Songs and Anthems | Legends and Supporters | Liverpool FC | YNWA Pictues
Lyrics
#When you walk through a storm,
Hold your head up high,
And don’t be afraid of the dark,
At the end of a storm, there’s a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone,
You’ll never walk alone
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone,
You’ll never walk alone…#
Background
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” was a song written by Richar Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their 1945 musical, Carousel.
Likely popularised after being in the charts in the 1960’s, whereupon fans on the terraces at Liverpool took up the song and it passed quickly to other clubs like Celtic, but then there are those who feel we sang it first. Regardless, it is a much loved football anthem which on a great night can make for a special atmosphere.
While many Celtic fan-based websites provide the words to You’ll Never Walk Alone, and it features on the CD Green & White Anthems, there is little historical evidence that Celtic fans sang it on their terraces first. However, there is little evidence that Liverpool can put forward to prove that they for definite sang it first either.
It’s a bit of a daft debate anyhow!
Debate of Celtic v Liverpool for the origins of the tune
(Guardian Newspaper)
“After all, the song, originally written by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1945 for the Broadway musical Carousel, only became a terrace favourite after it was covered by Gerry and the Pacemakers in November 1963. Almost immediately – as footage from Panorama in 1964 shows – Liverpool supporters adopted it.
As Paul Fields points out: “Before the early 60s football fans made noise and occasionally chanted something brief (like Play Up Pompey!) but it was the Kop that started singing popular songs of the day (mainly Merseybeat songs such as Gerry and the Pacemakers’ You’ll Never Walk Alone) and later started to adapt the lyrics of songs to celebrate the team and its players.
“If any Celtic fans still claim that they sang it first, it would have to predate Gerry’s version. Now can you really see thousands of working class Glaswegians in the 50s/early 60s spontaneously joining in a sing-along from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?” No, us neither.”
Pictures
Quotes
In a 2013 interview, Marsden told the Liverpool FC website how You’ll Never Walk Alone was adopted by the club’s fans as soon as it topped the chart in 1963:
“I remember being at Anfield and before every kick off they used to play the top 10 from number 10 to number one, and so You’ll Never Walk Alone was played before the match. I was at the game and the fans started singing it.
“When it went out of the top 10 they took the song off the playlist and then for the next match the Kop were shouting ‘Where’s our song?’ So they had to put it back on. Now, every time I go to the game I still get goose pimples when the song comes on and I sing my head off.”
“Every time I go to the game I still get goose pimples when the song comes on and I sing my head off.”
Gerry Marsden
“There is a dispute between Celtic and Liverpool as to who first adopted the Gerry Marsden classic, but for some reason the singing of it at Parkhead now eclipses that at Anfield.”
Alan Green (Radio 5 Commentator) writing in the Belfast Telegraph Nov 2012
Peter Schmeichel has revealed that when his Danish TV station covers Liverpool matches they use “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as the soundtrack – sung by Celtic fans.
He said: “The Copenhagen players will be blown away by the Parkhead atmosphere.
When we play ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ it’s by the Celtic supporters, not the Liverpool ones.
“It’s cheating a little but when the Celtic fans sing that it’s breathtaking”
Man U & Denmark legend Peter Schmeichel (2005)
“The opening game of the season at home to Aberdeen… I’ve heard You’ll Never Walk Alone every week at Liverpool but that day it was something different. It was awesome.”
Harry Kewell
“If this hymn is adored by “Scousers” of Liverpool, at Celtic Park in Glasgow they have a cappella version which is better…..the eyes of Celtic fans go red with emotion.”
Respected French Football magazine ‘So Foot’ 2 Mar 2014 (link)
“I was asked to name my favourite song and replied, You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers. I noticed there was a short silence among the reporters, which was odd.
“The next day, I got killed for my remark, both at the club and on the streets.
“People yelled, “You f**king bastard!” Little did I know, it was a song adopted by Celtic fans! In the tabloids, there was a huge headline reading: ‘Numan’s favourite song: You’ll Never Walk Alone’. What a start that was.”
Arthur Numan, link: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/arthur-numan-when-i-joined-rangers-i-said-i-liked-youll-never-walk-alone-fans-yelled-at-me-you-bard , (2020)
On 18 March 2023, pre-match performance (Celtic 3-1 Hibs at Celtic Park): Kids from St Roch’s Primary and Deaf School in Glasgow worked hard to create a magnificent sign language performance of one of Celtic’s greatest anthems, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’”.
Liverpool’s Celtic connection: shared values, songs and a legend
Avatar
James Nalton
@JDNalton
https://www.thisisanfield.com/2018/06/liverpools-celtic-connection-shared-values-songs-shared-legend/
27 June 2018
Liverpool’s connection with Celtic is often talked about, but it’s origins aren’t as clear or as historical as is often portrayed.
The clubs are linked by players, managers, songs, and shared values between the two (generally) anti-establishment sets of fans from working class cities.
Events of 1989 created a strong bond, but prior to this a shared anthem was disputed as much as it was celebrated, and a meeting between two sides who were rising forces in European football in the 60s wasn’t exactly laced with respect.
