Almost half a century ago, Queen recorded their iconic anthem, “We Will Rock You,” forever changing live sporting events.
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The song is a rallying cry, and while many are familiar with its stomp, stomp, clap rhythm, some may have missed the meaning in Freddie Mercury’s quick-fire vocals.
So, how did Queen—using hardly any instrumentation—create such an indelible anthem?
A Life in Three Acts
“We Will Rock You” documents three ages of human life: a child, an adult, and an elderly person. The first verse opens with Mercury addressing the child.
Buddy, you’re a boy, make a big noise
Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday
You got mud on your face, you big disgrace
Kicking your can all over the place, singin’
He then turns his attention to the adult.
Buddy, you’re a young man, hard man
Shouting in the street, gonna take on the world someday
You got blood on your face, you big disgrace
Waving your banner all over the place
Finally, the man has reached the end of his life.
Buddy, you’re an old man, poor man
Pleading with your eyes, gonna make you some peace someday
You got mud on your face, big disgrace
Somebody better put you back into your place
Guitarist Brian May took musical inspiration from the old Boston Garden, where Queen had performed. He recalled the sound of the wooden floors and beams and the crowd noise, which sounded like thunder.
It Began with a Football Chant
Following Queen’s 1977 concert at Bingley Hall in Stafford, England, the audience began singing the football anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The Rodgers and Hammerstein composition from their 1945 musical Carousel famously became a Liverpool football chant after Gerry & the Pacemakers reached No. 1 with their version of the show tune in 1963.
May told BBC Radio 1, “We were just completely knocked out and taken aback—it was quite an emotional experience really, and I think these chant things are in some way connected with that.”
Queen wanted their own chant, and May and Mercury each wrote separate anthems.
Mercury, aiming for the classic ballad “My Way,” created “We Are the Champions,” while May borrowed the title from an old lullaby and wrote “We Will Rock You.”
The pair of anthems appear on Queen’s sixth studio album, News of the World, and were also issued together as singles in 1977—reaching No. 2 in the UK.
Meanwhile, Queen opened the album’s supporting tour with “We Will Rock You,” which later transformed into an uptempo version of the song.
Audience Participation
Still, May had another motivation for “We Will Rock You.” He wanted to encourage audience participation and, ultimately, have the crowd lead the band. He woke up one morning with the song’s melody in his head.
“The ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions’ audience participation thing was something kind of astonishingly new at the time. When that song was born, concerts were not interactive in that sense. You went to bang your head and not much else; you did not sing along to a Led Zeppelin show,” May told Rolling Stone in 2017.
We will; we will rock you, sing it
We will; we will rock you
Frozen Video Shoot
The group filmed the music video in drummer Roger Taylor’s garden. Initially, the record label didn’t plan to release “We Will Rock You” as a single, so the music video was hastily filmed. Taylor had just purchased a country house in Surrey, England, but the sale was pending and the band wasn’t allowed inside the house.
According to May and Taylor, the frigid weather was miserable, and they shot the makeshift video in three takes. Then, May meticulously edited the footage while attempting to generate something more exciting than what they had captured.
Recording the Song
When Queen entered a recording studio in Wessex, May explained the song’s arrangement to the band. He clarified there wouldn’t be drums or bass, and most of the arrangement followed stomps, claps, and vocals.
The quartet stomped their feet in rhythm inside an old church, layered multiple takes, and used delay effects to mimic the sound of a large audience.
Furthermore, they stacked layers of vocals while singing in character voices to simulate a crowd. May then closes the song with a piercing guitar solo.
From Sports Anthem to Rock Anthem to Sports Anthem
Queen’s rock anthem was born from a football chant but is ubiquitous at major sporting events globally. “We Will Rock You” lives with Queen’s sibling anthem, “We Are the Champions,” alongside Gary Glitter’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll (Part 2)” and The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” as stadium chants that transcend language, politics, and whichever sport happens to be on the field.
Sports fans use “We Will Rock You” to motivate their team to victory and, if they’re lucky, “We Are the Champions” to savor the triumph.
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Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns
