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There tends to be a way of competitors when sure artists have been within the highlight lengthy sufficient. Usually, folks will simply write songs to observe their muse, however when there’s a brand new faculty of gamers coming in using their coattails, that’s the second the place the most effective artists begin to remind everybody why they have been so revered within the first place.
Although Elton John actually didn’t have to show his chops as one of the best songwriters on this planet, he did admit that no quantity of his anthems was going to dethrone Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’.
Then once more, it might be straightforward to place each Queen and John in the identical field within the Seventies. Aside from each acts favouring the glamorous facet of rock and roll, every of them had a much more subtle approach of approaching music than your common rock band. They had their background in blues in locations, however a few of their greatest work could sit subsequent to classical compositions by way of complexity.
That shared sense of grandeur is a part of what made comparisons between the 2 nearly inevitable. Both artists understood tips on how to construct a song into one thing bigger than life, however they approached that concept from fully totally different emotional angles.
Where Elton typically leaned into storytelling and melody, Queen thrived on scale and spectacle. It’s that distinction that made ‘We Are the Champions’ such a novel beast, much less a song and extra a communal expertise designed to be shouted again by 1000’s without delay.
At the identical time, John by no means noticed himself in the identical vein as the opposite glam rockers who have been coming in behind him. He original himself within the vein of singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, and he wished to verify his music mirrored that sort of craftsmanship. So principally, think about Paul Simon if he have been actually into sequined fits, and also you’re someplace within the ballpark.
Granted, it’s not like John was a snob about what he was writing. Across each one of his albums, he was unafraid to take probabilities, and when he began arising with ‘Philadelphia Freedom’, it was nearly a problem to himself to see if he could write his personal model of a jock jam for Billie Jean King’s tennis group of the identical identify.
It’s nonetheless a very good song, however it’s removed from the sort of pump-up monitor that most individuals can be clamouring. There are items of it that work, however provided that it’s nonetheless being banged out on a piano, most gymnasiums can be more likely to throw on some Led Zeppelin as a substitute. In reality, ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’ is a much better indicator of what John could do, however that sort of kickass is much more muted this time round.
Although John tried his greatest, he admitted defeat in comparison with what Freddie Mercury could do with this type of song, telling The Guardian, “We Are The Champions can’t be beaten: it’s so good at what it does, any sport can use it. Queen had that market sewn up, which was hysterical because Freddie Mercury hated sport; he knew nothing about it at all.”
Do you actually have to be well-versed in any sport to jot down one thing like ‘We Are the Champions’, although? It definitely would possibly assist in the event you’re a soccer fan, however even when somebody is the least coordinated individual on the sphere, everybody is aware of what it’s like to beat adversity towards a situation that appeared stacked towards them earlier than it even bought began.
And there’s no higher indicator of John admitting defeat than watching the tune’s efficiency at Live Aid. ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ remains to be a very good song teetering on the sting of nice, however ‘We Are the Champions’ would be the sort of tune that will get legions of followers on their toes in a stadium each single time it will get performed.
