Together Stronger - Official Welsh Football Team Euro 2016 Anthem

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by markreed

This is the worst Manics single in their entire career.

Trite, nonsensical lyrics. And a half decent backing ruined by old sports reports that are utterly meaningless to near enough every non Welsh person.

EVERYTHING MUST GOAL!

How are the lyrics nonsensical? Vindaloo nah nah nah ... now that's nonsense

[markreed]

So, from the perspective of a non-Welsh, non-Football person :

"Not since 1958" - yes, I've heard of this, there was a plane crash?

"Lets not forget Gary Speed" - Who?

"And if he is looking down Then our love is all around" - This rhymes but doesn't actually make sense. It's akin to 'My dog has four legs, my cat as four legs, all cats are dogs.' Utter piffle.

"So Come on Ramsey
Lets set the world alight
When Gareth Bale plays
We can beat any side
So come on Wales
So come on Wales
With Ashley Williams
We can win any fight
Joe Jordan won with his hand
Russia was Giggsy's last chance
Paul Bodin's penalty miss"
- This all just a list of names and how they are better than other football players. Is this really a good song lyric?

"You're just too good to be true, We can't take our eyes off you" - Like this bit, but it seems familiar?

"Chrissy Coleman, Gunter, Chester, Hennessey, Allen, King and Collins, Davis, Ledley, Taylor, Richards, Hal Robson Kanu" : Hang on, where are Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy and Grumpy?

"We'll win if we unite" - This bit makes sense

By all means write a song about football, but a good one, and not just a list of names that might as well say "We've Got Loads Of Players / They'll Past The Test / Sport Some Sport / Wales Is Best."

Apologies if this seems flippant, but the words are very slapdash, extremely niche, and utterly meaningless unless you're wrapped inside the minuate of Welsh sport.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

I'm English and don't care about football but even I know who Gary Speed was. Can't help but think you are being a tad deliberately obtuse with some of your post. Plus y'know, the song isn't really meant for us...it's evidently for Welsh football fans, take it or leave it.

Originally Posted by Marconi Delorian

Actually it's better than It's Not War, IMO, their nadir

I always get It's Not War in my head after hearing Together Stronger, the chords of the chorus seem very similar.

[Dancing Kirby]

Someone on YouTube said the chorus rips off a certain artist. Click on the link to the song in question at your own risk because what's seen can't be unseen and what's heard can't be unheard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0

[Porco]

Originally Posted by markreed

"Lets not forget Gary Speed" - Who?

In the words of the Dude:

"Obviously you're not a golfer"

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by markreed

So, from the perspective of a non-Welsh, non-Football person :

"Not since 1958" - yes, I've heard of this, there was a plane crash?

"Lets not forget Gary Speed" - Who?

"And if he is looking down Then our love is all around" - This rhymes but doesn't actually make sense. It's akin to 'My dog has four legs, my cat as four legs, all cats are dogs.' Utter piffle.

"So Come on Ramsey
Lets set the world alight
When Gareth Bale plays
We can beat any side
So come on Wales
So come on Wales
With Ashley Williams
We can win any fight
Joe Jordan won with his hand
Russia was Giggsy's last chance
Paul Bodin's penalty miss"
- This all just a list of names and how they are better than other football players. Is this really a good song lyric?

"You're just too good to be true, We can't take our eyes off you" - Like this bit, but it seems familiar?

"Chrissy Coleman, Gunter, Chester, Hennessey, Allen, King and Collins, Davis, Ledley, Taylor, Richards, Hal Robson Kanu" : Hang on, where are Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy and Grumpy?

"We'll win if we unite" - This bit makes sense

By all means write a song about football, but a good one, and not just a list of names that might as well say "We've Got Loads Of Players / They'll Past The Test / Sport Some Sport / Wales Is Best."

Apologies if this seems flippant, but the words are very slapdash, extremely niche, and utterly meaningless unless you're wrapped inside the minuate of Welsh sport.

Well isn't that the point????? They wrote a WELSH FOOTBALL song . Non fans would argue that most manics songs are nonsensical then just because they might not have heard of the topic they're singing about !

You might not like the lyrics but that doesn't make them gibberish

[markreed]

Obtuse? I have no idea about Welsh football teams. or English ones.

But then, "World In Motion" is a great song that happens to be about football. Not just a list of names.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

Well Google is right there if you want to find out about any of the references. In that respect it's actually a very typical Manics song; they've always put obscure references in their songs that fans have gone on to look up afterwards. Half of THB is lists of names after all

[Porco]

I think the lyrics, aside from all the chanty names bits (it's a football song, get over it!) are actually far cleverer than many are giving them credit for. The verses are partly about the band themselves at the same time as being about wales at the same time as being most ostensibly about football.

e.g. "Not since 1958" : Let Robeson Sing reference, "no passport 'til 1958" - the last time Wales were in a major international football tournament, when they would have needed their passports too!

"And if he is looking down" refers to both looking down from heaven (the ...Preachers' use of religious symbology...) but also could be taken as a reference to the depression Speed may have sadly suffered in silence... Looking down... It could be be seen as both a positive happy message about the possibility of an afterlife, whilst being a supportive message of support for those with suicidal feelings, i.e. 'Together stronger'.

