Just heard Neil’s “Rockin’ In the Free World” on the radio; although some references therein are a bit dated, I never seem to get tired of hearing it. Last two times I saw CSNY and he played it, I found myself standing up and singing along (while all the baby boomers sat sheepishly).
What are some of you favorites? (I’ll leave it up to you all to define what makes a song an “anthem”, and whether other entries qualify :D)
If you’ll accept hymns, I consider those set to Beethoven’s Ninth (Ode to Joy) as anthems because man, you can sing those at the top of your lungs and get transported. “Sing with All the Saints in Glory” will be at my funeral.
Secularly, We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions would be my vote.
Colours by The Men They Couldn’t Hang Vagabonds by New Model Army There Is Power In A Union by Billy Bragg The Internationale by various, although Bragg’s version is a favourite.
Güi ar dechampions (preferably at the top of your lungs and forgetting most of what you ever knew about English phonetics), Cadillac solitario, the Ode to Joy (Miguel Ríos version, in that video with JM Serrat and Ana Belén), Pange Lingua (that Mocedades version was the first time I realized I didn’t need to understand the lyrics to like a song), Waka Waka (you guys should’a seen my nephew making my grandma dance it), Adeste Fideles (the Twisted Sister version is at about the speed at which we sing it in Navarre, but we tend to yell it more), Serrat’s Hoy puede ser un gran día (second song in the video).
If you can sing it while banging your feet to it, I’m game. And yes, I realize not all my proposals meet that condition.
But I like the rare radio play of Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes.” And Fun’s recent “We are Young” was, um, fun in a sad and decadent sort of way.
A year ago last summer we were driving through the deep south and kept hearing a song that doesn’t get any radio play anymore in Southern MN - Deff Leppard’s “Rock of Ages.” I’d forgotten what a pick-me-up it was.
My list would have to include “All You Need Is Love” and “Hey Jude”. I would also include “21st Century Schizoid Man”, and probably at least a couple Strawbs songs such as “Lay Down”… the Who were good at anthems; certainly “Won’t Get Fooled Again” deserves mention, although I’ve heard that one enough times to last the rest of my life. Other titles on the list would include:
“Who’ll Stop the Rain” (Creedence)
“Toward the Sun” (Druid)
“Meet on the Ledge” (Fairport)
The folk movement had more anthems than I can list, from the famous to the forgotten, from “Union Maid” to “We Shall Overcome” to “Woke Up This Morning” to “Power and the Glory” to “This Land Is Your Land” to…