Words by

Virginia Zech

Iceland enthusiast and frequent visitor (six times so far), Andy Saur is seeking to take a bit of the Viking spirit home to Minnesota. Saur is championing an effort to change the Minnesota Vikings [American] football team’s fight song from Guns N’ Roses’s Welcome to the Jungle to the more Viking-themed Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. Saur and his wife, Angel, were most recently in Iceland this summer where they partook in their ritual trip to the Blue Lagoon and ambushed Sigur Rós.
Saur’s efforts centre around a website he created to spread the word about his cause. In addition to creating a painting depicting a Viking ship alongside the lyrics to the proposed new Minnesota Vikings fight song, Saur informed the Grapevine that he intended to employ some “guerrilla marketing” tactics at games to involve other fans in his movement. In a recent interview, I asked Saur how his most recent home game advertising efforts had gone. “It didn’t go so well because we didn’t make it to the game today. My cousin’s house was hit by a tornado. So we thought, well we shouldn’t go to the game, we should really help them out… Kind of a downer that we missed the game. It was a good game though. They won in overtime!” Saur said. When asked if he aims to proceed with his previous plans, weather permitting, at future games, he stated, “Angel’s brother got to use the tickets [to this game] and he did some of the guerrilla marketing for me. He put up some posters and so on. Hopefully they’ll spread the word… I made like 1,000 flyers and some posters. I hope I’ll get to use those at future games.”
Andy Saur has been thinking about taking steps to initiate the switch in Minnesota Vikings musical accompaniment for some time. “I remember hearing this song way back in college, the Immigrant Song. You know, ‘the land of ice and snow,’ but I was like, whatever. Then I started reading the lyrics and really getting into it and I was like these [lyrics] are really good! That would be really cool [to have it as the Minnesota Vikings song]. I’ve probably been toying with it for like a year or so.” Saur has been seriously pursuing the change since his return from Iceland this summer. “On our latest trip [to Iceland], I thought I really need to do this. As soon as I got back I thought, I need to focus on this and get it going.” He reports he is unaware of anyone else trying to change the Vikings’ fight song before and “hopes that this is groundbreaking in some way.”
After sending information on his project to the Vikings for review, and receiving a fairly disinterested response (more on this can be found on the Viking’s Kickoff website), Saur was not disheartened. Other than the website, and his plans to pass out promotional materials at games, Saur said his methods will include, “word of mouth. And I’ve also contacted some Minnesota Vikings fan sites. The feedback has been positive from the other fans. It’s been good.”
We trust that Saur will keep us at the Grapevine abreast of his efforts, along with his Icelandic travel itinerary, as he proceeds. In closing our interview he added that he and Angel were “so bummed that Magni didn’t win [Rockstar: Supernova]. But, of course, he’s much better off not playing with Tommy Lee and [getting to work on other projects].”
More information, including a for-charity download of the Viking ship painting Saur did, as well as Angel’s directorial debut in a film depicting the painting’s creation, is available on the Vikings’ kickoff website, www.vikingskickoff.com.