Clash The Something About England Lyrics

Something About England Lyrics

They say immigrants steal the hubcaps 
Of the respected gentlemen 
They
say it would be wine and 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 past 
The
dancehall 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 red

In five long years of bullets and shells 
We left ten million dead

The few returned to old Piccadilly 
We limped around Leicester 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 master and servants 
And servants
and dogs 
They taught you how to touch your cap 
But throught strikes and
famine 
And war and 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
now deserted 
The gangs had trudged off home 
The lights clicked off in
the bedsits 
And old England was all alone