"Four for a pound your face flannels, three for a pound your tea towels!" [market trader shouting]
I hear a gang fire on a human factory farm
Are they howling out or doing somebody harm
On a catwalk jungle somebody grabbed my arm
A voice spoke so cold it matched the weapon in her palm
This is England
This knife of Sheffield steel
This is England
This is how we feel
Time on his hands freezing in those clothes
He won't go for the carrot
They beat him by the pole
Some sunny day confronted by his soul
He's out at sea, too far off, he can't go home
This is England
What we're supposed to die for
This is England
And we're never gonna cry no more
Black shadow of the Vincent
Falls on a Triumph line
I got my motorcycle jacket
But I'm walking all the time
South Atlantic wind blows
Ice from a dying creed
I see no glory
When will we be free
This is England
We can chain you to the rail
This is England
We can kill you in a jail
Those British boots go kick Bengali in the head
Police sit watchin'
The newspapers been read
Who cares to protest
After the air attack by flare
Out came the batons and
The British warned themselves
This is England
The land of illegal dances
This is England
Land of a thousand stances
This is England
This knife of Sheffield steel
This is England
This is how we feel
This is England
This is England
I hear a gang fire on a human factory farm
Are they howling out or doing somebody harm
On a catwalk jungle somebody grabbed my arm
A voice spoke so cold it matched the weapon in her palm
This is England
This knife of Sheffield steel
This is England
This is how we feel
Time on his hands freezing in those clothes
He won't go for the carrot
They beat him by the pole
Some sunny day confronted by his soul
He's out at sea, too far off, he can't go home
This is England
What we're supposed to die for
This is England
And we're never gonna cry no more
Black shadow of the Vincent
Falls on a Triumph line
I got my motorcycle jacket
But I'm walking all the time
South Atlantic wind blows
Ice from a dying creed
I see no glory
When will we be free
This is England
We can chain you to the rail
This is England
We can kill you in a jail
Those British boots go kick Bengali in the head
Police sit watchin'
The newspapers been read
Who cares to protest
After the air attack by flare
Out came the batons and
The British warned themselves
This is England
The land of illegal dances
This is England
Land of a thousand stances
This is England
This knife of Sheffield steel
This is England
This is how we feel
This is England
This is England
Contributed by Alessandro - 2009/8/16 - 00:05
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Album "Cut the Crap"
The song makes up an accurate list of the problems in England circa 1984, addressing inner-city violence (particularly knives), urban alienation, life on council estates, unemployment, England's dying motorcycle industry, a South Atlantic winter that had recently killed hundreds of young English people, racism and police corruption as well as two very common subject matters in the mid-'80s from left-wing song-writers, the Falklands War and the consumerist, subservient mind-set of many of English people at the time. (en.wikipedia)