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 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.