The Old, Weird Everywhere: Bristol Rovers and “Goodnight, Irene”

Links (3)

The Old, Weird Everywhere
Published 2/16/2008 by Brian at The Run of Play
I’ve written a post for Pitch Invasion about the association of Bristol Rovers and the old American suicide ballad “Goodnight, Irene.” It’s a kind of parallel history of Bristol Rovers and the American musician Leadbelly, who popularized the song in the 1930s and ’40s before Rovers fans took it as their anthem: Black Arabs F.C. became Eastville Rovers in 1884, then Eastville Bristol Rovers in the late 1890s. In 1899, under their current name, they joined the Southern League, just in time for the great era ...

Leadbelly’s Connection To The Former Black Arabs
Published 2/18/2008 by GC at Can't Stop The Bleeding
... puts Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup’s quarterfinals for the first time in half century, an occasion that is undoubtedly being celebrated in the hereafter by….Leadbelly.  From PitchInvasion.net’s Brian Phillips. ...

What’s Going On in Bristol?
Published 2/18/2008 by Dave at Dave's Football Blog
... So yesterday while wolfing down a burrito at my local Qdoba, I pulled out my new Treo and dialed up Brian Phillips’ article for Pitch Invasion about how “Goodnight, Irene” became Bristol Rovers’ theme song. It was a timely piece, given that Bristol Rovers, a third-division club in England, is making quite the FA Cup run right about now. ...