Three Lions

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Three Lions is a Lightning Seeds song that was released on the occasion of the 1996 European Football Championship in England . The lyrics are from comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner . The song was republished two years later for the soccer World Cup in France with a new text. It is one of three songs that hit the top of the UK charts twice with different lyrics. Three Lions is also the nickname of the English national football team, on whose coat of arms there are three lions (based on the coat of arms of England ).

text

The lyrics spoke, which is very unusual for most football songs, not of exuberant optimism for the victory, but told of how every tournament since the football World Cup in 1966 , in which England became world champions, ended in shattered hopes and with the feeling that England will never reach these heights again:

“Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming / Thirty years of hurt never stopped me dreaming”

"Three lions on the jersey, Jules Rimet still shines / Thirty years of pain have not stopped me from dreaming"

The intro of the song contains samples from pessimistic reports:

  • “ I think it's bad news for the English game ” (German: “I think that's bad news for the English game”) ( Alan Hansen )
  • “ We're not creative enough; we're not positive enough ”(German:“ We are not creative enough; we are not convinced enough ”) ( Trevor Brooking )
  • " We'll go on getting bad results " (German: "We'll continue to live with bad results") ( Jimmy Hill )

Despite the failures in the past, there was renewed hope at every tournament that this time around it would be the year they would win again. The chorus of the song proclaimed: “ It's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming, football's coming home ” (German: “He comes home, he comes home, he comes, [the] football is coming home”). It was derived from the tournament slogan “ Football comes home ”, which refers to England, the country where the modern game of football originated.

Track list

Original 1996 CD single

  1. " Three Lions " (3:44)
  2. " Three Lions (Jules Rimet Extend Mix) " (6:14)
  3. “ Three Lions (Karaoke Version) ” (3:45)

Other versions

  • Three Lions '98 was released two years later for the 1998 World Cup . After the English team was only just eliminated in the semi-finals by a penalty shoot-out at the European Championships, the text is more optimistic than the original, so instead of “ Thirty years of hurt ”, “ No more years of hurt ” is sung. Like the original, this version reached number 1 in the UK charts. The 98 version was re-released for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup .
  • In 2006 the song was released as a DualDisc . On one side there was Three Lions and Three Lions '98 and on the other side the music videos for both songs were on the DVD side.
  • The Dutch Hermes House Band covered the song as “ Eagles on the shirt ” (German: “Adler auf dem Trikot”) or “ Heroes in the shirts ” (German: “Heroes in den Trikots”)
  • A cover version of “Die Original Deutschmacher ” was published for Werder Bremen with the title “The W on the Trikot”, which is very popular among fans.
  • Mundstuhl covered the title for Eintracht Frankfurt under the title "Eagle on the chest"
  • Atze Schröder uses maternity leave as the intro melody for his solo tour , but there is sung: "Atze's coming home, it's coming home, it's coming ..."
  • The English comedian Russell Brand and singer Robbie Williams also released their own version for the 2010 World Cup under the band name “ The Squad ”

Web links