Global Courant
“Muchachos…”, turned into the anthem that accompanied the feat of the Argentine National Team in Qatar and that made the crowds shudder in our streets during those days and on the playing fields in friendlies, it can hardly be surpassed today as “music of soccer”.
Although the Argentine fans have a history with their songs, there is another in Europe that patented its own anthem more than half a century ago, unbeatable there: the “You’ll never walk alone” (You’ll never walk alone) that Liverpool fans sing .
After becoming one of the Argentine heroes in Qatar and shining at Brighton in the British Premier, Alexis Mac Allister arrives at Liverpool. A club with tradition and greatness, the most winner of European titles from his country: 6, a figure only surpassed by Real Madrid (14) and Milan (7). Mac Allister will surely stick to Reds lore, after so much quality he’s displayed in recent months.
You will never Walk alone
“Follow through the wind / Follow through the rain / Though your dreams are shattered / Walk, walk, with hope in your heart / And you’ll never walk alone,” they sing. The song reached the British Isles in the early 60s and the legendary DT Bill Shankly -a Liverpool hero- made it an emblem of the club. However, the origin has little to do with the British and with football.
Like that song by Creedence that much later the Argentine fans covered in “Brasil / tell me what it feels like…”, the Liverpool anthem actually comes from the United States.
It was a song that closed the musical Carousel, composed by an unbeatable duo: Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein. The same ones that shortly after would make history with a musical made into a film in an unforgettable work and that, between us, was titled “The rebel novice”.
Broadway Corners
The musical opened on April 19, 1945 at the Majestic Theater on Broadway, and Rodgers-Hammerstein was already enjoying fame for Oklahoma, another legend of the musical. “Carousel” is based on a play by the Hungarian Ferenc Molnar and describes a sad story, set in Maine, with the romance between a miller and a young bully, Billy, who dies in a robbery.
To comfort the girl, one of her friends sings the song that would become famous, accompanied by the chorus: “When you walk through the storm / keep your head up and don’t fear the dark / In the end you will find the sunshine.” …”
the tour
“You’ll never walk alone” had, since then, versions of the greatest popular singers: Sinatra, Presley, Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, Nina Simone. Also, in closer times, they were recorded by The Three Tenors, The Addicts and Die Toten Hosen.
It came to the UK via a very popular group in Liverpool in the early 1960s, Gerry & The Pacemakers. Any fan of The Beatles will remember that name, which influenced the Fab Four of Liverpool so much. Gerry & The Pacemakers took “You Never Walk Alone” to number 1 in the UK charts in 1963. Bill Shankly didn’t hesitate which song the fans should chant. Since that day. And to this day.
The epic of the Reds
One of the freshest episodes in everyone’s memory was the 2005 Champions League final, played at the Atatürk stadium in Istanbul (like the one last Saturday between City vs. Inter).
There, after the first half, Milan had the game almost sentenced: 3-0. Hernán Crespo had scored one of the goals for the team led by “Carletto” Ancelotti and which included top players: Pirlo, the captain Paolo Maldini, Kaká, along with a fighter like Genaro Gatusso in the middle.
With the 0-3 at halftime, the DT of the “Reds”, the Spanish Rafa Benítez was silent in the locker room, he did not give any indication. But there they heard the moving song of the British fans: You’ll never walk alone. Led by a seasoned Steve Gerrard, they came out with everything in the plug-in and came back to draw, forcing the definition by penalties (which by the way they won and gave them their fifth Champions League).
music and football
Alexis Mac Allister, 5/21/2023, in Brighton, Great Britain.
If The Beatles took Liverpool to a universal dimension, being the most popular and influential band of all time, the entire city is synonymous with music. With mythical sites such as The Cavern and with stadiums where all the supergroups have passed, Liverpool also invites you to visit the Strawberry Fields park, the Penny Lane street where Paul and John lived their adolescence.
But in the same Liverpool stadium, Shankly – a Scotsman who came from a family of miners – had a plaque placed with this legend: “This is Anfield”. Shankly patented several famous phrases, and to justify the tag, he noted: “It’s to remind our guys what jersey they’re wearing and our opponents who they’re playing against.”
In his honor, Liverpool made him a statue at the entrance to the stadium that says: “He made people happy.” Alexis MacAllister has come as far as that.
