10 Songs About England
A little liberty in the title when some of the included songs deal with Great Britain or United Kingdom. But in the wake of the referendum little-England looms large…
When Michael Gove as Education Secretary, raised the notion that children should be taught “British values”, it inevitably led to a debate as to what were these values, and how many of the proscribed values originated from elsewhere. The outcome was, of course, confused and unhelpful. In the wake of the referendum wit got me thinking about songs that summed up values about this country.
I am not thinking here of songs from folk tradition or the come-together jingoism of Vera Lynn or packing up our troubles in the old kit bag and are perhaps a distinctly different take on what Gove imagined. They are a selection of ten more recent songs that cast a wary if not weary eye over issues such as nationalism, pride, history and identity.
The selection is in part to raise a question mark over the desirability of the partisan cheer leading, a concern for this particular snap-shot of discontent and to suggest that questioning, particularly, in the face of rising tensions, polarised opinions and racist attacks, is always a good thing to do.
PJ Harvey offers a number of potential candidates as she casts an acerbic eye over the land but for now it feels as if Let England Shake is on the money: “England’s dancing days are done./ Another day, Bobby, for you to come home & tell me indifference won” that small shout out to those who could or should have voted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5787qhVQNwQ
The Clash have to be on the list for a sense of timely anger and although an often London-centric (sometimes an even more micro-focused West London world) they did reflect a wider sense of frustration that spilt out beyond the capital, beyond the cities to a country in turmoil. Curiously it is from their last and worst album that This is England seems to be all too appropriate today:”This is England/ Land of a thousand stances / This is England / This knife of Sheffield steel / This is England / This is how we feel”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2risJczFhN8
Van Morrison, the Belfast born singer, songwriter and musician, wrote numerous songs that seemed somehow to be quintessentially English. Much of his output was seeped in Celtic poetry and mythology, a harking back to a lost era, a mournful aside that seems to eschew insularity in favour of a wider cultural embrace. This is particularly so on Summertime in England: “Can you meet me in the country / In the summertime in England / Will you meet me?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTOKYjh9-TU
Forty years ago when the Sex Pistols seemed to be mainlining a sense of righteous anger. Forty years on the anger seems to be not just timely but prescient to a troubled England. Either Anarchy in the UK or God Save the Queen serve purpose, but here I’m optiong for the latter: “We’re the flowers in the dustbin / We’re the poison in your human machine / We’re the future, your future”. The need to question the authority figures, the establishment is now a mainstream conceit it also appears that we have not yet learnt to question enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqrAPOZxgzU
Whilst Kirsty MacColl’s more upbeat version is perhaps better known, I am opting for Billy Bragg’s version of the song he wrote, New England that offers something more than just a girl/boy lamentation but a song that seems to lament a changing country. “I don’t feel bad about letting you go / I just feel sad about letting you know / I don’t want to change the world / I’m not looking for a new England / I’m just looking for another girl”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jphA05ka6E
A song about Britain but seems very pertinent to just England is another Billy Bragg composition. The bitter Take Down The Union Jack -”Take down the Union Jack / It clashes with the sunset / And put it in the attic with the emperors old clothes / When did it fall apart? / Sometime in the eighties / When the great and the good gave way / To the greedy and the mean”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPhlP6AfptY
Robert Wyatt’s Shipbuilding was written about the Falklands War yet it has a timeless quality about justifying a means to an end, a very English trait. “It’s just a rumour that was spread around town / Somebody said that someone got filled in / For saying that people get killed in / The result of this shipbuilding” .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoZiOOD0HRU
Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town, popularised by The Pogues, offers a take on industrialisation and cities throughout Britain, mixing a acceptance of the cost with a wry whimsical spirit. “I’m going to take a good sharp ax / Shining steel tempered in the fire / We’ll chop you down like an old dead tree / Dirty old town, dirty old town” . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wj7xZf8xm8
Woking boys The Jam offer an abundance of choice and whilst Down in the Tube Station at Midnight is specifically a London-centric song it contains a sense of anger and fear that seem as appropriate today as in 1978. “I first felt a fist, and then a kick / I could now smell their breath / They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs / And too many right wing meetings / My life swam around me / It took a look and drowned me in its own existence”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4EFDGP4yg
Asian Dub Foundation’s Real Great Britain brings a different, raw perspective to the notion of nationhood with a typical barely concealed anger. “So will the real, the real great britain / Step forward / This is the national identity parade/ Shoe gazer nation forever looking /
Backwards / Time to reject the sixties charade”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQsdfnbOevM