's take a moment to celebrate that glorious sound, to commend the capos, drummers, and trumpeters who help us make it, to talk about how we developed this remarkable musical culture, and to help us move it forward, with new chants, new energies, and new enthusiasm.

We justly celebrate our tifo, our merch, our good works, and our size.

But when it comes to the doings of our capos, drummers and trumpeters, we've been relatively silent.

Perhaps this is because we all participate (or should) in making the sound of the TA.  Perhaps because it's because we understand (or think we do) what a capo or drummer does more clearly than we understand the workings of the tifo or merch operations (for the record: no one understands a trumpeter).  Perhaps it's because we were once harassed by a capo for not singing.  Perhaps it's because Pong.

But, seriously:  Let's give it up for the band.

Consider:

• The Timbers Army is the largest body of dedicated 90-minute singers in the U.S. and Canada, easily...and without making any claims, I would be curious to see how it would rank in Mexico.
• We have a massive repertoire of songs, and even though we've developed a set list, we have a very diverse sound throughout a match. (A catalog compiled in 2010 identified 161 chants that had been sung in the North End, and most would've been easy to launch again at any moment.)
• We are LOUD.

And we couldn't be any of those things without the work of the capos and the drums and trumpets, or DnT as they self-dub.

Every single thing we sing was once devised by a capo and/or drummer – or by someone who was effectively serving as one back in the day.  A number of our capos, drummers, and trumpeters have worked HUNDREDS of matches, some of them going back almost a decade – a contribution of, in some cases, 1000-plus hours.  And, for the record, even though they're helping create the atmosphere and missing much of the match, they all pay for their own tickets and travel (full disclosure, they do get bottles of water from the front office at home matches, management stooges that they are....).

And they work those matches, yo.  90-plus minutes of drumming, singing, exhorting, jumping, keeping the energy up by example, responding to the action on the pitch or to the vibe in the stands by tweaking the playlist:  It's a job, let me tell you.  I have nothing but respect for the folks who put in those brutal hours, at the expense of watching the pitch, at the cost of knees and shoulders and vocal cords, without a sou of compensation or, usually, a word of thanks.

So:  to my brothers and sisters in the capo stands and the DnT pit:  Our heartfelt gratitude.  You fucking rock.  Hard.  And I, for one, am proud to be a (retired) member of your tribe.

A (NOT SO) BRIEF HISTORY OF CHANTS AND CAPOS (feel free to skip if the history of Our Thing isn't your thing)

And while we're taking the long view:  How did we get to have capos in the first place?

Back in the earliest days, when the Timbers Army could only sort-of fill the bottom of Section 107, there were no capos.  Or, rather, everyone was his or her own capo:  Moved to song, you would simply wait for a moment of quiet and belt out one of the standards, or something you'd worked up at home or in the pub, or something you concocted on the spot, and it would be picked up by those around you, or not, and it ended when it ended.

There were a few melodies in the repertoire that persist today:  “Portland Boys,” “We! Are! Timbers Army!,” “Build a Bonfire,” “Go Home You Bums,” and “Rose City Till I Die” among them.  But there weren't rituals such as “Heeeeeeey Portland Timbers!” at kickoff or “You Are My Sunshine” in the 80th minute, and there were no capo stands.  There was only one drummer – the aptly named Drumman – who was always there, albeit with a mere snare drum.  There was General Timber Howie (for whom Bless Field would one day be named) with a small gong.  There was a trumpeter, Lazorrobots, who could play through anything.  There were a couple of cowbell jockeys.  There were (ahem) claves.

DnT in Tukwila, circa 2005

In that atmosphere, and at that size, it was easy to shift from singing a longish chant to singing some sort of response to the match – say, celebrating a specific player's contribution, raining disdain upon an opponent, or wondering aloud about the sensory acuity of the referee.  (Thus did the celebrated chants for, among others, Scot Thompson, Josh Wicks, and Tommy Poltl gain traction and immortality.)

The nearest thing to a capo back then was Timber Jim, who had a large tom drum and led the TA in “T-I-M-B-E-RRRRRRRR-S” chant, which was always extremely loud.  (Check this out:  2007, and ONE GUY with ONE DRUM leading it:  absolute chills as I type....)

