English Boys
music and lyrics by Joe Croker

In the beginning God said to man
"I’ll put a rare one of you on a jolly green land
Up where it’s always wet and gray
South he’ll go—for a while hold sway"

And he was an English boy
He was an English boy
He went around the world, yeah
Invented half her toys

India, Pakistan, Burma, Bahrain
Jamestown, Kingston, English rain
Imperial mess, you shot your elephant dead
"It’s wrong, it’s wrong," Mr. Orwell said

And he was an English boy
He was an English boy
Self-critical prose and a brisk debate
Extricate all his countrymen from their Stone Age

Now if you go down to Londontown
Everything there in the world to be found
On the stage, at the Bourse, the refinery
Beautiful laundrette, righteous and free

And she was an English boy
She was an English boy
She did a different thing, well
Another kind of glory

Hey, lads, now your dirty Empire’s gone
And the Jack it is down over old Hong Kong
You gotta build your Jerusalem
In your green, your green and pleasant land

Yeah, you English boys
Yeah, all you English boys
Oxford dons, working Trevors and Troys
Mabs and Maggies and rolling lorries

Yours it's now all the world’s tongue
Your Smith, your Marx, your Charlie Darwin
Yours the rule and the talk of trade
And the Declaration that Jefferson made

Cause he was an English boy
He was an English boy
On Elizabeth’s land
And they called it Virginia

Fee Fie Fiddle and a Fiddle Fo Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Strongest men to rule the seas
Fought their wars, now let’s pray for peace

For all the English boys
And all the Irish boys
And all the French boys
And the Chinese
And African boys
And the American boys
And all the world’s boys