I don't want to holiday in the sun
I wanna go to the new Belsen
I wanna see some history
'Cause now I got a reasonable economy

Oh now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
And I'm still waiting
Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
To be waiting
The Berlin wall

In Sensurround sound in a two inch wall
Well I was waiting for the communist call
I didn't ask for sunshine
And I got world war three
I'm looking over the wall
And they're looking at me

Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
And I'm still waiting
Now I got a reason
Now I got a reason
To be waiting
The Berlin wall

They're staring all night
And they're staring all day
I had no reason to be here at all
Oh now I got a reason, it's no real reason
And I'm waiting at Berlin wall
I gotta go over the Berlin wall
I don't understand it
I'm gonna go over and over the Berlin wall
I gotta go over the Berlin wall
I'm gonna go over the Berlin wall

Claustrophobia yeah, there's too much paranoia
There's too many closets
I went in before
And now I got a reason
It's no real reason to be waiting
The Berlin wall

I gotta go over the wall
I don't understand this bit at all
This third rate B movie show
Cheap dialogue, cheap essential scenery

I gotta go over the wall
I wanna go on the Berlin wall, before them
Come over the Berlin Wall
I don't understand this bit at all
I gotta go on the wall
I wanna go on the Berlin wall
I gotta go over the Berlin wall, before them
Come over to the Berlin Wall
I don't understand this bit at all
Please don't be waiting for me


Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death

Holidays in the Sun Lyrics as written by Stephen Philip Jones Paul Thomas Cook

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Holidays In The Sun song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

31 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +10
    General Comment

    it doesnt exactly seem to me personally to be mocking Communism per see (and excuse me here, i specialize in prentious kuckle dragging interpretations, so if your not into that, move on nothing to see here) more along the lines of pointing out with pure punk the utter hypocrisy of the so called 'fee' democratic capitalist countries like England which are in some ways no better than their pinko counterparts of the day in the way they exploit human suffering to further their gains i.e.- making the green off of concentration camps as some sort of avant garde tourist resorts Belsen was a GAS!

    i think this is an underrated gem personaly, where 'God Save' and 'Anarchy' seem to be cited as the primary classics Rotten starts off with a brilliant little ryhme, immediately emasculatly middle class mores than paints a gitty sketch of going over' the berlin wall in the tones of twitchy paranoid tourist

    but does anyone find the real deal breaker -"And there looooking at meeeeeeeee!"- to be a example of that famous nietzsche saying: When i look into the abyss, the abyss looks back at me'....? its like the narrator has been taught to fear communism as the greatest evil of the ages and is horrified to find his counter parts on the other 'side' see the exact same thing in him theyre linked together like two sides of a coin there is no 'other' here, no monster just reflections in a mirror or something

    sorry i think its just pretty fucking poetic for a punk song Rotten was clearly the brains of the outfit he had important things to get off his chest it seems

    Hungryforalynchinon July 04, 2008   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    this song was inspired by the sex pistols trip to berlin they saw the paranoi all around the place and were compelled to write a song

    IRageHardcoreon April 27, 2003   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    One of favourite by SP. It's about Germany and how was it like there at that time being devided on east & west. That explains the communism part, you can even sence a bit of sarcasm Holidays in the sun, and offcourse paranoia, a feeling of being trapped.

    _MissVicious_on January 08, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    The line "A cheap holiday in other people's misery" is a clear reference to the Situationist slogan "Club Med: A Cheap Holiday in Other People's Misery," which refers to a resort set in the Carribean at a time of widespread revolution, war, and misery in the Carribean and Central America.

    Norton23on January 10, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    "Cheap dialogue cheap essential scenery"

    this cant be true - wrong movie

    thats how it must have felt wen you come in from outside and if you dont run fast enough therl be nowher left to go like for the rest who never left again

    maueraffeon April 06, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    It's a mixture I think stupid holidays in sunny dictatorships (in guarded reservoirs)

    and westberlin big "prisoncamp" surrounded by a very very conservative(they didnt had rockn roll; they had revuetheater and still freaked out about punx in the late 80s) regime(and the wall of cause) and wellguarded with watchtowers (imagine: sittig at the street, drinking beer while they watch you) with a the squater/punkscene distrikt right at the wall british, amerikan, french soldiers were there as well they even made a manouver inside this district. It was somehow a realy strange live on the deklared and prepared ww3 batlefield wich still wore the scares of ww2 with lacking roofs and maschinegunnbulletholes along the houses

    song always reminds me at those times

    maueraffeon April 06, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Alyssa1224 - It's REASON, REASON, REASON.

    Dr Strangeloveon March 28, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Now that i have some money (reasonable economy) I don't want a vacation (holiday in the sun) I want to learn something about how the world works. Being poor disenfranchised English kid supposedly from the "free" world hadn't worked for him. The countries behind the iron curtain (Marxist communist) were supposedly the "workers paradise." In theory the ideal place for a person of his background. Upon getting there, though he found it to be the "new Belsen," or a large reincarnation of the Nazi's Bergan-Belsen concentration camp. The people in the so called "workers paradise," were as, if not more oppressed than the singer and looking to get out of said paradise., his look "over the wall" shows him just that. As such, the singer is still left disillusioned and searching everywhere on either side of the Berlin wall for the place he has some voice and authority. Of course the point is typically Pistols nihilistic in that a place for his ilk doesn't exist in the contemporary world, and looking for it in this world will be either futile, or worse result in those who have authority quashing the lower class person seeking same "please don't be waiting for me....."

    Rugger9deon July 14, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    It starts off about package holidays (presumably Rotten thinks that the working class are being cheated by being shoved into these rubbish resort holidays), but I have no idea what all that Communism stuff is about...

    Rich_Mon May 27, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i thought it was pretty obvious that the song is about getting across the berlin wall, but i dont wanna get into a history lesson, so figure the rest out yourself

    time_bomb666on July 10, 2002   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song: Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.” That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
Page
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.