Something for the long weekend: Billy Bragg “Take Down the Union Jack”

Photo by Theo Michael

“Take down the Union Jack
It clashes with the sunset
And put it in the attic with the emperor’s 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
Britain isn’t cool, you know
It’s really not that great
It’s not a proper country
It doesn’t even have a patron saint
It’s just an economic union
That’s past its sell-by date
Take down the Union Jack
It clashes with the sunset
And ask our Scottish neighbours
If independence looks any good
‘Cause they just might understand
How to take an abstract notion of personal identity
And turn it into nationhood
Is this the 19th Century
That I’m watching on TV
The dear old queen of England
Handing out those MBEs
Member of the British Empire
That doesn’t sound too good to me
Gilbert and George are taking the piss aren’t they
Gilbert and George are taking the piss
What could be more British than is a picture of me bum
Gilbert and George are taking the piss
Take down the Union Jack
It clashes with the sunset
And pile up all those history books but don’t throw them away
They just might have some clues about what it really means
To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England dot Co dot you-K
To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England dot Co dot you-K”

Have a good one comrades, see you on Tuesday.

About Mark Whitfield 2013 Articles
Editor of Americana UK website, the UK's leading home for americana news and reviews since 2001 (when life was simpler, at least for the first 253 days)
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