ENGLAND
(Ralph McTell)

What is it about you, makes me feel this way?
When I'm leaving you, when I'm coming home
I'm lost for words to say.
And I know your faults and failures,
And the troubles that you've been through.
But it's more about what happens now
and what we're coming to.

And the echo from the green hills
Runs through her city streets,
and the sun that shines on England
Well it lifts the heart in me.

What is it about you, that took men into war?
Rows and rows of crosses: Who remembers why what for?
The corners of these foreign fields,
The dust in them concealed.
Out of sight but not out of mind,
Don't you know that England feels?

And the echo from the green hills
Runs through the city streets.
The rain that falls on England
Well it washes care from me.

England, oh England
England, oh England
England, oh England

Don't make this out a battle hymn or a song of victory.
It's just a way to try to say what England means to me.
And our accents and our colours change
From the city to the farmland
From the moorland to the mountain,
From the river to the sea.

And the echo from the green hills
Runs through the city streets
The rain that falls on England
Well it washes care from me.

England, oh England (x3)

From the rolling road to the winding lane,
from the field to factory,
From summer's haze to winter's glaze,
And all the colours in between.
It's a stillness in the evening.
It's the heartbeat that I'm feeling.
Fron Cornwall to Northumberland,
from the Pennines to the sea.

And the echo from the green hills
Runs through the city streets.
The rain that falls on England
Well it washes care from me

England, oh England (x3)


love, john

Misty River Music 1981
Recorded on
MAYS Recordings ING1 7" single
EMI 5315 7" single
At the End of a Perfect Day - LP - Telstar STAR 2263