Once again, there is a palpable feeling that maybe the England team might, in the 2026 men’s football World Cup, make it to… let’s not say any more. One consequence of this is that I’ve been hearing Three Lions around the place a decent amount and, once again, I’m reminded what a brilliant, moving but also enigmatic song it is. It’s a football song whose catchier segments appear in stadium chants, but it’s also harmonically and structurally rather complex. I was randomly searching to see if anyone else had clocked the weird phrase structure of the chorus (particularly the way it emerges from halfway through the last line of the verse) and found this excellent essay by Gary Parkinson about the song. The essay has that combination, rarely found in musical writing, of intricate musical understanding, contextual appreciation and emotional engagement.
Thirty years of ‘thirty years of hurt’
by rob
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