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When Johnny comes marching home again
He's coming by bus or underground
A woman's eye will shed a tear to see his face so beaten in fear
It's just around the corner in the English civil war
It was still at the stage of clubs and fists
When that well-known face got beaten to bits
Your face was blue in the light of the screen as we watched the speech of an animal scream
The new party army was marching right over our heads
Alright
There you are, ha, ha, I told you so
Says everybody that we know
But who hid a radio under the stairs and who got caught out on their unawares?
When that new party army came marching right up the stairs
When Johnny comes marching home again
Nobody understands it can happen again
The sun is shining and the kids are shouting loud but you gotta know it's shining through a crack in the cloud
The shadows keep falling when Johnny comes marching home
Alright Johnny, okay Johnny, okay John go home, home, home, home
Guess who's catching a plain when Johnny comes running home
He's coming by bus or underground
A woman's eye will shed a tear to see his face so beaten in fear
It's just around the corner in the English civil war
It was still at the stage of clubs and fists
When that well-known face got beaten to bits
Your face was blue in the light of the screen as we watched the speech of an animal scream
The new party army was marching right over our heads
Alright
There you are, ha, ha, I told you so
Says everybody that we know
But who hid a radio under the stairs and who got caught out on their unawares?
When that new party army came marching right up the stairs
When Johnny comes marching home again
Nobody understands it can happen again
The sun is shining and the kids are shouting loud but you gotta know it's shining through a crack in the cloud
The shadows keep falling when Johnny comes marching home
Alright Johnny, okay Johnny, okay John go home, home, home, home
Guess who's catching a plain when Johnny comes running home
Lyrics submitted by aebassist, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Track duration: 02:36
"English Civil War (Johnny Comes Marching Home)" as written by Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Strummer and the band in general always refer to the far right in particular as being the racist National Front party who were at the time (1978 and thereabouts) gaining incredible popularity and actually had a good chance of taking over from the then-current, ineffectual Labour goverment.
At the time it was common for National Front members to rally support, or cause havoc, at gigs, very often leading to violence - something that would dog Sham 69, Madness and all of the Two Tone bands in the coming months and year. hence the 'the stage of clubs and fists'.
I always took the 'it can happen again' to mean the Nazi occupation of Europe.
"The New Party were a pro-nazi facist party set up in the 1930s in England. The members and supporters of the party (the New Party Army) would raid communist meetings, bash non-white people and jewish people in the street." - Given Strummer's good knowledge of the subject (Far right in England/Britain) I think this is a very, very good guess, it's also true.
An interesting note about this song that few seem to pick up on. 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' was a song from the South during the Civil War. The side that was fighting FOR slavery. There's a delicious irony to turning it into a song against racists.
MeX
lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000024/…
(quoting the above-linked page:)
The story of "When Johnny comes Marching Home" is also the story of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. Gilmore, an 1848 Irish immigrant to Boston, was considered by no less a musician than John Philip Sousa as the "Father of the American Band."
Gilmore led a number of bands in the Boston area, including Patrick Gilmore's Band. At the beginning of the Civil War, in September 1861, the band enlisted as a group in the Union Army and was attached to the 24th Massachusetts Infantry. Gilmore's band served both as musicians and stretcher bearers at such horrific battles as Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Richmond. Gilmore was posted to occupied New Orleans, Louisiana in 1863 and, as Grand Master of the Union Army, ordered to reorganize the state military bands. It was at this time that he claimed to have composed the words and music to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
The 'clubs and fists' seems to show that it is a fairly primitive war between only the people, no higher authority such as the government was involved.
i also find the last verse beautiful as it almost gives an opposite to 'ever cloud has a silver lining'
But if the song really was meant to be about Johnny Rotten, you'd think there'd be support for that idea online. Here's a Rolling Stone review of Give 'Em Enough Rope from January 1979, shortly after its release. It mentions this song, and also mentions Johnny Rotten, and doesn't make any connection between the two. So there's a lack of evidence of a connection (and perhaps evidence of a lack of connection, if only circumstantially).