# Most British-sounding rock song
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 9, 2007, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219 "2007-03-09T04:45:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/21 "2007-03-09T11:50:12Z")
Carrie-Anne by The Hollies. Mentions “prefects”.
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/22 "2007-03-09T12:57:52Z")
_Peaches_ The Stranglers
\*A Girl Like You \* The Troggs
_Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)_ Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
_When I Was Young_ The Animals
_Appetite_ Prefab Sprout
And anything by the Arctic Monkeys, the Housemartins or [cough] Chas and Dave.
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/23 "2007-03-09T13:38:57Z")
Greenday tries to sound British, even though there a wholly American band.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/24 "2007-03-09T13:51:53Z")
[QUOTE=thelurkinghorror]
Oasis - Champagne Supernover
[/QUOTE]
_Exactly_ the first thing I thougt of! Slight hijack: how many people actually say"supernover" when singing along? I do, every time.
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### Author:  [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/25 "2007-03-09T14:05:31Z")
_Lazy Sunday_ by **The Small Faces**
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/26 "2007-03-09T14:09:52Z")
_National Express_ by the Divine Comedy. (National Express is the British equivalent of the Greyhound buses).
_Common People_ by Pulp - which additionally IMO is the best pop song ever written, no question.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/27 "2007-03-09T14:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=Jplacer]
How about Pink Floyd’s first single, Arnold Layne?
[/QUOTE]
I think “It Would be so Nice” is a very British sounding song.
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### Author:  [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/28 "2007-03-09T14:47:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I think “It Would be so Nice” is a very British sounding song.
As is “Time”.
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### Author:  [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/29 "2007-03-09T15:30:17Z")
[QUOTE=yBeayf]
As is “Time”.
[/QUOTE]
Must be the quiet desparation?
Syd’s Floyd was very English, I’m thinking of songs like Scarecrow and The Gnome.
My offering - Bike.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/30 "2007-03-09T15:30:18Z")
[QUOTE=sciurophobic]
or “Victoria” or “Village Green Preservation Society”
[/QUOTE]
or “She’s Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina’s”
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/31 "2007-03-09T15:43:51Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood]
“Cool for Cats” by Squeeze is another song that reeks of Britannia; even though the song is about cowboys and Indians, it’s as if Chris Difford went out of his way to sing with the most affected Cockney accent possible. Other Squeeze tunes don’t sound even a quarter as British.
[/QUOTE]
You’re definitely right, and it’s because he’s half-speaking and half-singing in this song. More leaning towards speaking. The British accent comes out way more in speech than in singing. The song’s not really about Cowboys and Indians (just the opening line,) it’s about a guy who watches too much TV and therefore his actual life seems unglamorous in comparison. The structure of the song takes the form of four vignettes from a guy’s life, told in the first person: the first, he describes watching a Cowboys and Indians show; in the second, he’s watching _The Sweeney_; in the third, he goes to a bar, gets drunk, makes an idiot of himself; the fourth, he picks up a woman at a disco, sleeps with her, leaves, and then basically reflects on how the experience was disappointing (“it’s not like that on the TV when it’s cool for cats.”)
One of the best Squeeze songs, and one of the more unique pop songs out there in general. I grew up listening to _Singles: 45s and Under_ and am a big fan of the group. I might be the youngest Squeeze fan on earth.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/32 "2007-03-09T15:56:31Z")
**London Calling** — The Clash
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/33 "2007-03-09T16:16:47Z")
The Kinks again and _Lola_.
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### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/34 "2007-03-09T16:19:13Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy]
I dunno. Songs like “The Price I Pay” or “Levi Stubbs’ Tears” (which namechecks a bunch of Americans) easily transcend national borders. And I can’t imagine Nora Guthrie would have selected him to set her father’s lyrics to music if she thought he was too identified with his home soil.
But you’re definitely right on his more politically charged songs.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, I didn’t reckon for the Guthrie and Wilco songs that he’s done more recently. More of the early, I’m-forming-Red-Wedge-stuff.
[QUOTE=Lisa-go-Blind]
Right album, wrong song. Clearly, the correct answer is “Pahkloife.”
[/QUOTE]
Hell, we could put up “Tracy Jacks,” “Bank Holiday,” or “This Is A Low” as well. Civil servants wigging out and streaking, the unheard-of-in-America holiday celebration, and the shipping forecast for the English Channel. But I would also argue that Modern Life Is Rubbish (despite the inclusion of “Miss America”) and The Great Escape are pretty English albums as well.
Let’s add Morrissey to the list: “Irish Blood, English Heart,” “Come Back To Camden,” “Dagenham Dave,” “Hairdresser On Fire,” etc.
I would also suggest that the 2-Tone bands like The Specials and Bad Manners had a very British sound, even though they were merging West Indian music with punk.
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### Author:  [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/35 "2007-03-09T16:19:44Z")
[QUOTE=Meurglys]
_Lazy Sunday_ by **The Small Faces**
[/QUOTE]
Came in to mention exactly that!
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/36 "2007-03-09T16:48:01Z")
The Proclaimers are very very Scottish (which is good:) ) and they belong in here because the title says “British” not “English.” I second the mention of the Pistols (“Anarchy in the U.K.” “God Save the Queen”) and the Clash.
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### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/37 "2007-03-09T16:57:49Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm]
_National Express_ by the Divine Comedy. (National Express is the British equivalent of the Greyhound buses).
_Common People_ by Pulp - which additionally IMO is the best pop song ever written, no question.
[/QUOTE]
The exact 2 songs I was thinking of (along with Billy Bragg, just because of his accent).
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/38 "2007-03-09T17:09:39Z")
While the aforementioned songs by **The Kinks** were the first things to come to my mind as “very British sounding rock songs” (“Victoria”, “Waterloo Sunset”), there’s also **Paul McCartney** ’s song _Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey_.
It sounds like Sir Paul was smoking some serious pipe when he wrote that song, but damn it, it was British weed!
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### Author:  [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/39 "2007-03-09T19:04:15Z")
The Kinks’ ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’ (1965) mentions Regent St, Leicester Sq, and, obliquely, Carnaby Street, upon all of which I will probably trod (as well as Waterloo Bridge) when I’m back in the ‘Big Black Smoke’ (1966) in about two weeks. 🆒
‘Holiday in Waikiki’ is also very English in its own way. So many of their [Ray’s] songs are essentially English – ‘House in the Country’, ‘Rainy Day in June’, ‘Most Exclusive Residence for Sale’, ‘Dead End Street’, ‘Mr Pleasant’, ‘David Watts,’ ‘Tin Soldier Man,’ ‘Autumn Almanac’ and so on up through Ray Davies’ current stuff, like ‘Next Door Neighbour’ and ‘Stand Up Comic’.
Ray’s stuff tends to be far more English (a rather wistful and nostalgic English) than Dave’s, but it’s Dave who penned [‘Dear Margaret’](http://www.kinks.it.rit.edu/discography/showsong.php?song=72).
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### Author:  [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-british-sounding-rock-song/395219/40 "2007-03-09T20:03:51Z")
Allow me to mention **Def Leppard**. Maybe not so much for the sound, but the fact that they go out of their way to accentuate their nationality–the Union Jack is displayed prominently on their clothes, their concert set, their albums.
As far as sound, I’d go with “Run Runaway” by **Slade** , “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor” by **Lonnie Donegan** , most songs by **The Cure** (especially “Just Like Heaven”),and almost anything by **Depeche Mode**.
And just about everything by **The Who**. “A Quick One” is particularly British.
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