Album: A Semblance Of Normality (2004)

Do They Mean Us ?


Dance 'round the maypole, rappers and mummers
Stepping in and out of time
Cockneys, Brummies, Tykes and Geordies
Players in this pantomime
From Notting Hil to Tyneside Mela
Marching ghosts of colliery bands
Farmers markets, high-tech sweatshops
Such a 'green and pleasant land'

In an english country garden
'Clearing the land... exurban man'
Puddings made with bread and butter
The lash of thewhip and rhyming slang
Speakers corner, Miners Welfare
Images all juxtaposed
With this patchwork panorama
You have to laugh, 'do they mean us ?'

Lager louts and laddish culture
St George's cross upon your pate
John Bull on Beau Brummel's waistcoat
Knuckles tatooedLove and Hate
Schizophrenic, new age, new man
Bite your lip don't make a fuss
The malaise of 'the english patient'
You have to ask, 'do they mean us ?'

'Oop north', where they 'bath in gravy'
Sarees seen on cobbled streets
Down south it's a top coat warmer
'kiss me quick' on Margate beech
English blood runs mild and bitter
Adam's ale or council pop ?
Multi-racial melting pot

Such inherent contradictions
A crisis of identity
Are the smiles all disingenuous ?
Quote english eccentricity
From Lands End up to Kielder Water
All 'make believe' and 'just suppose'
Given the 'whole sink and Puddle'
In the end 'do they mean us ?'