Song picture
England Sleeps
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Falling back in love with England
england acoustic guitar pastoral
Artist picture
Trash-pop, guitar rock and melodic miscellany.
Not so much a band as a bloke with a guitar and a laptop, The Smivets deliver a genre-bending blend of pop, rock, punk, prog and many other monosyllables.
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Rock
Charts
Peak #53
Peak in subgenre #16
Author
Steve Smith
Rights
Steve Smith
Uploaded
September 28, 2023
Track Files
MP3
MP3 13.4 MB • 320 kbps • 5:51
Lossless
WAV 59.0 MB
Meta Data
BPM
80
Beat
4/4
Key
G maj
Vocals
Male
Character
Energy
relaxed, cool
high-energy
Danceable
coffee-place
dancefloor
Positivity
dark, sad, angry
happy
Appeal
unique
radio-friendly
Story behind the song
After many decades of at best indifference and sometimes active dislike of my own country, I finally realised that it's quite a nice place really and I'm actually quite proud of it nowadays. The first verse is based on true events - as a young lad I often hitchhiked around the country and one fine morning I was given a lift by a lovely young girl in a smart convertible (a classic British Triumph Herald). Nothing "happened" - we just chatted pleasantly for an hour or so's drive through the rolling countryside until she dropped me off and we went our separate ways. The event has stuck with me all these years as a sort of picture of Englishness. The pastoral birdsong passages were not initially in the plan, but when I'd recorded the acoustic guitar parts I realised that I had too much background noise. Not good background noise but computer fans, house creakings and other stuff you get from not using a properly treated room. But I liked the recording so needed a way to keep it by getting rid of the noise. I tried noise gates and other tricks but the results were dreadful. So one night the answer came in a dream, and the next morning at 5am I woke up and just stuck a microphone out the bedroom window. It captured a beautiful dawn chorus, with a little distant traffic noise in the background. There's even an owl. Perfect!
Lyrics
A Triumph Herald Soft top down Crests the rise On the A361 The boy's not optimistic That this one'll pick up hitchhikers But she stops And says come on And England sleeps Well you can walk for miles And feel like you haven't gone anywhere You can sit stock still And feel like you've seen the world Well I've travelled the earth Flown my banner in a hundred countries But I always seem to fall back To the place where it first unfurled Where England sleeps Perchance to dream The finest place on earth So it might seem England sleeps But have no fear I'm not some swivel-eyed zealot I just quite like it here Where England sleeps Is England sleeping In Merlin's hidden cave With a hundred of King Arthur's finest Waiting to ride out and save the day? Well I heard that rumour But I know that it can't be Because I know where she is sleeping And it's right here It's right here, deep down within me Well you can talk about the Beatles And Tim Berners-Lee Talk about William Shakespear Giants of their day But if you walk the green back lanes And the ordinary streets You'll see a thousand years of footprints That guided their way To where England sleeps Perchance to dream The finest place on earth So it might seem England sleeps But have no fear I'm not some swivel-eyed zealot I just quite like it here Where England sleeps
Comments 1
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steveweyman
Mar 08, 2024
Another great track Steve . Love back story and how the background noise inspired it . I understand all about bavkground noise when recording ! I have to wait for cars to drive past before I record sometimes ! Maybe I should use it on one of my tracks ! You’ve got a very cool sound and unique vibe on all your tracks which so diverse . Really good .