Town fan George Baker has written and recorded a song, Proud to Wear the Blue, to celebrate his 60th season regularly watching the Blues and what he hopes will prove to be the club’s new dawn.
George told TWTD why he felt the club needed a new song: "Our football club has been unwell for a long time. But it now appears to be on the mend which is a massive relief for all of us who love Ipswich Town.
"Hopefully this is the brand new dawn. So, in my opinion, we need a brand new song. This may seem an awful thing to say but I am going to say it anyway, if I am completely honest Singing the Blues doesn’t really do it for me anymore.
"During the Marcus Evans years we were urged by the club to clap along to Singing the Blues as we kicked off one dreadful, dreary and lacklustre game after another, season after boring season. Sadly, in my mind, our great song is now associated with the misery and failures of the past.
"It’s a very old song from the 1950s and ‘I’m singing the blues’ literally means I am very sad and discouraged. Like my girlfriend just left me or I lost my job (or we just lost to Accrington).
"The song is part of our history. We had some great times with it. It will always be respected and treasured along with the excellent Edward Ebeneezer song written in 1972 by the late Gerald Hicks. I love that one. But surely there is now some room for something new.
"So I had a crack at writing something myself. I never ever expected it to be to everyone’s taste and I am sure it isn’t. It’s just me expressing what I feel. But I have had some great comments.
"There is so much love for our club out there and some people are saying that my lyrics sum up how they feel too. Because of nostalgia, I think it may be more popular with the older fans than the younger ones.
"Being realistic, the people who are kindly saying the song should be played at Portman Road and sung by the North Stand are perhaps jumping the gun slightly. The song only came out last weekend. But I am overwhelmed by the warmth and incredible support from so many of our amazing fans.
"Since the day I wrote my lyrics, the song has always been ringing around Portman Road. But only in my imagination of course! I don’t expect that it will ever become a reality, but an old man like me should be allowed to dream.
"If all I achieve is to inspire someone else to sit down and write something better then I will be quite happy with that.”
George has great memories of his first season following Town in which Sir Alf Ramsey’s men created English football’s greatest ever shock by carrying off the title in their inaugural top flight campaign.
"As it was our first season in the top division, it was massive to be playing against the top teams of the day like Manchester United, Manchester City, Everton, Wolves and Burnley.
"Travelling up to London as a young boy was pretty special seeing us play away at Arsenal, Spurs, West Ham, Chelsea and Fulham.
"The final day of the season at home to Aston Villa it was hard for anybody to enjoy the game because of the tension. But the relief and outpouring of emotion at the end was indescribable.
"Us youngsters just went completely bonkers whist many adults just stood and cried. People just walking around in a daze embracing random other people.
"I don’t talk about much these days because I get tearful now reflecting on experiencing that with my dad.
"The standout game for me was the midweek game in March under the lights at White Hart Lane. We beat the legendary Spurs double-winning team 3-1 in front of a crowd of 50,000. Jimmy Greaves scored for Spurs and Ray [Crawford] and Ted [Phillips] (2) did the business for us.
"British Rail ran a special service to get town fans there, so droves of young kids bunked off school and jumped on the trains. Those kids will be in their seventies now.
"Hearing the Ipswich Keep Right on to the End of the Road ringing around White Hart Lane was unbelievable. That song gives me goosebumps now and my dad, who was normally fairly reserved, just went mental that night.”
Proud to Wear the Blue is far from George’s first musical association with Town.
"I worked as an entertainer in the town throughout the seventies singing and playing keyboards,” he recalled.
"Terry Lockwood and myself worked as a duo for many years and we had the great honour of being invited by Tolly Cobbold to play at their staff social club on cup final night in 1978.
"I had to dash back from Wembley by train after the game to do the gig. Needless to say club chairman Patrick Cobbold also attended the incredible celebrations that night. I remember thinking he could have given me a lift back in his limo!
"Terry and I had regularly appeared at the Ipswich Town Supporters Association Club in the town centre for many years. We sang Ipswich Town football songs as part of our act there and wherever we played and it usually went down a storm in the mid-seventies.
"Well, in Suffolk anyway. When we did the holiday venues around Clacton area most of the holidaymakers were Londoners and we got loads of abuse. We didn’t care. I knew all the London club songs so we would sing a song for them too. They were mostly East Enders so we would do ‘Bubbles’ a lot.
"It was amazing how Ipswich seemed to be everyone’s second-favourite team around the UK. It was all good fun and there was never any real hostility. Unlike the actual football grounds in those days where there was carnage.”
He says fans occasionally remember him from one particular away trip: "Some people still come up to me at Portman Road and ask me if I am ‘that bloke who played the piano in Amsterdam?’.
"On the day of the final in ’81, a small bunch of us stumbled across this pub that had a huge empty music room. There was a stage and a piano so myself and my mate Barry Loveday got up there and started a little sing song.
"Gradually word got round out the streets and the place filled up fast. It became absolutely packed solid with the Town fans singing along and waving flags.
"I found out later that the landlord had been sending us free beer on stage. He was doing alright out of this and he begged us to come back again after the game and do it all again, but we got involved in all the crazy celebrations in the streets and somehow never made it back there.”