You'll Never Walk Alone

Rodgers & Hammerstein get the Vedic treatment

You’ll Never Walk Alone, the Rodgers & Hammerstein show tune that survives the test of time due to its ability to tap into Universal themes of overcoming grief, came out in 1945 as a Second Act showstopper in the Broadway musical, Carousel.

Carousel as a whole is a hard sell— it does not pass the test of time with its outdated ideas about why our romantic female lead stays with her abusive husband with lyrics like, “you’re his girl and he’s your fella— that’s all there is to that.”

Yeesh. We’ll let that song fade into obscurity. Not You’ll Never Walk Alone, though. This song has life!

Ask any football fan you meet. Ever since the Liverpudlian group Gerry and the Pacemakers made the song a chart-topping hit in 1963, fans of Liverpool Football Club sing the song with gusto before matches.

What makes this tune Vedic?

1. Rodgers & Hammerstein were in the flow, drawing directly from the source. Source, in this context, sits right on the lim where the Absolute Field of All Possibilities meets the manifest. An artist can reach a transcendent state of consciousness and access this layer through the glorious act of fully surrendered creativity.

2. The Composer and Lyricist duo nominated themselves to bring hope into the collective and make sense of what the world had just endured— World War II. Although the war had ended the year before, people were having to pick up the pieces of their lives, rebuild, move on, all while mourning. Nature said, yes, you two make the perfect delivery system for hope.

3. The chords and the lyrics tell the story of evolution, Unity, Nature’s Intelligence, and the peeks and valleys of a life lived with courage.

I’ve shared a recording of me singing the tune with just the bare minimum chords underneath. There’s value in simply hearing the melody, lyrics and chords.

Let’s see if I can weave a little magic for us.

(Hit play and read along.)

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark

We start at [middle C] which delivers the status quo.

Right away, to walk implies forward momentum, evolution. Move forward and don’t be afraid of the dark- darkness is contrast, illustrated with the move from [G to G minor] giving a subtle stir of anticipation of the unknown.

At the end of a storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Dark clouds break way to reveal light radiating.

Everything in life, all of Nature, is oriented towards the dawn.

The sweet song of the lark means hope— a new day.

We’re given these glorious descending chords [Bflat to A minor to G minor to F to E]. It takes a worried and weary soul from stress to calm and then delivers [C7] which ushers in new possibilities.

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

The lyrics say there’s nothing to do but go forward. Evolve!

The elements make a grand appearance, wind and rain, they create resistance but invite fortitude.

The subtle stuff of dreams is what’s tossed and blown. Change of expectation. The old hopes are no longer relevant. The chords progress from [C to Em to F to G] which means our new dreams will reach even higher than the old ones.

Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart

[C to C Augmented] That funny little augmentation hints at the urge to look backwards but onward we must go.

And you'll never walk alone

This progression is too magnificent for words, but I’ll do my best.

[C to E to Am to F# to G] The lyrics are saying it’s not possible to be in this world alone. We are all one.

The Am hints that it may feel lonely at times but onward we go with open hands and open hearts and let the perceived “other” in.

The F# is our tendency to forget that there’s only one thing and we’re It.

You'll never walk alone

And finally we climb to our highest point, [G above middle C]. Triumphant!

Even though the sung melody goes back down to where we started, [middle C], we’re a whole new person with new expanded consciousness.

The cycle continues but we move forward as the greatest and strongest version of ourselves so far.

May you find that the storms in life are opportunities to evolve and uplift the collective. That’s certainly what R&G give us with their timeless masterpiece, You’ll Never Walk Alone.