Fearless - 2011 Remastered Version

Roger Waters and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd wrote this song, with Gilmour singing lead. Waters wrote the lyric, which starts off relatively straightforward (by Pink Floyd standards), as the singer finds his courage ("I'll climb the hill in my own way"). But in the second verse, we're introduced to the idiot and the magistrate, and asked the question, "Who's the fool who wears the crown?" One theory (posited by Pink Floyd biographer Nicholas Schaffner), is that Waters is writing about Syd Barrett, a founder of the band whose mental health problems were so debilitating, he was kicked out of the group in 1968. Some of Pink Floyd's 1973 The Dark Side Of The Moon album, particularly the song "Brain Damage," deals with Barrett.

"Fearless" incorporates a recording of Liverpool Football Club fans singing their anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone," a song written by Rogers & Hammerstein that first appeared in the 1945 musical Carousel and was popularized by Gerry & the Pacemakers, whose 1963 version was a #1 UK hit. The fans, known as the "Kop Choir" for the section of the stadium where they sit, can be heard low in the mix at the beginning of the song but much more prominently at the end when they start chanting "Liverpool!" Roger Waters is an Arsenal supporter but set his loyalty to the team aside in deference to the song - the Liverpool fans' singing just suited the song so well. "That idea of using the Kop Choir was interesting because it was absolutely about the sound the Kop Choir make, and I say that because it's actually the chant of Liverpool," Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason told Songfacts in 2022. "Roger was an Arsenal supporter - still is, indeed. We were North London guys, so it felt like sacrilege to use the opposition's chanting, but it's very powerful."

Roger Waters played the acoustic guitar parts. He used open G tuning, which gives the song its ringing quality.