For Liverpool fans, it is almost impossible not to look to the past, even as we enjoy the present. Although the club was dominant under Jürgen Klopp, regularly winning trophies and pushing a Manchester City side with 130 charges of financial misconduct hanging over it all the way in Premier League title races, even that wasn’t as dominant as we were in the 1980s.
It felt as though the Reds were winning a number of trophies every single season, largely because from the 1972-1973 season until the 1984-1985 campaign, we did win something every year, if you include the Charity Shield. This is a song that reflects that ridiculous dominance.
Based on a Mary Hopkin Hit
Those Were the Days was a song that was composed by Boris Fomin but credited to George Raskin, which became a hit by Mary Hopkin in 1968. If you want a Liverpool connection, it comes in the fact that the song was produced by Paul McCartney, becoming a number one in both the United Kingdom and Canada and was only kept off the top spot in the United States of America by Hey Jude.
Whether or not that’s the reason why Liverpool supporters decided to rework it to make it about their own football club is something that only those that did it could tell you.
What I can say is that the song has had its lyrics altered in order to reflect the dominance that the Reds have enjoyed in the past, as well as the fact that the supporters helped the club achieve what it did. Here is how the Liverpool version goes:
Those were the days, my friends,
We took the Stretford End,
We took the Shed,
The North Bank, Highbury!
We took the Geordies too,
We fought for Liverpool.
We are the Kop
Of Liverpool FC!
