The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
(And I need to go on and on, and on, and on)
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world
I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all
But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge
Before the whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose
(And I need just go on and on, and on, and on)
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
(And I need to go on and on, and on, and on)
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world
I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all
But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge
Before the whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose
(And I need just go on and on, and on, and on)
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world
We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
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More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
To me, this song is really about overcoming. This became especially apparent while working through a somewhat deep depression a while back. Before, especially as a kid, all I ever saw it as was a victory song to be played after a sporting event or something of that sort. It had no meaning to me beyond that. Because of that, I always kind of overlooked it because of how overplayed it seemed to be. In the thick of it, while I was on the verge of tears, it came on the radio and I actually started really LISTENING to the lyrics.
That's when the overcoming theme hit me. Maybe it's kind of obvious to a lot of you, but for me it took a while. Now, when I hear him say "We are the champions," I'm not envisioning a guy scoring a last minute goal. The "we" Freddy Mercury is singing about is actually you and me. If you've ever had a time where you felt like laying down, giving up, dying, but you're still here. You're not giving up. You're going to stick through to the end. You're going to get right back up every time life throws you to the ground and keep fighting, no matter how big a challenge is standing before you. No matter how hopeless your goal may seem. That's how you're a true champion.
Thank you Freddy, for your encouraging words. They've helped me through tough times more than you could know. May you rest in peace.
You are completely right, my friend. Couldn't have put it better.
I personally like to think that this song was written about my family! lol (my last name is Champion)
Heh...so many people complain about this being used as a sports anthem (including me) but Freddie actually wrote it as a sports anthem: "...I was thinking about football when I wrote it. I wanted a participation song, something the fans could latch on to. It was aimed at the masses; I thought we'd see how they took it. It worked a treat. When we performed it at a private concert in London, the fans actually broke into a football chant between numbers. Of course, I've given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. You know me." Though he said he may also have been commenting on Queen's success: "I suppose it could also be construed as my version of 'I Did It My Way.' We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it's still not easy." (queen.musichall.cz/index_en.php) Though all of the other meanings of the song could still apply, even if they weren't what Freddie originally intended.
Why does everyone assume every song Freddie's written is about being gay?!!
As I noted above, same thing happens with Michael Stipe a lot. Mercury, of course, was not gay but bi, as is Stipe. I think there's at least one bisexual musician who people assume is gay, but I can't remember who it is.
@manic4manics That's over simplified. Certainly not "everyone" stated that. There is at least one youtube video wherein a former claimed lover claimed that was his perception of why it was written. Until yesterday (and I have been listening to Queen since I was 12, so about 38 years)-I had NEVER heard that suggestion. I would only trust a meaning articulated by one of the Queen band members or Freddie himself.
@manic4manics People assume that about every Queen song, regardless of whether Freddie wrote it or not.
@manic4manics Because he was gay!
@manic4manics this made me laugh so hard and i'm at the office right now and the people around me don't know what to think of me just breaking out in laughter<br />
Anyone here who claims this song is about homosexuality makes themselves look ignorant and small minded, not to mention probably prejudiced in some cases. I think it's obvious what this song is about; it's that fighting spirit, rising to the challenge when the going gets tough and giving the finger to difficult people who judge us for what we are but not who we are. In other words refusing to quit, lie down
Agree. Being an uncloseted sexual minority (he was bi, people!) is an obvious example of a challenge people face since, as you put it so succinctly, a lot of people "judge us for what we are but not who we are." But I agree that the underlying meaning of this song is a lot broader than just his one particular case, especially relevant though it may be for both Freddie and much of his audience.<br /> (Curiously, people also tend to assume that R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe is gay when he's actually bi (and has never made a secret of it). I wonder what causes this sort of thing to happen. Sometimes I think bisexuality has been kind of "forgotten" by the media & pop culture – even though Woody Allen once said he couldn't understand why more people weren't by, because it'd double your chances for a date on Saturday night.)
What is small minded and ignorant is to deny it is anything but about homosexuality= 'I've done my sentence But committed no crime'
This is basically Queen giving the finger to all those ppl who put them down and said a band wif a gay front-man would get no where.
Their biggest critics were the "good folks" from 'News Of The World' tabloid. I guess its no wonder they named the album 'News Of The World.' ;-)
I curse the day that this song got reappropriated by shite sports events
It's obviously a gay anthem, and about struggling as a closeted homosexual, which many gay men of that time did. What else are the lines
"I've paid my dues Time after time I've done my sentence But committed no crime"
about then? Explain. It's about living in a closet, when society hates your guts. Doing a sentence, time after time. Which was the reality for gay people especially in the past. How else you're gonna explain these first 4 lines? What sentences you've been doing, as a straight person? Closeted gay people know all about it. People are really blind if they don't see this :D
Obviously Freddie wouldn't say it aloud, he never admitted being gay either. It was the hidden, true meaning of the song. He probably laughed in his mind about the football explanation. If he told what's it really about, it wouldn't have been as popular, and never adopted as a sports anthem.
This song is timeless, it'll always be around and it'll keep getting played, no matter how homophobic some sad losers are. I challenge you all to find someone who hasn't heard of this song. And anyway, it doesn't matter if Freddie was gay or whatever. He was a damn good entertainer, and that's all that matters. How would you all like it if everyone knew everything about you, even about your sexuality, which Freddie kept a secret until it was necessary to tell people what was going on cos there were so many rumours going around?Leave him alone! Enjoy the music!
It's not about gays, Please people !