Lyrics to
English Civil War

This version of English Civil War was released by The Clash in 1978.

Our Decade Lyrics The Clash profile has all of the English Civil War lyrics from 1978 and many more songs from the The Clash discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Clash or about the 1970s in general.

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
an’ it was 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
an’ 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 an’ the kids are shouting loud
but you gotta know it’s shining through a crack in the cloud
and the shadows keep falling when johnny comes marching home

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The Clash has released many songs over the years besides English Civil War. The Clash released songs from 1977 to 1993 spanning across albums like The Clash, Give 'em Enough Rope, London Calling, Sandinista!, Combat Rock, Cut The Crap, and Super Black Market Clash. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Clash.

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About Lyrics and English Civil War by The Clash

The lyrics to English Civil War are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Clash used when the song was created in 1978. The lyrics to English Civil War have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Clash and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to English Civil War by The Clash. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to English Civil War" means the words set to the music of English Civil War, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Clash. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to English Civil War and the lyrics to English Civil War are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Clash who came here looking just for the lyrics to English Civil War, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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