The Pink Floyd song Nick Mason admitted “felt like sacrilege”
An artist calling a track “sacrilege” could have a lot of meanings. It could be that they broke some golden rule of musicality, daring to create a strange new chord progression or merging two genres that feel totally opposing. It could be that a classic sound has been taken and ripped apart for something new, or it could simply be a disagreement between two band members, with one disgusted at what the other has created. But in the case of Pink Floyd, the “sacrilege” committed by the band goes deeper than music.
No, this wasn’t just a matter of sound, song structure or musical tradition. It’s rooted deeper than that, going back into bloodlines and family lineages, into core identities and a deep-set sense of belonging. This wasn’t a matter of artistry. This was a matter of football.
On the band’s 1971 track ‘Fearless’, there is a sample of a famed football song. In the back, you can hear ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, a track from a 1940s musical that has been co-opted as Liverpool Football Club’s anthem. In the Pink Floyd number, football supporters join the band, heard singing along to their iconic anthem with all the boisterous energy expected from sports fans.
They’re a well-known force dubbed the “Kop Choir” during their heyday. Go to any Liverpool game, and they’ll be right there, always in the same area of the stadium, in the same seats, and always singing the same songs. As the music begins, their singing is buried deep in the mix as a low mumble. But as it builds and builds, so does the energy of these backing singers until, in the final moments, they’re chanting, “Liverpool!”
The reason for Pink Floyd getting the football fans in was purely a musical one. “That idea of using the Kop Choir was interesting because it was absolutely about the sound the Kop Choir make, and I say that because it’s actually the chant of Liverpool,” Nick Mason said. For the drummer, it would be utterly impossible to replicate the sound and energy of this specific gaggle of people without going right to the heart of it. There is no way to fake the sound of an impassioned football crowd without getting one involved, and to him, no one does that better than Liverpool.
But for Roger Waters, the decision could never just be a musical one. They say blood is thicker than water, but how about the relationship between identity and purpose? While the band might have been Waters’ passion and purpose on the planet, his football team was his identity, his connection to home and a vital thing that tied him to his family.
But his team isn’t Liverpool, it’s Arsenal. “Roger was an Arsenal supporter – still is, indeed,” Mason said.
Arsenal and Liverpool are rivals, having had plenty of memorable showdowns throughout football history. So, for the band to use the sound of a different squad was a bold move. But for the sake of the song, it had to be done. “We were north London guys, so it felt like sacrilege to use the opposition’s chanting,” Mason said, “But it’s very powerful.”
