Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases the story of the call & response chant "Fired Up! Ready To Go!" that then candidate Senator Barack Obama adopted for his 2008 United States Presidential campaign.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, political, and inspirational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
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COMMENTS ABOUT THE FIRED UP READY TO GO CHANT
From http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/04/the-story-of-fired-up-ready-to-go-119612.html
The story of 'Fired up! Ready to go'
By BYRON TAU 4/4/12 12:29 PM EDT
"In honor of the one year anniversary of the kickoff of the 2012 Obama campaign, Chicago has released a video telling the story of the 2008 chant "Fired Up! Ready to go."
The video tells the tale of a 2007 Greenwood, S.C. rally where a supporter named Edith S. Childs helped create a chant that would set the tenor of the 2008 campaign.
"I'm Edith S. Childs from Greenwood, S.C. and I'm the one that got Barack Obama fired up," Childs says in the video".
-snip-
Late in the evening of November 5, 2012, towards the end of his final campaign speech of the 2012 Presidential campaign in Des Moines, Iowa, President Barack Obama re-told the story of the fired up/ready to go chant. He then told the crowd of 20,000 persons in attendance at that speech that he had invited the creator of that chant Edith S. Childs to join him & his wife Michelle in Iowa for that last campaign speech. However, President Obama said that Ms. Childs thanked him but said that she wouldn't be able to come to Iowa because she was going to be knocking on doors and helping to get people out to vote in North Carolina on election day November the 6th. President Obama said that showed that she was still fired up. He then led the people in the rally in that now iconic call & response chant:
"Fired up!"
(Fired up!")
"Ready to go!"
("Ready to go!")
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FEATURED VIDEO
The Story of "Fired up! Ready to go!" - Obama for America 2012
BarackObamadotcom, Published on Apr 4, 2012
"Edith S. Childs is the one that got Barack Obama fired up.
While attending a small campaign event in Greenwood, South Carolina, then-Senator Obama first heard the chant "Fired up! Ready to Go!".
As then-Senator Obama shared in his pre-election night speech in Virginia:
"After a minute or so I'm feeling kind of fired up. I'm feeling like I'm ready to go! So I joined in the chant. And it feels good.
And for the rest of the day, even after we left Greenwood, I'd see my staff and I'd say,
'Are you fired up?'
They'd say 'We're fired up boss. Are you ready to go?'
I'd say, 'I'm ready to go.'
So some people start putting 'Fired up! Ready to go!' on their shirts. Some people start putting 'Fired up! Ready to go!' on signs. Everybody's saying 'Fired up!' and 'Ready to go!'
It shows you what one voice can do. One voice can change a room. And if a voice can change a room it can change a city. And if it can change a city it can change a state. And if it can change a state it can change the nation. And if it can change the nation it can change the world.
Your voice can change the world."
April 4th, 2012 is the one year anniversary of the 2012 campaign.
Help President Obama stand up for working Americans. Join this campaign now. https://my.barackobama.com/firedupreadytogovid">https://my.barackobama.com/firedupreadytogovid"
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ADDENDUM
[revised 11/9/2012]
Structure
The "Fired up! Ready to go!" chant is characteristic of African Americans' use of call & response statements in every day conversation as well as in vocal & instrumental music.
Some call & response sayings are constructed so that the second part - the response - completes the first part - the call. An example of this is the saying "God is good". Those persons conversant in African American culture know that they are supposed to respond "All the time". I refer to this kind of call & response chant as a "completion chant".
From the video of this chant, "Fired Up! Ready to go" appears to be used as what I refer to as an "echo chant". As such, the leader calls out "Fired up!" and another person or the group responds by repeating those same words. The leader then calls out "Ready to go!" and those words are repeated by the respondents. However, it's possible that "Fired up!" "Ready to go!" could also be said as a completion chant.