"That 85 night was so tragic"
In 1985. In 1985. I would argue this line could be taken to be an oblique criticism of Lifeblood!

"But now the past is all gone" - with the little harp flourish, this can clearly be read as a reference to Everything Must Go, as they release this song as they've just celebrated 20 years of since that album's release - it's placing this song in the context of their career and what they were up to around the release of this song.

"the future is ours to be won"
Their most recent album was Futurology. Self-explanatory.

"But now France has arrived..." / "You're just too good to be true..." Obviously references to Can't Take My Eyes Off You, a song the welsh fans sing at matches, the song this was originally supposed to be based on (and arguably still is, quite a bit!) but also something they covered as a B-side on the Everything Must Go single Australia.

For extra 3-degrees of separation Kevin Bacon bonus points for tenuous linkage: Terry Venables at one point managed the Australian football team, but in 1996, the year of Everything Must Go and the Australia single, he of course managed England as we staged The European Football Championship. Two of the Euro 96 venues were Leeds' Elland Road and Newcastle's St. James' Park, stadiums that Gary Speed played significant parts of his career at! It all joins up!

There's also the possible context of the EU referendum as has been noted by others, an encouragement/reminder that we're better off together/united. Wales certainly are!

[Europa Gluten Free]

Porco, don't feed the troll!

[Porco]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

Porco, don't feed the troll!

There has to be some sort of joke possible about feeding a troll with vindaloo...

heheh, I'm not sure Markreed is trolling, they (he?) is entitled to their opinion, but I just disagree with the idea that the song's lyrics are meaningless or exclusively about football (if it would even matter if they were). Some of what I said has been pointed out by others already, the rest has been bubbling away in my head for a little bit, just hadn't posted it until now.

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

Someone on YouTube said the chorus rips off a certain artist. Click on the link to the song in question at your own risk because what's seen can't be unseen and what's heard can't be unheard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0

Hmm, I can maybe hear what they mean, but I still like the Spiderwebs by No Doubt comparison better. I like how you made it sound as if it was some obscure song by an artist no-one would have ever heard before though... (maybe Markreed hasn't heard of her though, I don't know?! )

[Manicben]

Originally Posted by markreed

So, from the perspective of a non-Welsh, non-Football person :

"Not since 1958" - yes, I've heard of this, there was a plane crash?

"Lets not forget Gary Speed" - Who?

"And if he is looking down Then our love is all around" - This rhymes but doesn't actually make sense. It's akin to 'My dog has four legs, my cat as four legs, all cats are dogs.' Utter piffle.

"So Come on Ramsey
Lets set the world alight
When Gareth Bale plays
We can beat any side
So come on Wales
So come on Wales
With Ashley Williams
We can win any fight
Joe Jordan won with his hand
Russia was Giggsy's last chance
Paul Bodin's penalty miss"
- This all just a list of names and how they are better than other football players. Is this really a good song lyric?

"You're just too good to be true, We can't take our eyes off you" - Like this bit, but it seems familiar?

"Chrissy Coleman, Gunter, Chester, Hennessey, Allen, King and Collins, Davis, Ledley, Taylor, Richards, Hal Robson Kanu" : Hang on, where are Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy and Grumpy?

"We'll win if we unite" - This bit makes sense

By all means write a song about football, but a good one, and not just a list of names that might as well say "We've Got Loads Of Players / They'll Past The Test / Sport Some Sport / Wales Is Best."

Apologies if this seems flippant, but the words are very slapdash, extremely niche, and utterly meaningless unless you're wrapped inside the minuate of Welsh sport.

So you're telling me that before you listened to any Manics record ever, you'd heard of every person, event, book, film they've ever mentioned?

[markreed]

Not trolling at all. And, as if you hadn't worked out from the name, I am a singular He.

The lyrics to this song are - as I pointed out earlier - in my opinion, absolutely terrible. You shouldn't have to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of one nations football history to understand a song, even if it isn't a very good one. The song doesn't translate beyond a very very narrow valley.

Very ' The Cat Sat On The Hat ', trite, and obtuse. It's not a song about football, but a list of trivia supported by empty cliches and barely thought out first draft platitudes. Not every Wire lyric will be fantastic, but this makes The Echo & The Bunnymen & The Spice Girls football song seem the best song ever written.

The music is pretty good. Fragments of the lyrics are passable. But I probably spent longer walking back from the supermarket earlier than Wire did on the words.

[Refresher]

MSPKYE - If you're going to the England game try and get the chorus going.

I could try in Toulouse for you but doubt it will happen

[Manicben]

Originally Posted by markreed

The lyrics to this song are - as I pointed out earlier - in my opinion, absolutely terrible. You shouldn't have to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of one nations football history to understand a song, even if it isn't a very good one. The song doesn't translate beyond a very very narrow valley.

I'm not sure you need an encyclopaedic knowledge of the nations footballing history. Especially given the lyrics clearly explain past Welsh heartache.