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English Civil War (Johnny Comes Marching Home) Lyrics
When Johnny comes marching home again
He's coming by bus or underground
A woman's eye will shed a tear
To see his face so beaten in fear
And it was just around the corner in the English civil war
It was still at the stage of clubs and fists
When that well-known face got beaten to bits
Your face was blue in the light of the screen
As we watched the speech of an animal scream
The new party army was marching right over our heads
All right
There you are, ha ha, I told you so
Says everybody that we know
But who hid a radio under the stairs
And who got caught out on their unawares?
When that new party army came marching right up the stairs
When Johnny comes marching home again
Nobody understands it can happen again
The sun is shining and the kids are shouting loud
But you got to know it's shining through a crack in the cloud
And the shadows keep falling when Johnny comes marching home
He's coming by bus or underground
A woman's eye will shed a tear
To see his face so beaten in fear
And it was just around the corner in the English civil war
When that well-known face got beaten to bits
Your face was blue in the light of the screen
As we watched the speech of an animal scream
The new party army was marching right over our heads
Says everybody that we know
But who hid a radio under the stairs
And who got caught out on their unawares?
When that new party army came marching right up the stairs
Nobody understands it can happen again
The sun is shining and the kids are shouting loud
But you got to know it's shining through a crack in the cloud
And the shadows keep falling when Johnny comes marching home
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Joe Strummer said the song was about his fears of the rise of the far right in England, as at the time the Clash were popular, the National Front were becoming worryingly strong... I always interpreted the "nobody understands it could happen again" bit as referring to the rise of a right-wing dictatorship in European countries (eg Nazi Germany) - and the refrence to hiding radios under the stairs and the "new party army" seem to back this up. Great song though, the tune is perfect and creates an air of an ominous militant build-up.
This song is about the street fights taking place around the rise of the national front in britain.
I think ,it was about civil unrest in the time between the Thatcherist government and the people of the United Kingdom. For example, the closing of the mines.
The New Party were a pro-nazi facist party set up in the 1930s in England. The members and supporters of the party (the New Party Army) would raid communist meetings, bash non-white people and jewish people in the street. So i'm pretty sure that The New Party Army is that New Party. Could be about the large amount of skinhead, facist nuts that were invading punk gigs at the time, I don't know. But the New Party thing ties in with what Indiemonkey was saying.
Choosebro and Indiemonkey have it right: Strummer is referring to the resurgent skinhead/fascist/National Front fascist movement in England and linking it to the "New Party" in the 30s that became increasingly sympathetic to Hitler.
hurah! hurah!
the music is alse from the american civil war song, "johnny comes marching home," or something. i think it was probably based more on that then the ant song, since the first words are the same
i don't like hearing the word "rawk"..esp. tagging it with punk as in "punk rawk"..sounds pathetic..Punk will surely sound much punk if we don't tag in rock or rawk with it..plain punk is much better i guess..
strummerville: I have always thought of "Punk Rawk" as being a term for that new-punk stuff (that, I must say, i'm not a fan of), not talking about post-punk, but new-punk, you all know what i'm talking about, while just Punk as original, better stuff.
I say this song is about the class system in England. England still works where there are classes of people, a hierarchy kinda thing. Like Roylaty, Aristocracy, and it goes down to "low class". And the whole thing of "English Civil War" is about the fact that civil wars break out in countries that are run with a class system. (like Iraq for instance) Anyway, that's the way I see it.