These two basic forms of call & response chants (which I'm referring to here as "completion chants" and "echo chants") are also found in call & response vocal and instrumental music. The next time you hear examples of call & response in African American music, in other music from Africa, in the African Diaspora, or elsewhere see if you can identify which form of call & response the vocalists are singing or playing.
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How Ms. Child's Performed This Chant
In the video above - as well as on her guest appearance on the Lawrence O'Donnell talk show on MSNBC - Ms. Child's chanted "Fired up! Ready to go!" two times with the same notes, but on the third & fourth repetition, she used a higher note* to chant the "fired up" line while chanting the "ready to go" line with the same note that she had previously used. Of course, this doesn't mean that this is the only way that this chant can be performed.
*This terminology may be wrong as I'm not a musician. But the point is that her voice went up the third & fourth time she chanted the words "fired up".
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Definitions
Here's a vernacular definition of "fired up"
From http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080103005628AAtZUWv What does "fired up" mean [in English]?"
"get started
boot up the computer
load the software
fired up usually refers to get yourself started.
energized
i think its an idiom. phrase used by a culture"
-Barbara, 2007
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The Psychological Functions OF Chants In General & The "Fired up! Ready to go" Chant In Particular
As documented by their use in civil rights demonstrations and political rallies, chants help to unify the people who are saying those words. And as also demonstrated by their religious and spiritual use, chants help to focus the chanters' attention and help to re-energize them.
Edith S. Childs' explanation of the reasons why she started the "Fired up! Ready to go!" chant during then Senator Obama's visit to her Greenwood, South Carolina illustrate the above-mentioned psychological functions of that chant.
The psychological importance of the "Fired up! Ready to go!" chant is also illustrated by President Obama's points about how that chant's repeated words helped energize him, and how he & his campaign team's subsequently used the "Fired up! Ready to go!" chant to boost their morale.
It's a mark of President Obama and his campaign team's political savvy that they recognized the importance of political chants and the "Fire up! Ready to go!" chant in particular to energize & re-energize themselves & their base and to forge connections between and among the candidate and all of the people who are that campaign's base.
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Hip Hip Hooray!!
Update - 11/7/2012 1:30 PM
It's great to see that people being "fired up & ready to go" resulted in the re-election of President Obama & Vice President Biden, as well as the re-election and election of a large number of Democrats. Congratulations!!
As the result of reading a post about this election, I came across the use of the phrase "fired us up". "To get people fired up" means to anger them. People who are angry may be described as having "fire in their bellies". And that "fire" (anger) may cause them to say or do something which may be needed.
An example is what happened in Florida and Ohio as a result of the Republican Govenor's and the Republican Secretary of State's efforts to disinfranchise likely Democratic voters. In those states, those officials instituted various voter suppression tactics, including reducing the number of days and hours for early voting. This caused very long lines for voters on those specified early voting days and on election day. The idea was that in doing so, fewer Black people and Brown people (Latinos/Latinas) would vote because such long lines would discourage them. However, Black people and Brown people discouraged from voting, and other people remained in those long lines for three, four, five, and more hours to vote. These people may have already been "fired up and ready to go" (motivated to vote Democratic). But those obvious voter suppression tactics resulted in them being "fired up" (angry) and as a result of that anger, those Black people and Brown people and people of other races/ethnicity were even more determined to go out to vote and remain in those long lines to vote Democratic. My thanks to them!
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RELATED LINK
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9gWrWMM5Mc&feature=plcp for President Obama Full Speech in Des Moines, Iowa (11/5/12)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to Edith S. Childs and President Barack Obama for their fired up & ready to go energy, vision, endurance, and commitment to make the United States and the world a better place for all.
Thanks also to the Obama Presidential campaign for producing and uploading this video and for all the other work that they did to help elect then Senator Obama and to help re-elect President Obama.
We are fired up and ready to go!
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Monday, November 5, 2012
"Fired Up! Ready To Go!" Chant (Comments & Video)
Posted on 9:14 PM by Unknown
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