Flag (single edit)

by Benefits

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about

This is a special remastered single edit (non sweary) version made to promote the vinyl release of FLAG and EMPIRE on ZEN F.C. on May 27th 2022.

"Flag" is about trying to understand Great Britain's place in the world today behind its shambolic and angry appearance. It's a reaction against British politicians using nationalism as a red, white and blue seducer to drag the country's eyes and brains away from the calamity they live in. The weird obsession the country has with war; the arrogance of how illustrious it thinks it is perceived to be by the rest of the world; and the misguided view that by simply waving a flag you somehow paper over the crack of simultaneously despising millions of your countrymen, presumably including fellow patriots.

lyrics

This place stinks of old wars,
Subservience, semi-final defeats
God and flags
Pulling your mask down for a fag, you’re a musty relic,
Hiding behind that tatty sheet, shouting, screaming, getting pulled back by your mates. Stamping on cans, raw neck in the sun. Dog water on tap.
What even are you?
You’ve been had mate.
The Italian job is on, sit down, shut up, quote the funnies, laugh at the foreigns, drink yer tea,
wave yer flag, wave yer flag, WAVE YER FLAG!
Feel powerful, feel proud,
Subjects oh subjects, we used to be this, we used to be that, and we want it back,
but no one is jealous, no one cares, so wheel it all out,
Break that emergency glass, parade forever, make it meaningless,
Bow down to that tatty flag. But what does it mean? What does it mean?
WAVE YER FLAG!
You still hate your neighbour, the clothes you wear are foreign anyway, expensive or cheap and your car is German and its nice, good runner, decent milage, reliable…
The other town down the road are all inbred you said, they all talk funny don’t they, oh and That London eh, don’t get me started, ey ey ey?!
You’re broken, your heads gone,
Imagine some good old days you think existed, we deserve better than this…
Blue blood still runs red.

Privilege won’t save you.
Eton won’t save you.
People who speak Latin WILL NOT save you.
That stiff upper lip will crumble, that silver spoon will be sold, you’ll be forgotten.
You’re nothing to them, NOTHING!
Throw those plastic chairs, puff out your chest, rule Britannia, rule those foreign waves, you can’t even swim straight - armbands on - yer getting dragged down, yer drowning in it all, DROWING IN IT ALL!
That flag won’t protect you forever, it’ll sink, it looks worn, the colours are running, wasn’t even made here
It’s all a lie.
This isn’t politics, you’re just holding a flag, you’re just a pole.
Wave yer flag.
Wave your flag.
WAVE. YOUR. FLAG.

credits

released May 27, 2022
"Flag" (single edit) by Benefits.
Re-edited and remixed by Kingsley Hall
Kingsley Hall, Robbie Major, Hugh Major, Dale Frost
Recorded by Kingsley Hall in Saltburn and Robbie Major in Newcastle
Mastered by Tom Woodhead at Hippocratic Mastering, Leeds

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about

Benefits Middlesbrough, UK

An issues based music collective from Teesside in the North East of England. We write songs about the urgencies that concern us. These songs are loud.

BOOKINGS steve@atc-live.com

WEBSITE www.benefitstheband.com ... more

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