The Cup Winners Cup tie of 1966 was fiercely and at times bitterly contested clash during which fans from both sides pitted their wits against each other.
Rather than being a meeting of two friends, it was a clash between two sides with great ambition, and thanks to the quality of the managers involved it was also a tactical battle.
According to The Celtic Wiki “both men showed the same deep concern about the game and showed a tactical nous rarely seen before.”
Before the first leg at Celtic Park, which the home side went on to win 1-0, a small group of Liverpool fans broke into the stadium for a kickabout, only to eventually be kicked out themselves by the police.
In the return leg the supporters erupted after the game as bottles and cans were thrown onto the pitch. There are differing reports as to the reason for the commotion, but most cite the main cause as a late disallowed goal for the visitors.
By all accounts none of it was malicious, and reports from the day point to the Celtic fans enjoying themselves throughout the city on their way to Anfield in a way many Liverpool dwellers would probably respect, and be familiar with.
Liverpool’s legendary Bill Shankly. Turning towards the Kop end of Anfield, Shankly gets an ovation from the fans who idolised him when Liverpool became League champions.
The managers of the respective sides, Liverpool’s Bill Shankly and Jock Stein of Celtic, had great mutual respect for each other, and after the bottle throwing at the end of the tie Shankly quipped: “Jock, do you want your share of the gate money or shall we just return the empties?”
The shared values of the two managers reflected the makeup of the cities they represented. Both were working class settlements built on industries brought to them by the rivers they sat upon.
The Clyde in Glasgow and the Mersey in Liverpool naturally brought industry related to shipbuilding and seafaring, but other industries attracted to these thriving areas which facilitated the distribution of goods created a large working class population in both cities.
Shankly and Stein were both working class Scotsmen from coalmining heritage, and they transferred these values onto the pitch by instilling them in their players.
A year after the sides met in the Cup Winners Cup, Celtic became the first British side to lift the European Cup when they beat Internazionale 2-1 in Lisbon.
Shankly was there to congratulate his friend after the game. “John, you’re immortal now,” stated Shankly in typically emphatic style.
It’s around this time that both clubs adopted ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone‘ as their football anthem.
In 1964 a Liverpool tour of the east coast of America coincided with a Gerry and the Pacemakers tour of the same area. Fans had already sung the hit on the Kop in the previous season when the pop chart were played over the PA system before games, but this coinciding trip to America consolidated the track as a Liverpool song.
“Gerry my son, I have given you a football team, and you have given us a song,” said Shankly after the band’s performance on the Ed Sullivan show.
Celtic picked it up shortly after, and it could regularly be heard throughout their domination of the Scottish league between 1966 and 1974.
There are still disputes as to which team adopted the song first, but the local connection with Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the fact neither club is likely to have picked up on the original — a song from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel — gives Liverpool more of a claim to it.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – Friday, April 15, 2011: Scarves and floral tributes left at the Shankly Gates at the Memorial Service to remember the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster in 1989. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
But events in 1989 dismissed any notion of owning the anthem, and it became a shared tribute to those who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster.
On April 30, just two weeks after the tragic events in Sheffield where 95 had lost their lives (Tony Bland became the 96th in 1993), Liverpool were invited to Celtic Park for a memorial match to raise funds and spirits.
The event was an emotional one, but also an important one for Liverpool who were yet to play a game since the disaster. It created strong ties between the two clubs which lasts until this day, and if the connection between the clubs prior to this game was a loose one, the emotion poured out on this day strengthened it.
It was a show of solidarity between to like minded cities, football clubs, and sets of supporters.
It was “a new beginning for the pride of Merseyside,” wrote Allain Laing in his report of the occasion. “Not for a moment did they walk alone, as a huge crowd of fans, neither barrier nor prejudice to divide them, once again made the song an anthem rather than a requiem.”
Liverpool and Scotland striker kenny Dalglish waits for the ball. He joined Liverpool from Celtic. (PA Images)
60,437 fans filled the Glasgow stadium as Kenny Dalglish — a legend at both clubs — played his first game in over a year. He opened the scoring and received a standing ovation when he was replaced by John Aldridge with just under an hour gone.
It was also an important day for Aldridge who had questioned whether he would ever play football again after witnessing events at Hillsborough. The thought must have crossed the minds of many of the players, but this game seemed like an appropriate way to return to action, and it raised around half a million pounds for the disaster fund.
There was no taking of sides on the day. No winners or losers. Fans cheered players on both sides, and the skill of John Barnes was especially appreciated by the Celtic supporters. Hugh Keevins wrote in his match report that “Barnes, whose variety of ways to worry Peter Grant drew applause from the Celtic support.”
“Over the years we have had a happy relationship with Celtic but that relationship has become much warmer today,” said the then Liverpool chairman, John Smith. “I can’t speak too highly of the warmth between the two clubs and also between the two cities.”
The game showed how revered Dalglish was, and still is, by both sets of fans, and he is another reason for the link between the two sides.