The song that became our first canonical scheduled chant was, fittingly, introduced by Jim:  “You Are My Sunshine,” sung to the TA by Jim in late 2004 in gratitude for the outpouring of love and support after his daughter Hannah's death and cemented into ritual in the very moment of its birth by a ridiculous backheeled goal scored by Fadi Afash WHILE the TA were sobbingly singing.  (My boy Totalnerd has told this story quite beautifully here.)

At the time, there were several folks who took up the mantle of singing first and loudest – sort-of capos – including myself, Finnegan, and Pong, sometimes standing on a chair or at the bottom of a staircase to better coordinate things, which was becoming more difficult as the section of chanters grew and melodies took a while to launch.

But we didn't have a proper capo-capo until September 2005, when a guy named Liam Murtaugh came from Chicago and showed us how they did things there.

Liam

Liam didn't know many of us, and he barely knew our chants.  But he had come to teach us something useful.  Once the match got underway, he stood up on a seat near the front of 107 with his back to the match and spent the better part of a half leading us in song.  He capoed us. 

We watched, as Vladimir Mayakovsky put it, “as an Eskimo gapes at a train.”  There were those who preferred the older model of spontaneity, but the regular, geometric expansion of the Timbers Army suggested that we needed a way of coordinating ourselves.  We had seen a future, and capos, we decided, were it.   

TOMORROW:  

More history, more growth, more capos, and more songs 

– including new ones that you can help write  

---

Shawn Levy capoed the North End on and off from 2006-2012 and has led the TA in LA, New England, Denver, Seattle, Vancouver, Columbus, and (heh) Guyana.  Among the melodies he contributed to the TA songbook are “Bella Ciao,” “If You're Not Jumping,” and “Does Your Mom Go?”  These days he sings next to the drums in 106 and serves on the board of Operation Pitch Invasion.

—by Matthew Lindley

The unfortunate thing about history, getting older, evolution, and all those other things your parents warned you about, is that they were right. Things are going to change, get perverted into to a lesser version of what you remember or — in the worst case — die away completely. As was the case Wednesday, when the famous Railway Club in Vancouver, BC, long the home for traveling Timbers Army to the Great White North, announced it was closing, effective immediately.

Green Flag. Photo courtesy of Lucky McGillicuddy

A quick back story: Opened in 1931, first as an exclusive club for local railroad workers from a nearby station, it was eventually opened to the public. In 1980, the club started booking live music and eventually became a stop for major acts. The venue hosted widely known acts such as Barenaked Ladies, k.d. lang, and Los Lobos, as well Canadian favorites The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, and Great Big Sea. All this was memorialized by the number of signed 8x10s and other memorabilia that adorned the walls of the club.

The McGillicuddys

The club eventually became the main Van Away hangout for the TA as well, hosting ticket pick-up, pre- and post-show pints, and, of course, the yearly night of music from Victoria’s The McGillicuddys and our very own Green Flag. The club ingrained itself as a part of the experience of “Poutine Away.” The pre-match meet-ups and marches through the streets of Vancouver to “Our House.” Last year’s post-playoff talk of “Maybe this is the year” filling both sides of the bar. The night Capt. Jack kicked a hole right through the hearts of the Whitecaps faithful and brought home the Cascadia Cup, the chalice had a course to be filled from the taps of the Railway.

On a personal note, I got the honor of a lifetime just over a year ago when I had the opportunity to take that hallowed stage with Greenhorn. There is no feeling quite like standing on a stage that has not only housed so many acts that have inspired you, but also meant so very much to the supporters group you call family.

A supporters group can consider it very lucky to have and keep a specified pub to call home. For a little while, the TA was lucky enough to have two: home and away. Obviously everything is up in the air now. Will a new owner buy the place? Will they allow us to continue our shenanigans, or will the place be converted into the world’s fanciest Tim Hortons?

Vancouver Away will live on, one way or another… There is just a chance it may be a little less epic.

LONG LIVE THE RAILWAY!!!

