Comments on: Born In The UK https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk Lollards in the high church of low culture Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:21:21 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: chelovek na lune https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769359 Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:21:21 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769359 ABC’s “United Kingdom” seems the most viable suggestion so far to me (and I certainly can’t come up with anything better) : so many other potential contenders (thus far mentioned or unmentioned) are regionally or class-specific, or pertaining to only one country, or one part of one country within the UK, in all cases thus failing to unite the kingdom (and I would love to suggest “Oliver’s Army”…but that also fails on this count). And the Aztec Camera and Mick Jones number….somehow fails to cut the mustard to me. “The past is filled with shame”. Oh do be away with you. Just a bit too …not so much pessimistic as unnecessarily negative.

Granted, the ABC number is not the most cheerful song (and in, a way, is as set in its time as “Ghost Town”, but well, it would’t be too British were it to have been that…

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By: the pinefox https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769262 Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:14:52 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769262 Mr Baran has a knack for coming up with answers which are gleefully brash but, it must be admitted, oddly convincing.

The US may be given to national reflection, but so is the UK – it’s one of our major industries.

Can’t really agree about ‘common people’: the lyrics are very up-front and audible, people remember sing along with them – you can hardly imagine an equivalent to the ‘go and kill the yellow man’ moment posted above, ie. someone suddenly realizing that the song was something to do with class. But I think I also just have a resentment of the song or of the idea that it articulates a worthy position on class, rather than just a have-your-cake-and-eat-it mix of lust and spite (though otherwise, musically / melodically, a good and effective track. I used to have two copies of the 45).

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By: Pete https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769104 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:45:17 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769104 Haha, just thought of another one. Tubthumping!

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By: swanstep https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769093 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:22:02 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769093 I should add that this has been an interesting exercise to think through. The US overall is much more given to explicit national-level reflection (probably as a result of having a written constitution with a very particular, strangely moving first person plural form, but probably also a result of its post-ww2 hegemony and also its size and relative isolation – oceans to left and right, poor county below, empty country above, etc.) than the UK is, or than most other places are. Its popular music just reflects this.

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By: jim5et https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769086 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:53:26 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769086 Common People; acerbic attack on class tourism becomes student union disco singalong.

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By: swanstep https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769083 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:38:05 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769083 PIL, Rise
Pink Floyd , Fearless (the track from Meddle with the FC chant in it)
Radiohead, National Anthem

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By: Tommy Mack https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-769048 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:10:55 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-769048 What about Design for Life? It’s working class pride and struggle, rather than bitterness and betrayal, but I pretty widely misunderstood by blokes bellowing along with “…we only want to get drunk” while doing just that.

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By: wichita lineman https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768978 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:23:55 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768978 Do you think Paul Weller was watching Countryfile?

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By: Alex https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768962 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:42:07 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768962 The Jam, Going Underground: “These braying sheep on my TV screen”

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By: Alex S https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768914 Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:11:10 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768914 As well as Badly Drawn Boy’s ‘Born in the UK’ there is Adam Ant’s version from his recent live shows. It goes on for about a quarter of an hour, with repeated hectoring of the audience and the refrain “Land of the brave, home of the free – ’til they fucked it up with CCTV”.
In that it represents a once-proud figure reduced to the stage of an embarrassing mentalist wreck, I fear it’s far too good a summary of too much about this country. But nobody’s ever going to misinterpret its sledgehammer stylings.

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By: the pinefox https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768692 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:55:41 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768692 ‘country house’ is actually quite a good call – sarcastic but anthemic, relatively unusual in a #1 I would think.

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By: Billy Smart https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768679 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:43:05 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768679 I’d nominate ‘It’s Grim Up North’ – It even ends with ‘Jerusalem’!

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By: Pete https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768678 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:42:30 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768678 If your talking Britpop, then perhaps the Boo Radleys “Wake Up Boo” has the anthem / slight misunderstanding (done on purpose to live off of the royalties) though isn’t particualrly English. If we can have another go with Blur then Country House is possibly closer, but even meaner.

How about Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream?

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By: punctum https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768611 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:43:02 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768611 The real ”Born In The UK” (especially as he wasn’t!).

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By: punctum https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768605 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:38:43 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768605 BUT he sings “Goodbye ENGLAND’s rose” rather than “Goodbye BRITAIN’s rose” ergo NOT VALID

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By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768599 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:11:12 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768599 The answer is Candle in the Wind!

i: Elton J is a contemporary of Brucie’s
ii: Both were declared the “future of rock’n’roll” early in their careers (EJ by John Lennon!)
iii: ???
iv: misappropriation! by elton himself! of the spirit of his own earlier song!

