You'll Never Walk Alone, for the uninitiated, is a song written for the Rogers and Hammerstein musical - Carousel. It has since been recorded by legends such as Elvis Presley, Old Blue Eyes himself and Patti LaBelle. In the UK, its most famous rendition can usually be heard on a Saturday afternoon by 40,000 Liverpool Football Club fans, at the home of football, Anfield, in the city of Liverpool.

Liverpool fans adopted the song as its anthem in the early 1960s, after Merseyside beat-combo Gerry and the Pacemakers made UK number 1 in 1963 with the song.

I myself have sung it in the Kop stand (full name Spion Kop named after the Spion Kop mountain in South Africa, where many members of the Liverpool Regiment died during the Boer War), along with 10,000 other Kopites. Celtic, along with a few other football teams, have also adopted the song as its anthem. (high five to Green and White Jedi)

It's inspiring to hear, not on your stereo in the confines of your studio apartment, or 18th century mansion, but on the football terraces. It has inspired many a footballing comeback. It's most recent "miracle-inspiring" chant was on the 25th May 2005, in the Ataturk Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey, a week after the worldwide release of Revenge of the Sith. At half time, Liverpool were down 3-0 to the unstoppable AC Milan. The Reds were overwhelmed, down and out, beaten, well and truly. The team trudged their way back into the dressing room at half time, heads down, humbled by the Italian giants, with seemingly no way back.

How could they come back from this deficit? Captain Steven Gerrard tried to inspire his fellow players with words of wisdom, the manager, Rafael Benitez tried the same. Then they heard it. Wafting through the stadium; a triumphant chorus, 40,000 Liverpool fans, who had journeyed across Europe to see their beloved team in the European Cup Final, the Holy Grail that had been absent from them for 21 years, were singing. They were singing You'll Never Walk Alone. Steven Gerrard could hear it, his team could hear it. It inspired Stevie G, it inspired the rest of the team, and I'm sure, the AC Milan players could hear it, wondering why their own fans weren't singing, or if they were, were not singing louder.

But the scousers were singing. It didn't matter that they were 3-0 down, they were happy to be in the European Cup Final. Some of them may have spent their yearly savings to get there, they may have cashed in their grannies (no offence Granny-Wan) to pay for the tickets and passage to Istanbul, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was a sense of belief, of hope, of pride, of determination.

And Steven Gerrard, listening to the Kop anthem ringing throughout the stadium, and the inspiring voices of so many Liverpool fans who believed in him and his team, so led his team back onto the field, and turned the game around on its heels, and made it the best European Cup Final in history. After scoring the first Liverpool goal, Stevie G led from the front, and inspired Liverpool to a 3-3 draw at full time, a scoreline that stayed until the end of extra time, despite the sapped, drained, tired and cramped-up stalwarts of his fellow team members, like the heroic Jamie Carragher and Didi Hamann. After an amazing penalty shootout, Steven lifted the European trophy aloft, and having won it for the fifth time, it was allowed to go back to Anfield, to the trophy cabinet where it belonged.

The next day, back in Merseyside, the team paraded the trophy through the streets.

Half a million supporters were there, singing You'll Never Walk Alone:

When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dream be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone


I wonder...


...did Luke Skywalker have this song in his head at times?

When you walk through the storm

After being yanked from the comfort of his uncle's moisture farm, Luke had a tough time ahead of him. He was up against the Empire, immediately. Cantina aliens, stormtroopers, dianogas, TIE fighters, the loss of his new-found mentor, a looming battle station, these were all in his way. I left home roughly the same time he did, and was thrust into an adult world and an unfamiliar regime, which of course, I coped with. But I don't think I could have coped with what he had to.

Hold your head up high

Luke did just that. The loss of his uncle and aunt - the people that raised him were taken from him. What did he do? Looked upwards to Obi-Wan and announced that he wanted to be a Jedi, like his father.

And don't be afraid of the dark

With everything going on all around him over the years; Obi-Wan's death, the shadow of Imperial might breathing down his and the Rebellion's neck, the revelation that the most evil thing in his life was actually his father, he hung on in there. Most people would have wilted, or took their own life, or started smoking, but Like didn't - he faced his fears and took them head on.

At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

I'm not sure if they have larks in the GFFA, but Luke believed that there was a "golden sky" so to speak. He thought he could reach his father at the end of the storm, and he did. He weathered the lightning, and the pain that he suffered at the hands of Vader's master, along with the knowledge and the belief that Luke loved him, caused Anakin to re-emerge, like a sunrise, and end this destructive conflict.

Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain

Luke did just that. He walked on, at all times. On Hoth, injured, probably suffering from frost bite and other cold weather ailments, he blindly walked on, in the hope that he would find the base, that someone may find him.

On Cloud City, when wounded and scuppered by Vader, he kept going.

On the second Death Star, when the rage ripped through him like a tornado, and goaded by the Emperor, he cast his weapon aside.

When his father was dying, and the Death Star shaking at the foundations, Luke still managed to drag his father to safety.

Though your dream be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart

With the revelation of his parental heritage, Luke didn't wither - he soldiered on. He didn't hide and try to forget the news, take to the bottle or top himself - he matured, became a Jedi, stayed true to the Rebellion and vowed to find a way to get to his father. He knew the good was there, he felt it in his own heart, and promised to find it in Vader's

And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

I'm sure Luke knew this. He had the love of his friends and mentors, his sister and even the devotion of the droids. (This is also prominent in the EU, like Dark Empire, when Leia, and her unborn child defeat the cloned Emperor)

But more so, he had the love of his father. Anakin was there for him at the end. If you want to be really sentimental, he had the love of both his parents. I like to think (as I know many others do) that at the point of Vader's redemption, of Anakin's redemption, that Padme was there too...the love that the young Skywalker's (I'm sure the secret Naboo marriage records office must have said 'Padme Skywalker') once had, blossomed at the right time - the time when their son was being killed by The Emperor. Anakin remembered that love, and it broke through all the barriers that the Sith had put there, and he made sure that Luke did not walk alone.

Remember, not only will the Force be with you always, but you'll also never walk alone.

(dedicated to Jediprincess77 - you'll never walk alone either)