You'll never walk alone
This song has a very special resonance for me on so many levels. As a ten year old kid my dad took me to Anfield and I have to tell you it was magic.
It was way way back in about 1964. For me to was like being at the opera or ballet, sitting behind the goal, right by the touchline, as a result of having passed out with the heat of the crowd, brought round by the smelling salts of the Red Cross and suddenly…..
There I was watching St John and Roger Hunt (it should be Sir Roger) attacking the opposition’s Goal. St John flying horizontally a few feet above the ground to catch a header, Roger Hunt flying up vertically towards the gods, for the same reason. It seemed to me, so low down on the ground, that these guys were in fact gods, and so they were. And the Kop in full song. Wonderful, marvellous.
Indeed when I recorded my last album Lost and Found (there is a link on my profile) one of the things I wanted to do was to re-capture that moment, along with a homage to the Beatles who were also a great influence upon my young and tender life at that time.
I found what I wanted on the net, the Kop singing ‘ You’ll never walk alone’ and then ‘ She loves you. ' It fit perfectly with my song ‘ We were the boys.’ I met a Liverpool fan a year or two ago and he informed me that mine was only the second time the Kop have been used on a song. The other was a song by none other than Pink Floyd. If that is the case then I am in good company. An added bonus is the possibility that a ten year old me was in the crowd, singing, on that recording I used from the net. A case of me backing me. Oh what a sweet thought in my reflective years.
And now I do believe 'You’ll never walk alone' is a beautiful theme for the times we are passing with the Corona crisis. All together now, for all of us effected by this crisis.
“ When you walk, through a storm, hold your head up high……
If I could hear that song following on from my own ‘ We were the boys ‘ coming out of the tannoy at Anfield, now that would be so emotional for me. It’s on my bucket list. Watch this space.