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Where Is Home? Lyrics
After the funeral breaking kola nuts
We sit and reminisce about the past
and in her voice only sadness
her only son taken from her
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
The second generation blues
Our points of view not listened to
Different worlds and different rules
A question of allegiance
Clinging to her Bible and her scapular
And the memory of the way things were
I do not see hope I cannot smile
I burn with anger all the time
We all read what they did to the black boy
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
Where is it?
Where is home?
Where is it?
Where is home?
I walk this modern tightrope of humility and belligerence
This tommyrot and flag-waving is getting me down
I want to stamp on the face of every young policeman
To break the fingers of every old judge
To cut off the feet of every ballerina
But I can't
So I decide
And I decide
And I pretend
That there's nothing wrong
The teeth of this world tear me in half
And every day I must ask myself
Where, where, where
Where is it?
Where is home?
Where is it?
Where is home?
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
We sit and reminisce about the past
and in her voice only sadness
her only son taken from her
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
Our points of view not listened to
Different worlds and different rules
A question of allegiance
And the memory of the way things were
I do not see hope I cannot smile
I burn with anger all the time
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
Where is home?
Where is it?
Where is home?
This tommyrot and flag-waving is getting me down
To break the fingers of every old judge
To cut off the feet of every ballerina
But I can't
And I decide
And I pretend
That there's nothing wrong
The teeth of this world tear me in half
And every day I must ask myself
Where, where, where
Where is home?
Where is it?
Where is home?
In every headline we are reminded that this is not home for us
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This another one of Bloc Party's songs that is about the black race. The song is describing how badly treated some black people wtill are and that they have no home as some places they are kicked out of. The lines "I want to stamp on the face of every young policeman, To break the fingers of every old judge" suggest that even the law sometimes has things against black people. If more people listened closely to Bloc Party's songs, they could always tell that they are expressing some very strong points, mostly political.
wow... so true. i see it now.
wow... so true. i see it now.
Actually the song was written after the highly publiscised a stabbing of a British Nigerian kid who was family friends with Kele. (Kele is a second generation Nigerian who grew up in Britain)
It's about the racism that Kele and others have experienced throughout their lives. As a second-generation Nigerian he neither belongs here nor there, "This is not home for us."
Ironic, no? That when there is an incident with anyone who isn't caucasian there is an automatic reference to their ethnicity in the papers. It's always an African-American or a man of Middle Eastern appearance.
Are points of you not listen to (?) This is actually "Are points of view not listened to"
I can't help but feel like a patronising, opinionated bastard on this website...so here goes.
The and third verse are about the death of an older female relative, the singer's connection to 'the past' i.e. the first generation immigrant's to Britain (although no specific country is mentioned explicitly)
The chorus throughout deals with the singer's and from my experience, most second generation minority group's problem of identity. Being aligned with two, often very separate ideologies and values. "Clinging to her bible and her scapular", "Different worlds and different rules"
(Referencing this back to myself again, sorry) The lines "We all learn, what they did To the black race" reminds me of learning about the holocaust in school, being Jewish, there was a certain awkwardness which I felt. The causal, often unknowing racism which I encountered whilst being taught about this was a marked contrast with the way which the holocaust was talked about at home.
"I want to stamp on the face of every young policeman To break the fingers of every old judge To cut off the feet of every ballerina" - This verse seems to have come from nowhere, but the singer is articulating the inarticulate hate he he "burn[s] with...all the time".
And someone else can do the rest. I think I've gone a bit ott here.
I think the bit about hurting the polics is about police intitutional racism
The album came out This past Tuesday...
Anna Nicole Smith died, yesterday, two days later, this Thursday.
Upon listening to the song it imediately hit me, these lyrics are insanely identical to what Anna Nicole experienced in the last 5 months of her life. For those who do not know, her 20 yr old son, Daniel died of heart complications 5 months ago, and 3 DAYS after her new baby girl came into the world. What else could these lyrics be written about but her sons death and the consequential publicity parade?
Birth and Death...coming and going...Where is Home anyway?
its about kele's cousin who was stabbed to death in london, over a racial argument.:). "what they did to the black boy" and his anger over the situation
Yup, from last month's Guardian interview:
"The words to 'Where is Home?' begin at the funeral of Christopher Alaneme, the black teenager stabbed in small-town Kent last April. Okereke describes him as a cousin, although they weren't related by blood; their mums, both Nigerian, were very good friends. Okereke says that ultimately the song is about the fostering, by right-wing newspapers, of a fear of 'The Other'. That is, black youth in hoodies. And how that then means opportunities denied."
Is the line, 'To cut off the feet of every ballerina' not referring to the English ballerina, Simone Clarke, who, it was recently discovered, is on the British National Party's membership list?
The song was written before the ballerina thing. And, yes, it is about being from a minority ethnic group in this society. And the fear of 'the other'.