ANTHEMS: Queen — We Are The Champions

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Freddie Mercury and team made one of the most unusual anthems of all time. “We Are The Champions” has a somber beginning, an uncertain ending and a sprinkling of operatic allusions. Yet more than 40 years after this slow burners debut, it continues to be a staple at sporting events. In the first episode in a four part series, ANTHEMS, Nate and Charlie break down the song’s fundamental elements that place this song in the anthemic pantheon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Switched On Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.
0:17.3	And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:18.5	Charlie, this is the first in a mini-series that we're doing.
0:23.4	Yeah. Every episode for the next four episodes, we are going to be tackling the subject
0:29.0	of anthems.
0:30.4	Oh, this is going to be fun.
0:31.5	Yeah. What makes a song an anthem? What makes a song?
0:35.5	The one that a whole stadium or arena of people can sing as one, a song that soundtracks
0:41.5	our public life. And I want to start with the song that is literally the first thing
0:47.8	I think of when I hear the word anthem.
0:50.8	We are the champions. We are the champions.
0:59.0	Oh, top.
1:01.8	That's the one. We are the champions by Queen.
1:05.0	I want to spend the rest of this episode trying to understand the musical features that
1:09.8	make this track so end themic that 40 years after it came out, people are still chanting
1:15.8	this at stadiums and arenas and street corners around the world.
1:22.3	You know, first song about being a champion, Charlie, this track starts in kind of a sad
1:28.4	place.
1:29.4	It totally does.
1:30.4	I've paid my dues.
1:32.4	I've paid my sentence, but committed no crimes.
1:51.0	It's, yeah, this is heavy stuff and it's surprising until you think about this is a song about
	...

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