10 great songs about England

I was in Ben’s Collectors’ Record store over in Guildford. Ben was playing some great songs over his loudspeakers. One of them was Crazy Horse doing ‘I don’t want to talk about it.‘ Then there was ‘American Pie‘ …

I listened.

I was still listening as I searched through some of the old blues records that Ben had placed in the ‘Blues’ section. Blues LPs are rather thin on the ground nowadays and Ben’s blues’ section reflected this. Still, I bought a copy of Muddy Waters’ LP ‘The Folk singer‘. It cost £5. As I was paying Ben I noticed a copy of ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘ which was propped up in a cardboard box. I looked at the cover. As I looked I was reminded of the fact that there are some great songs about England on that wonderful LP such as ‘A day in the life‘.

But as I left the record store I thought of nine more great songs about England. Here they are:

‘Common people’ by Pulp

‘Grantchester meadows’ by Pink Floyd

‘Ghost Town‘ by the Specials

‘Three Babies’ by Sinead O’Connor

‘Streets of London’ by Ralph McTell

‘Friday I’m in love‘ by The Cure

‘London Calling’ by The Clash

‘Goodbye England (covered in snow)’ by Laura Marling

‘Let England shake’ by PJ Harvey

P.S. ‘Waterloo sunset‘ by the Kinks should be on such a list. So should Cream’s ‘White room‘, ‘We’ve gotta get out of this place‘ by the Animals – as well as David J’s ‘Stop this city‘ and ‘Money for nothing’ by Dire Straits.