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.
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
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
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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
that connection to nietzche is pretty awesome. i love his quotes, he was almost as cynical as the sex pistols xD.<br /> <br /> your right, this might be my favorite SP song.<br /> its pretty epic.
punk is usualy poetic
"more along the lines of pointing out with pure punk the utter hypocrisy of the so called 'free' 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"<br /> <br /> he had important things to get off his chest it seems" <br /> <br /> Couldn't have said it better myself.
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
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.
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.
"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
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
Alyssa1224 - It's REASON, REASON, REASON.
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....."
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...
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