I see you are unconvinced but I am right…

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By: swanstep https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768463 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 02:16:23 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768463 OK, I’ve uploaded ABC’s United Kingdom to youtube here if anyone’s intersted (just a rudimentary vid.). You won’t be able to see it if you’re in Germany but anyone else should be good.

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By: Mark M https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768455 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:49:18 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768455 I really like Good Morning Britain, though I’m not sure why.

Re 7: I don’t give DC credit for much, but I suspect he got the surface point of Eton Rifles and decided he liked it anyway.

I think the answer, in so far as there is one, is definitely Jerusalem, especially when heard at the end of term in the chapel of one of our larger fee-paying educational establishments.

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By: swanstep https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768395 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:48:34 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768395 Bragg’s The home front which fades into jerusalem stirringly/mournfully might be a contender.
The final track of ABC’s Beauty Stab, ‘United Kingdom’ should also be a contender. (I can’t believe that that track isn’t on youtube, I may have to try to upload it.)

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By: the pinefox https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768349 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:49:59 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768349 Oh! Though I think ‘shipbuilding’ / ‘between the wars’ is the correct answer, doesn’t D Cameron’s approval of The Jam make them win the ‘political misappropriation’ category after all?

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By: Sandy https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768342 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:25:22 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768342 Interesting that you asked about the “UK”, rather than England, there are regional songs (and Penny Lane is *nearly* one of them). They might be seen as a cartoon in the rest of the UK, but The Proclaimers ‘Letter from America’ has some of the same elements, but isn’t really bitter about its patriotism.

The The’s ‘Heartland’ could have had the potential to do this, but of course wasn’t exactly popular enough to be widely misinterpreted.

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By: Erithian https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768341 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:22:59 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768341 Well, the American right has belatedly listened to “Born in the USA” and understood it – berkish but dangerous talk-show host Glenn Beck denounced it as unAmerican earlier this year, as discussed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nz_tGVnAlg

Of course Reagan tried to appropriate it at an election rally in 1984, leading Bruce to wonder aloud “so he’s a fan, I wonder what his favourite album is? Probably not Nebraska.” Indeed the acoustic version pinefox refers to above was originally going to be on the Nebraska album, which it would have suited in tone. The version we all know was bombastic and sounded rabble-rousing, so perhaps lent itself to misinterpretation more than it should.

Thinking of a UK equivalent, bizarrely, one of the first things that came to mind was a folk song that featured in a BNP election broadcast in (IIRC) 2005, along the lines of: I’ve come back from the war, injured and homeless, and I can’t get housing because it’s all been given to those bloody asylum seekers. I can’t remember the title or the singer, and I’m fairly glad I can’t, but I think Nick Griffin might even have written the lyrics.

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By: flood14571 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768322 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:19:08 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768322 In October I attended a University of Minnesota football game, and they had one of those “text which song you want to hear during halftime” thingamabobs. “Born in the U.S.A.” was one of the options, and it won handily. They run a closed-captioning feed on the giant digital scoreboard, and shortly after “Sent me off to Vietnam / To go and kill the yellow man” scrolled across the bottom, you could practically hear the needle scratching on the record. I’d like to think a handful of people were enlightened on that crisp and sunny afternoon.

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By: the pinefox https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768315 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:47:22 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768315 It is nice to see an article inspired by Bruce Springsteen, whom I like as much as almost any person in the history of music.

I think that the answer has to be an overtly socio-political-themed song – it wouldn’t really count as a parallel otherwise.

I am tempted to say ‘Panic’ just to reopen the old ‘Panic’ debate.

Or, I suppose, any number of Jam songs might fit your bill of being ‘misunderstood’ etc: written from the Left then taken up more widely. ‘That’s Entertainment’, then? It has the sardonically reused title, the lyrical detail, the geezerish popularity.

Of the very interesting suggestions above, ‘Shipbuilding’ is close but perhaps ‘Between the Wars’ is the closest. (nb that the Boss originally did his song on a loud acoustic, so was close to Bragg’s early musical model.) It looks banal to name these as they are obvious political songs, but they are also genuinely the closest things that one can find to ‘Born in the USA’ due to the military content, etc.

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By: nhn917674 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768311 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:41:39 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768311 “We Are The Village Green Preservation Society”?

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By: Andrew Hickey https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2010/12/born-in-the-uk/comment-page-1#comment-768309 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:37:27 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=20226#comment-768309 Re: Shipbuilding, in the liner notes to the Girls, Girls, Girls compilation, Costello talks about how some USian listeners heard it, without the context, as being about having sex in a boat. I can’t see it myself, but…

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