We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Beneath Your Flags

from A Revolution In An Empty Room by Joe Solo

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £0.40 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • A Revolution In An Empty Room CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    £5 from sale of this album will be donated to helping feed and house the homeless of Greater Manchester.

    CD version of 'A Revolution In An Empty Room' complete with 8-page colour booklet and shrink-wrapped in a jewel case.

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Revolution In An Empty Room via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Full Digital Discography

    46
    releases

    Get all 46 Joe Solo releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Farewell Hatfield Main, Sledgehammer Songs, Twenty From Twenty, Answer Machine/See You When I Get There, These Are My People, Fight The Good Fight Club Revisited, Upstairs At Park Street, Collected, and 38 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      £35.25 GBP or more (25% OFF)

     

about

Written the day after the pomp and circumstance of the Jubilee, I originally planned this song as a one-off reaction to what I saw but as a mission statement it still holds true.

lyrics

The box in the corner is still simpering away
But I just can't reconcile those words with what I've seen today
From the bunting in the gutter as we trudged home in the rain
To the girl who said 'God Save The Queen'
Then asked me for some change
And we're one step from eviction and we're barely scraping through
But that's the world beneath your flags
Of red and white and blue

Now Mr Singh has run that shop for 27 years
And his father fought the fascists with the Royal Fusiliers
But the 'Made in England' barcode posse put his windows through
That's the world beneath your flags
Of red and white and blue

Now a thief can pick your pocket, and a girl can break your heart
But a goverment can take your job and tear your world apart
I took that humiliation, now I'm taking this one too
You wave as I drown in a sea
Of red and white and blue

Sure I love my country as the proud land of my birth
But my measure is compassion, not how much a man is worth
So I call the ghost of William Blake, cos I know he'll understand
Why I'd try to build Jerusalem, in this grey unpleasant land
And until it's fit for heroes I'm afraid I've work to do
To change the world beneath your flags
Of red and white and blue

Words and music
by
Joe Solo

credits

from A Revolution In An Empty Room, released January 25, 2013
Joe Solo

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Joe Solo image

Joe Solo Scarborough, UK

Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough.

Live he has an ever growing reputation as both a performer and raconteur, being thought-provoking, comical and punch-the-air political often in the same breath.

He is not an artist you forget in a hurry. ... more

contact / help

Contact Joe Solo

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Joe Solo recommends:

If you like Joe Solo, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Fabiana Palladino stops by to talk about her mesmeric debut LP.
listen now