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Something About England Lyrics
They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an' roses
If England were for Englishmen again
Well I saw a dirty overcoat
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dance hall called for an' ambulance
The bars all closed up fast
My silence gazing at the ceiling
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it's all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
I'll tell you a thing or two
I missed the fourteen-eighteen war
But not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths
The next war began and my ship sailed
With battle orders writ in bed
In five long years of bullets and shells
We left ten million dead
The few returned to old Piccadilly
We limped around Lester Square
The world was busy rebuilding itself
The architects could not care
But how could we know when I was young
All the changes that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
England never closed this gap
So leave me now the moon is up
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell
The streets were by now deserted
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an' roses
If England were for Englishmen again
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dance hall called for an' ambulance
The bars all closed up fast
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it's all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
I'll tell you a thing or two
But not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths
With battle orders writ in bed
In five long years of bullets and shells
We left ten million dead
The few returned to old Piccadilly
We limped around Lester Square
The world was busy rebuilding itself
The architects could not care
All the changes that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
England never closed this gap
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone
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Musically this is said to be something of a mess.
But the lyrics are as wistful and poignant as Joe and Mick ever got.
A superb song that should have found its way onto the Essential Clash album along with Death or Glory, All The Young Punks, The Call Up and The Card Cheat.
i feel like this is one of the most important songs the clash did. maybe not the best, but it absolutely shows where the entire punk phenomenon came from--the ruin of Britain after the war, and the subsequent failure to create opportunities for the following generations. not to mention the way the song shows the true effects of war on individual families. brilliant.
I love the timelessness(is that a word) of this song. It's just as powerful today as it was 22 years ago.
Yip if it isn't is now. I love the start about blaming stuff on immigrants and stuff. really timeless. I love it.
Who says this is something of a mess musically??
This is one of my favourite Clash songs, definitely one of the best off Sandinista. 'Timeless' is a good word for it
This is thier best song in my opinion. It's dripping with the grunge of 1970's London, but at the same time timeless and could be talking about any city of the Western world.
Mick is the guy talking to the old man and Joe is the old man explaining everything England went through over the years to bring it to this point.
Pure poetry.
Basically - the leaders and 'respected gentlemen' like to blame the immigrants for the troubles in the country but, as the old man says, it's nothing new and the leaders are essentially the ones to blame.
"The world was busy rebuilding itself, the architects could not care"
That lyric is probably the best description of post-war Europe in song.
The song is about even if you think England is in the tubes, perspective is always there.The experience of the old man, through all the death and the chaos of the two world wars, "England never closed the gap".
Either that, or that England was lost since the World Wars and not the immigrants or the Tories excuses
wow yeah the war of 1418 damn look that up truly horrible
@Dilling3r Yeah, It's WWI. Followed by WWII. They call it the 14-18 war as a cultural convention, as we call it WWI. There is no War of 1418.
@Dilling3r Yeah, It's WWI. Followed by WWII. They call it the 14-18 war as a cultural convention, as we call it WWI. There is no War of 1418.