Song · The Clash
“This is England” by The Clash
From the album Cut the Crap (1985)
“This is England” by The Clash appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1985 and 2023. It was first released in 1985 on the album Cut the Crap. Its best result is #17 on the 91X Top 91 Songs of 1985. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #60 alternative song of 1985.
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"This Is England" arrived in September 1985 as the one and only single from Cut the Crap, the sixth and final Clash album, made by a lineup of Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, Nick Sheppard, Pete Howard and Vince White. Bernard Rhodes produced it and shares the writing credit with Strummer, and it was the last single that version of the band ever released.
Strummer takes a walk through Thatcher's England and hates what he finds: violence in the inner cities, grim life on the council estates, the dole queues, a motorcycle industry on its last legs, racism, flag-waving nationalism and crooked police, plus the patriotic fever whipped up by the Falklands War in 1982 and a nation shopping its way into obedience. Plenty of people rank the lyric among his sharpest, but the drubbing critics handed Cut the Crap buried it.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 17 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1985 | 91 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 455 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
Also listed as: This Is England.
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