Looking for songs about the UK, particularly social commentary or protest songs like "Old England"
by The Waterboys and "England My Home" and "Battle of The Beanfield" by The Levellers.
Got any good ones?

The Men they Couldn't Hang might be a good source

eg the ghost of Cable Street

http://www.lyricstime.com/the-men-they- ... yrics.html

Ironmasters

http://www.lyricsvip.com/The-Men-They-C ... yrics.html

Company Town

http://www.golyr.de/the-men-they-couldn ... 65725.html

Billy Bragg obviously - take your pick there

Shipbuilding: Costello

The Oysterband - have a trawl through discography here:

http://www.musikfolk.co.uk/aliveandshouting/

Coal not Dole is on there for example.

A bit less heavy - take you pick from the Village Green Preservation Society (album) by the Kinks

I give you...Thatcher f***ed the kids by Frank Turner

http://youtu.be/B1NyWbhCxZE

Couple of classics from The Jam



classic acoustic demo

Plus Mr Clean, Eton Rifles and so on...

White Riot, Babylon's Burning, quite a few from this era :-

A blast from the 80s (more observational) :-



From the 90's a bit more confrontantional :-



The Poppies or the Prodigy or both but I've picked a slightly elder more PWEI version



and the excellent Poppies again on the rise of the right from 94 :-



This from the enemy about 2004 (great song, bit of a Jam rip off though)



A bit more sedate and observational, a recent Madness offering from their excellent last album which sums up today's society pretty well :-



Pity Buffalo Springfiled aren't British but this probably the Dadddy of em all :-

This probably summed up the early 80's plus it was a great song...

Just about anything by HMHB of course (apart from The Trumpton Riots unless Trumpton really is in England)

The whole of the new PJ Harvey album Let England Shake

Men of Harlech of course



sang by the talented Charlotte Church

Some juicy stuff
muchos gracias.....working through it

The finest and greatest social commentry band ever carter usm every song they did was social commentry

Don't expect anyone to agree with me but I don't care

I agree with you 100%.

Jimbob & Fruity are still gigging - saw them in Luton (Switch club) and in Leeds back in the day.

Fatima Mansions were another band that told the truth


Edit - just checking out the Carter web site when I came across the best line up ever

15/7/94 Stratford on Avon Phoenix Festival

Carter, Paul Weller, Iggy Pop, The Woderstuff, Therapy?, Pop Will Eat Itself, Killing Joke, The Buzzcocks, Senseless Things, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Kingmaker, Mega City Four and the wonderful Mambo Taxi, John Cale, The Pogues

Went to see Killing Joke yonks ago and my ears were ringing the next day.One of the few music concerts I've been to.They were all about the social commentary.A refreshing change from the mono view banal music mainstream.

In terms of rock/pop music, I'd start with The Kinks (from Waterloo Sunset to the Village Green Preservation Society) and The Beatles (pretty obvious, but the likes of Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Elanor Rigby are wonderful social commentries/evocations of a place and time in the UK).

Anyone with a genuine interest in anything that has evolved from British Folk Music should read Rob Young's seminal tone, Electric Eden, which covers more than a century of music making in the British Isles. Literally hundreds of songs to check out from there.

'God save the queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
Potential H-bomb

God save the queen
She ain't no human being
There is no future
In England's dreaming

Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
There's no future, no future,
No future for you

God save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God saves

God save the queen
'Cause tourists are money
And our figurehead
Is not what she seems

Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Oh Lord God have mercy
All crimes are paid

When there's no future
How can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in your human machine
We're the future, your future

God save the queen
We mean it man
We love our queen
God saves

God save the queen
We mean it man
And there is no future
In England's dreaming

No future, no future,
No future for you
No future, no future,
No future for me

No future, no future,
No future for you
No future, no future
For you'

That was the Stuffies last stand I think anmd I was supposed to go but didn't for a reason I cannot remember

Carter's "30 Something" is a fantastic album and it's just reminded me of this :-

If you're looking for something a bit more historical there's always English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 by Chumbawamba. Most of the songs are sung a cappella and are nothing like the band's other work.

I add the disclaimer that I am not a fan of Chumbawamba...

Pretty Vacant is another, but most of their songs could\should be included.

... and many other New Model Army tracks.

Young Manhood by the Wild Swans may tick your proverbial box, but there is only a very dodgy sounding upload on youtube.

Billy Bragg - New England
Specials - Ghost Town & Too Much Too Young

Strange how the middle to late 70's feel has come full circle..ghost town would sum up many highstreets, estates, gated communities.
For an eclectic mix of protest songs check out The Levellers..
Where the Hell are we going to live
Julie
Riverflow
Liberty Song
Hope Street
Fifteen Years
Battle of the Beanfield
and many others

Two from The Clash:-

This is England
English Civil War

One from The Poques:-

Dirty Old Town

And before anybody pulls me up and says "but The Pogues are Irish", the song was written by Ewan MacColl about Salford and not Dublin or Belfast as a lot of people seem to think.

PJ has been heavily influenced Irish music, as you can tell from her Album title. The Wests Awake is a classic from my region that all the school kids know. It is nice to here English singing about trouble and strife for a change

UK is not just england also Wales and Scotland and NI as well.

One that has been adopted but is actually an American Country song:-

Green, Green, Grass of Home by Tom Jones

Social Commentary songs seem to be more prevalent in the late 70's and early 80's, even though the Kinks, The Faces, The Beatles et al made quite a few in the 60's they didn't carry the same threat of a country in meltdown.

I think the era of coming out of the "Winter of Discontent" of 1978-79, and the previous two years of Britain being in a mess, bred a lot of anger in the youth and consequently a lot of material for song writers to use. Obviously the more "popular" bands that made the charts like The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, The Specials/AKA etc took their musical influences from earlier eras but added menace and angst to the music style and lyrics.

One of my all time favourites, although not a song that fits this thread particularly well, was the twist The Stranglers put on the Dionne Warwick classic love song "Walk on By". It had a real aura of menace feel to it rather than a twee break up song.

Back on Thread:-

The Jam - David Watts, Down in a Tube Station, Strange Town, Butterfly Collector, Smithers Jones, Town Called Malice - The list is pretty endless.
The Specials - Rat Race, Concrete Jungle

Four of the greatest Social Commentary song writers have to be Ray Davis, Paul Weller, Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg surely.

Whilst not as political as the Specials, Madness's songs also tick a lot of boxes. Embarrasment - white girls having mixed race babies, Cardiac Arrest - heart attack on way to work, House of Fun - buying a condom/coming of age, Michael Caine - the IRA and some of the early stuff - Land of Hope & Glory, In the Middle of theNight and Razor Blade Alley.