1
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
The West's asleep, let England shake
Weighted down with silent dead
I fear our blood won't rise again
Oh, rise again
England's dancing days are done
Another day, Bobby, for you to come home
And tell me indifference has won, won, won
Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles, let's head out
To the fountain, fountain of death
And splash about, swim back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back
Until the day is ending
And the birds are silent
And the insects are courting
By the shores
By the shores, heavy stones are falling
Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles, let's head out
To the fountain, fountain of death
Splash about, swim back, forth, back, back, back, back, back
Laugh out loud
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
The West's asleep, let England shake
Weighted down with silent dead
I fear our blood won't rise again
Oh, rise again
England's dancing days are done
Another day, Bobby, for you to come home
And tell me indifference has won, won, won
Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles, let's head out
To the fountain, fountain of death
And splash about, swim back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back
Until the day is ending
And the birds are silent
And the insects are courting
By the shores
By the shores, heavy stones are falling
Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles, let's head out
To the fountain, fountain of death
Splash about, swim back, forth, back, back, back, back, back
Laugh out loud
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Take me
Lyrics submitted by stentorian
Let England Shake [Demo] Lyrics as written by Jimmy Kennedy Polly Harvey
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Spirit Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
Memorial of Anzac Cove, commemorating the loss of thousands of Ottoman and Anzac soldiers in Gallipoli. Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well. – Atatürk 1934
Well bobby is British slang for police, so could be construed as meaning our penchant for playing policeman of the world. Definitely makes sense in the context of the rest of the song.
Apparently PJH started writing this album way back in 2007, so I'm sure that it has nothing to do with this except that she's commenting about violence and politics in general, but I'll always remember that I bought this album a couple of weeks before the london riots.
Who's Bobby?
Robert Mugabe?
The more i think about this, the more i think it must be Bobby Sands. <br /> <br /> The line "The Wests asleep" references an Irish rebellion poem, and indeed the title Let England Shake is a variation of the the line Let England Quake in that poem. <br /> <br /> The reference to the lovely mouth must be to the 1981 hunger strikes. Pack up your "troubles". <br /> <br /> Finally, and this might be stretching it a little, but a famous Bobby Sands quote is "Our revenge will be the laughter or our children" so I wonder if that's why that line about laughing is there. <br /> <br /> But I'm not sure exactly where the imagery of the Fountain of Death is coming from, I suppose it's just as an opposite to the Fountain of Life. A very unsettling image comes to mind of blood rather than water in a fountain for me.
oh or bobby sands?
Memorial of Anzac Cove, commemorating the loss of thousands of Ottoman and Anzac soldiers in Gallipoli. <br /> Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.<br /> – Atatürk 1934
Death's Debt is Paid in Full
Death's debt is then and there Paid down by dying men; But it is a promise bare That they shall rise again