The classic Liverpool song ‘A LiverBird Upon My Chest’ has re-emerged in the stands and has the potential to be the soundtrack to what could be an historic season for the Reds.
Liverpool Football Club’s storied history since the 1960s can largely be charted by the songs and chants that have rung out in stands across England and Europe.
The ingenuity within the fanbase has created instant classics, the organic nature of a song’s creation resonating with the Kop and beyond to bring Anfield and other grounds to life.
A LiverBird Upon My Chest is no exception, it is one of the greatest in Liverpool’s songbook.
“A Liverbird upon my chest,
We are the men, of Shankly’s best,
A team that plays the Liverpool way,
And wins the championship in May.”
It was penned in the mid-80s by Phil Aspinall and the full version actually has an incredible 21 verses that can see the song last for up to seven minutes, if sung at the appropriate pace!
It has been sung throughout the generations since, a classic that typically re-emerges when there is a sense something special is on the horizon – and we needn’t tell you why that’s the case now.
At PSV, in the top corner of the ground, A LiverBird Upon My Chest was continuous and, again, at Bournemouth it was easily heard through the television – a heartening sound that is uniquely Liverpool’s.
‘The Liverpool Way’
A team that plays the Liverpool way and wins the Championship in May ? pic.twitter.com/HxuqMJlcUa
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) January 29, 2025
In an age of viral social media posts and the push to create ‘catchy’ chants, classics can be easily swept aside to collect dust as other, newer songs get pushed into the spotlight.
It is not a slight on previous soundtracks like ‘Allez Allez Allez’ or ‘Jurgen Said to Me’, but this one is not going to get the same treatment of being reworded and used by other fanbases.
Frankly, few others have the creativity and ingenuity.
Understandably, the full song will not reverberate around the stands – many will leave that for the pub or the buses to and from matches – but its comeback has been long overdue.
For many, it will have never gone anywhere but for others, it is a timely reminder of what separates this football club from others, the tradition, the history and the need to do things our way.
It is why it has been heartening to hear fans endlessly repeat the abovementioned four lines of the chorus in the stands at recent matches, it is the perfect mix of belief and tradition.
It does not have the names of any present players or managers, with Bill Shankly instead at the heart of it – as it was intended – but that is part of what makes it so special.
The Scot laid the blueprint for a team that played for each other, with none bigger or more important than the club, and the attacking playing style only formed part of the ideology.
‘The Liverpool Way’ was never just one thing, it is all that underpins what it means to represent the Liverbird and it has been refined and expanded on by those who have since followed Shankly.
Winning trophies is a byproduct of the philosophy of the ‘Liverpool Way’ that runs through the entire club, and fans play a significant role in its continuation.
We are, at the end of the day, the only constant presence as players and managers always come and go.
“At a football club, there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters,” Shankly once famously said.
Yes, Liverpool are proving a contender in every competition they compete in this season, but this song and the timing of its return you sense is about more than that.
In an age where ‘new’ is better than the ‘old’, A LiverBird Upon My Chest is a reminder of Liverpool at its best, and it would only be right that it defines the 2024/25 season.
‘And wins the championship in May…’
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