Is it coming home?

[Kevin S]

Yep. This title'll do.

Rather than diving into all the other threads, including the AEB one, I wanted to ponder this question. Firstly, what does 'Football's coming home' mean? I don't think that when the song was released in 96 it was meant to suggest that England would win it. It's a song about, yes, the 66 win, but also the failures since. The positive beat the song gives is about pride and dreaming - calling all the England fans together.

So, given that the team's run to the semi finals has got everyone* in love with the England team in a way we've not seen in over 20 years, I think we can say that, yes, Football is coming home.

Doesn't mean we'll win it. Necessarily. But we might. (Will we?)

* not really everyone

[ad hoc]

Surely the meaning in 96 was that the tournament would be in England. Hence football itself was 'coming home" rather than the trophy.

[Patrick Thistle]

It's had an amazing longevity that song. I can't think of another football record that has stuck in the popular imagination.

As for what it means, I think it is about the dream of England winning a tournament.

[ursus arctos]

I always interpreted the song as you lot hosting the first major international tournament since 66.

[Duncan Gardner]

It meant/ means that England invented the game (according to the writers and a good proportion of fans, media etc.). And thus they own it and are deserving of success.

Your chance of winning it is about 26% according to Will Hill (France 32%, Belgium 24%, Croatia 18%).

[Disco Child Ballads]

I can't think of another football record that has stuck in the popular imagination.

What about Chas and Dave's records for Spurs?

People still seem to remember 'World in Motion' and 'Back Home'.

[Duncan Gardner]

First moody football record: Chelsea's Back on the Ball. Check out Paudge Nevin's Cocteau Twins haircut

[ad hoc]

"We\re on the march we're Ally's Army" is still a regular earworm for me. That predates Coming Home by 18 years

[Sean of the Shed]

https://twitter.com/themiltonjones/status/1015626300260782080

[Kevin S]

Baddiel:

“The England team has been in the wilderness and the song always runs in parallel with the team. You can’t sing about it coming home when it’s lost... Three Lions ... was the first song properly to ... describe the experience of being an England fan. We know rationally that we tend to disappoint but somehow we keep on hoping that things might be different this time. And that element of the song, of defiance, of hope in the face of history, picks up energy if history suddenly looks like it might turn round. Even though the song comes from a place of vulnerability, its central refrain can be chanted at the right moment – now, for example – when fans want to throw caution to the wind.”

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I've been thinking along the same lines, cos the #itscominghome thing has got out of hand, and I'm sick of people saying it.

It's two songs bolted together, essentially. I always took the "it's coming home" element to be because we were hosting the Euros, the first major tournament we were allowed to host since 1966, and something of a turnaround from the 70s and 80s when hosting a tournament here was seen as a major risk.

It seems to have turned into meaning 'the World Cup's coming home', which it was obviously never intended to say.

Either way, it has certainly taken off amongst the demographic that wasn't born when it originally came out.

[Flynnie]

World In Motion is an immeasurably better song.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Took me far too long to type that obviously, as my point has been made several times by now.

[blameless]

As we said back in 1996 (and ever since), "football's coming nearly home".

International football will finally get back to the city of its birth at Euro 2020.

[Ray de Galles]

Surely the meaning in 96 was that the tournament would be in England. Hence football itself was 'coming home" rather than the trophy.

Yes, exactly. Anyone who has said "It's coming home" to me in the last few weeks has been met with "What is, exactly?". To which the response is normally "Um...er...it?".

The actual song (and its original sentiments) is still fantastic and clearly pretty ageless though.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's had an amazing longevity that song. I can't think of another football record that has stuck in the popular imagination.

As for what it means, I think it is about the dream of England winning a tournament.

Put em under pressure, is basically the Irish national anthem at this point.

[blameless]

Wahey, the return of the return of the (presumed extinct) split-level double post.

edit: awwww, Бога Нет, you took it away.

[ursus arctos]

That’s also the spirit in which it was enthusiastically nicked by German fans in 2006.

[Ray de Galles]

Wahey, the return of the return of the (presumed extinct) split-level double post.

Strangely, it was an edit that somehow became a new post. Since deleted though, I'm afraid.

[blameless]

<sadface>

[Ray de Galles]

Someone did think they'd aced me this morning when they said "Well it's the Jules Rimet Trophy that's coming home, of course!"

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That’s also the spirit in which it was enthusiastically nicked by German fans in 2006.

it was pretty enthusiastically nicked by German fans in 1996 as they went home with the trophy.

[ursus arctos]

These events always bring out the “real geniuses”

[Satchmo Distel]

The song changed its meaning during Euro 96 when it looked like England might win it. In some ways its changing meaning reflects the role of 1996 in British cultural history, the rise of New Labour, lads' culture, etc, as in the Stubbs book.

In 2018 I think it reflects cultural self-delusion about Brexit and the UK being able to be a major power despite the objective realities. Obviously that was not the writers' intentions. Maybe a parallel with Born In The USA?

[Jah Womble]

I've been thinking along the same lines, cos the #itscominghome thing has got out of hand, and I'm sick of people saying it.

It's two songs bolted together, essentially. I always took the "it's coming home" element to be because we were hosting the Euros, the first major tournament we were allowed to host since 1966, and something of a turnaround from the 70s and 80s when hosting a tournament here was seen as a major risk.

It seems to have turned into meaning 'the World Cup's coming home', which it was obviously never intended to say.

Either way, it has certainly taken off amongst the demographic that wasn't born when it originally came out.

Well, clearly the lyric refers directly to the World Cup win ('thirty years of hurt', etc) - but surely the original intent/reference was that England (the birthplace of football) were hosting Euro '96? Frank Skinner described it as a bittersweet love song, which sort of holds up: the sentiment is undoubtedly 'wouldn't it be great if'? (Meanwhile, David Baddiel seems to be milking it for all its worth on Twitter - which is interesting, given that he claimed never to have cared less about a World Cup after the draw was made in December.)

Whatever, I'm sure they're both laughing heartily to the bank because Three Lions has indeed proved the most durable and lucrative football ditty of our times. It's not my favourite World Cup song* by any stretch, but it holds 'something' in its message that hasn't been present in other efforts.

(*The aforementioned World in Motion is way better - as indeed is Colourbox's Official World Cup Theme 1986, if that counts...)