They’ve met in Europe a couple of times since. The Reds triumphed in a UEFA Cup first round tie in 1997, but Celtic claimed an impressive 2-0 victory at Anfield to progress in the same competition in 2003.
These games were nowhere near the level of Shankly vs Stein, but the 1997 game did see one of the best goals scored in the fixture when Steve McManaman scored a last minute goal which eventually saw Liverpool through on away goals.
This 2-2 draw at Parkhead was massively hyped prior to the game, and luckily the match lived up to its billing. McManaman’s dazzling solo effort was the icing on the cake after other good goals from Michael Owen, Jackie McNamara, and a skilfully won penalty from Henrik Larsson.
Prior to the 2003 games both sets of fans sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, and the half-and-half scarves, for once, didn’t look out of place.
These games were still dubbed battles, and there was no time for niceties once the games got underway despite an obvious increasing bond between the two clubs.
In some ways the Liverpool-Celtic connection isn’t as clear cut as it’s often portrayed, and looking back at the history of the two clubs it’s difficult to pinpoint its roots.
But, despite some murky religious undertones which have been much less of a problem in Liverpool than in Glasgow, the similar character and shared values of the people in these two cities would naturally lend themselves to some kind of bond once their paths cross.
This is why Dalglish took to Liverpool as he did, and why Shankly and Stein’s was a friendship built on mutual respect and common ideas.
DUBLIN, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND – Saturday, August 10, 2013: Liverpool fans’ banner ‘Irish Blood Scouse Heart’ during a preseason friendly match against Glasgow Celtic at the Aviva Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
The clubs still borrow songs from each other to this day, and while ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ went from Liverpool to Celtic, the terrace hymns sung since tend to have travelled down from north of the border.
This includes ‘The Fields of Anfield Road’ which borrows from the Celtic rendition of ‘The Fields of Athenry’, although given the Irish origins of the song there’s a good chance this could also have been sung in it’s original form at Anfield via the city’s Irish immigrants.
Both have plenty of Irish connections and fans, and this could also be another reason for the ties between the two.
But the main reason for the bond which exists between the two was without a doubt that day in 1989, when Celtic stepped forward to help Liverpool begin the healing process following tragedy at Hillsborough
Gerry Marsden’s spine-tingling rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone with 60,000 Celtic and Liverpool fans
It was the moment that very briefly brought two of Britain’s most fiercely passionate sets of football supporters together and there was only one man to lead the charge – the late Gerry Marsden.
By David McLean
Sunday, 3rd January 2021, 7:20 pm
https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk-news/watch-gerry-marsdens-spine-tingling-rendition-youll-never-walk-alone-60000-celtic-and-liverpool-fans-3084048
Following the sad news that Mr Marsden, famous as the frontman of 1960s Merseybeat masters Gerry And The Pacemakers, has died at the age of 78, we recall the time the musician donned a half green, half red scarf at Parkhead and cut the tape on one of the most riveting two-legged footballing affairs in recent memory.
The mouthwatering all-British UEFA Cup quarter final between Celtic and Liverpool in 2003 attracted interest far beyond the G40 postcode.
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Long seen as kindred spirits and from large, proudly working class cities sharing a similar industrial heritage, Hoops and Reds supporters famously share a terrace anthem in the song You’ll Never Walk Alone.
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Tributes paid as Gerry And The Pacemakers star Gerry Marsden dies
Written for the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, You’ll Never Walk Alone is a heartfelt and sorrowful ballad recognisable the world over, but it is the 1963 version of the song, covered by Merseybeat cracks Gerry And The Pacemakers, that is arguably best known in the UK.
The song quickly became adopted as the unofficial anthem of Gerry’s native Liverpool FC and later spread northwards to be included in the footballing hymn sheets at Celtic, where it is traditionally sung by fans before and during matches – especially home European ties.
But it was on March 13, 2003, that Parkhead witnessed the relatively rare phenomenon of home and away supporters belting out the song in unison.
Naturally, the man chosen to act as the bridge between the Celtic and Liverpool fans before the likes of Henrik Larsson and Steven Gerrard took to the field was Gerry Marsden himself.
Then aged 60, Marsden led 60,000 supporters in a rousing rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone that those in attendance and watching on television will likely never forget.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com in 2013 about what the song means to fans, Marsden said: “I talk to players [at other football clubs] and they say they wish they had a song to go out to like that.
“Celtic nicked it off us actually – but I’ll let them off because I like Celtic. I think it’s the best, not because I did it, but for the players in the tunnel it inspires them.
“When we played Celtic in Europe a few years ago [2003], I sung it on the pitch and it was amazing. I sang it at Anfield for the Queen which was a great feeling, and I did it at Bradford after the terrible fire disaster. I’ve had quite a few great moments with the song.”
Toxteth-born Marsden died at home aged 78 following a heart infection, a friend, broadcaster Pete Price, confirmed on Sunday.
Mr Price wrote on Instagram: “It’s with a very heavy heart after speaking to the family that I have to tell you the legendary Gerry Marsden MBE, after a short illness which was an infection in his heart, has sadly passed away.
“I’m sending all the love in the world to Pauline and his family. You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
