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Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) Lyrics
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 bourgeoise 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"
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
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 bourgeoise clerks who bear no guilt
When the wind hits this building this building it tilts
One day it will surely fall to the ground...
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?
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To go back in the morning
To be strong in the morning"
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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.
Well, this is a great song. It seems to be about the run-down parts of London, probably the apartments and condos. Makes sense, with all the stuff about debris and run-down buildings.
Not only London but probably other places too actually. "Not only here..." Sandinista! is really growing on me. It's a great album.
About life in depressing council flats. Sandinista! really is a remarkable album!
could also be about ghetto in New York, lots of their later songs were about NYC
Alianza dollars lyrics are taken from a song by the American protest singer Phil Ochs called United Fruit.
This is not only the most haunting tune done by the Clash, it probably is the most haunting in rock n roll history.
Mick Jones wrote this song about growing up in London.
Mick Jones wrote this song about growing up in London.
Mick Jones wrote this song about growing up in London.