FolkLaw - lyrics and music for 'Over a Line'

"Nations Pride" - Lyrics and Music

About the song

Nations Pride has become one of the most popular FolkLaw songs - a commentary on the troubles that have befallen the fantastic UK countryside - and will also be the title track of the debut FolkLaw album.

The basics of the song came together relatively quickly one sunny weekend in July 2009. The birds were singing, but I could still hear the cars on the by-pass. Instrumentally, the guitar intro was first worked out, closely followed by the verses, and then finally the chorus. I recorded the song the next weekend to keep it fresh and put fiddle on the intro's which really gave it vitality. The middle 8 instrumental was the hardest bit to work out - weeks of pain... ...and has seen a lot of changes. The album version (demo mp3 below) with the fiddle + blues harp middle 8 cross-over works like a dream - but it didn't happen overnight and involved literally hundreds of takes!

Played live, this song really takes on a life of it's own, and races ahead in the excitement - the harp middle 8 is quite a tricky proposition at the best of times as you can hear in the live mp3 clip below. Enjoy!

Lyrics

Recall the best days of the English land
Fields and hedgerows, footpaths and stiles
A place where you could walk for miles and miles
To the sound of bird song in the sky
A place where the birds sing no more
Because they can't hear themselves above the roar
Of the motorway that's been built right next door
Six lanes wide

What happened to the nation's pride?
Our wonderful countryside
The heart of England hung out to dry
And it's too late to turn back the tide
What happened to the nation's pride?
Our green patchwork paradise
That was ripped up in the blink of an eye
How I wish we could turn back time.
Oh, what happened to the nation's pride?

Recall the best days of the English spring
wild flower meadows and lambs a'leaping
Through an air as pure as the Alaskan ice
Crystal clear mornings and starry skies
A place where the cows have BSE
And the sheep and the pigs got foot and mouth disease
And the signs on the farm gates say 'Keep out Please -
Don't come inside'

What happened to the Nations Pride?

Notebook

Downloads

	- album track NationsPride.mp3 (6Mb)
	- Nations Pride live at Rushwick - mp3 (4.3Mb)
	- Nations Pride Streamed mp3