“51st State” by New Model Army

"51st State" came out on EMI as a single from New Model Army's 1986 album The Ghost of Cain, but it started life in another band: Ashley Cartwright wrote it and played it with his group the Shakes, and New Model Army picked it up after the Shakes broke up in 1983. Glyn Johns produced, engineered and mixed it, with Justin Sullivan singing and playing guitar, Moose Harris on bass and Robert Heaton on drums.

The lyric casts Britain as the 51st state of America, and Sullivan, asked about it in 1987, called it a prophecy that England, Germany and everyone else would end up as American states, one he hoped would stay untrue. Those words were believed to be behind a ban on the band by the American Musicians' Union, which kept them from touring The Ghost of Cain in the States. The single reached number 71 in the UK.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.