Matthew Lindley is a musician and hopeless Canadaphile. He even owns a BC Lions toque. No foolin’, eh?

—by Todd Diskin

For the second year the Booked Library and Literary Outreach Project challenged the Timbers Army to collect 107 new and used soccer books for children who don't have access to many books at home. Partnering with The Children's Book Bank and tasked with a deadline of the second home match vs RSL, the challenge laid out was again crushed by the TA faithful. This week the Booked committee was proud to give The Children's Book Bank a total of 268 books! 

This year, we asked our members to donate books that are part of The Children's Book Bank "A Story Like Mine" project, one that seeks to provide more books that reflect the rich and diverse cultures and identities of the youth they serve. Donations were also accepted, collecting just over $200! Those funds will go to help The CBB purchase books that are greatly needed. 

Each and every book donation was important to the drive and the Booked Library Committee is beyond grateful to the many people who helped support literacy in our community. 

Booked! drive facts:

• The donation of 268 books means about 20 children will be able to own 14 books each (a magic number for children's book ownership) that they will get to keep. 
• A middle income family will typically have 15 or more children's books in their home.
• In Portland neighborhoods that experience high rates of poverty, the ratio of books to children is one book for every 300 children.
• This year about 80,000 books will be donated, cleaned and delivered to area children by The Children's Book Bank. 
• In the 8+ years The Children's Book Bank has existed, about 45,000 youth have received over 500,000 books. 
• The Booked team will be teaming up with The Children's Book Bank for the final book cleaning project of this year at Bridges School campus on Saturday, April 9th from 1:00-4:00 PM. Sign up here. 

–by Brian Cheney

Empty seats, small lines, and chanting TA members: I’ll admit, my first T2 game was a bit of a surprise. After all, I remember quite well when Providence Park was this way, and recently I’ve heard quite a few members grousing about the overcrowded nature that the North End has assumed. To me, the relatively small confines of Merlo seemed like a welcome trip down memory lane. To the TA, they could be the next trend.

Imagine a place of plentiful beer, open seats, and professional soccer. Now throw in some players with the potential to be on the Timbers roster. Boom: you’ve got Merlo field. Surprisingly, though, the average attendance for T2 last season was 3,054, which is far from the full capacity of 4,892. The reasons for this lack of attendance seem obvious: a long, weird commute, a lack of competitiveness, and a lack of atmosphere. Who could possibly compare such a place to Providence Park?

However, the parallels between the current state of affairs in the stands of Merlo and the Timbers of several years ago are striking – save for the weird commute. I’ve been unfortunate enough to take the bus out to U of P, and I completely understand the lack of desire to make such a trip again. I found parking to be just as big of a problem when I was fortunate enough to drive.

This massive barrier should be enough to regularly deter most Timbers fans. Fortunately, our numbers and the small capacity of Merlo make this for the better. For beyond the long commute is something that many TA members would relish: a chance to do it all over again.

As with any organization, the TA has grown to become what it is today. Many of us, including myself, have not been around for long enough to appreciate all of the changes. But, as is human nature, many of those who have been around for awhile may often look back on the days of yore with a great fondness, while also appreciating that the North End is unlikely to go back to what it once was. The building of match day traditions (tifo, scarf waving, chants, etc.) is something that is surely treasured by each member as much as it is revered by those of us who are new to the fray.

Equally, I’m sure there are those among us who wish that those days were here so that they could be a larger part of the proceedings. Now that they’ve seen that the work is worth it, why not participate? Such people may believe those times to be no more.

But those days are not gone! For in Merlo and in T2, there is a chance to recreate and to reinvent match day traditions. Indeed, the empty seats and the relatively quiet songs of the TA yearn to be reinforced with many a drunken TA member. All within a suburb stadium where future Timbers (and promising international players!) play the junior members of rival teams.

I see this trend as somewhat inevitable, but let’s make it so. Let’s create an atmosphere that is worth remembering. We’ve shown MLS what we can do, but let’s remind USL. Let’s create a new set of game day traditions that make matches better for all involved.

As always, the Timbers have brought the beer and the soccer. Let’s bring the noise.