The 2010 football season produced memories for LSU fans and players alike. There was revenge at home over Alabama, the Tennessee extra-play thriller and a Cotton Bowl victory against Texas A&M.
But nothing from that season has transferred into present day Tiger football more than the removal of the infamous “Neck” chant. And now, after three years of hibernation, the Tiger Band will attempt to ease tainted songs back into the game day playlist.
Tiger Band members started a Facebook page titled “Keep ‘neck’ and oh-wee-oh’ clean” on Tuesday, revealing the return of “Oh-Wee-Oh” for Saturday’s homecoming game against Furman. The page urges students to keep the cheer clean, and if students abide, “Neck” could return for good.
What started as an innocent and catchy rendition of a Dem Frachize Boyz song soon evolved into a vulgar lyrical taunt to opposing teams. Fans replaced the original lyric, “talking out the side of your neck,” with a sexually demeaning command.
Because the Tiger Band is mic’d for nationally televised games, the student section’s message roared not only throughout Death Valley but into the ears of viewers across America. The band was prohibited from playing “Neck,” but LSU students refused to let their vulgar command go muted.
“Once the student section realized, ‘oh they’re not playing ‘Neck’ anymore,’ the chant transferred over to the rest of our playlist,” said senior architecture major Christopher Doiron, a four-year member of the Tiger Band.
The student section quickly flooded the same explicit lyrics into the band’s more popular songs like Kanye West’s “All of the Lights” and Lil’ Wayne’s “Right Above It.”
“It started just last home game,” Doiron said. “We started to play ‘All of the Lights’ and then our directors cut us off and we went into ‘Coda Fight’ because the ‘Neck’ chant started.”
The Tiger Band’s playlist is diminished and limited at the sake of the student section, and it’s beginning to wear on Tiger Band members.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Doiron said. “All these songs that we are putting in our repertoire to pump up the crowd, to get the crowd going when there are television timeouts, it’s getting ruined because we have to cut everything. So basically, we’re going to have to play a ‘Hey Fighting Tigers’ all the time, so people better get used to it.”
And it’s not just modern radio songs that are becoming too risky to play. “Oh-wee-oh”, the transitional song from PAT to kickoff, was on a hiatus because of the student section’s explicit remix. Since “Oh-wee-oh’s” removal, fans explode after a score and wait for ensuing kickoffs.
Even “L-S-U” in the ending to the traditional “Go Tigers” first down cheer was replaced with a more offensive phrase, “kick their ass.”
“I thought it was going to get phased out with people graduating, but now that it’s such a big deal, it’s basically been immortalized,” Doiron said.
The band members aren’t the only ones frustrated. Senior linebacker Lamin Barrow said the removal of some of the band’s songs has affected his experience on the field.
“Of course some songs get you a little more hyped than others,” Barrow said. “I loved the ‘Neck’ song. Even when it’s not playing I can hear it in my head. When I hear those trumpets and I hear those horns, I get hyped.”
On Saturday, the student section will have the opportunity to change the future of the LSU gameday experience.
The Tiger Band trombone players jam on Saturday Oct. 5, 2013 during the 59-26 victory against Mississippi State in Davis Wade Stadium.
