The towers of London, these crumbling rocks
Reality estates that the hero's got
And every hour's maked by the chime of a clock
And whatcha gonna do when the darkness surrounds?
You can piss in the lifts which have broken down
You can watch from the debris the last bedroom light
We're invisible here just past midnight

The wives hate their husbands and their husbands don't care
Their children daub slogans to prove they lived there
A giant pipe organ up in the air
You can't live in a home which should not have been built
By the bourgeois clerks who bear no guilt
When the wind hits this building this building it tilts
One day it will surely fall to the ground...

Fear is just another commodity here
They sell us peeping holes to peek when we hear
A bang on the door resoundingly clear
Who would really want to move in here?
The children play faraway, the corridors are bare
This room is a cage its like captivity
How can anyone exist in such misery?

It has been said not only here

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To go back in the morning
To be strong in the morning"


Lyrics submitted by aebassist

Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) Lyrics as written by Mick Jones Joe Strummer

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) song meanings
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    General Comment

    I saw a PBS program on the events this song was written about. The song was mentioned in the program. Towers were very cheaply built to house the working poor and get them out of the downtown districts of London. They were criticized as being ugly and soulless and it took no time at all before that atmosphere soaked into the people and the towers degraded. Despite warnings that the towers were unsound, they were not declared unfit for habitation and were not fixed up. Then one morning, the roof gave in on one of them. The roof fell into the top floor which brought that floor down onto the next which in turn took out the one below it like falling dominoes. Everyone in the tower at the time was killed, no survivors. "By the bourgeois clerks who bear no guilt." Even though a tragedy could be predicted, nobody was willing to take responsibility for it, and as always, the workers pay for it.

    jeligulaon March 25, 2012   Link

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