The Glorious Land

Album: Let England Shake (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song opens with a minute-long introduction, before we hear a series of call and responses in which Harvey links war with our agricultural heritage. The singer told NME: "This album's not solely about war, it's about very many different things – it's the world we live in, and part of that is war."
  • The sleeve notes for Let England Shake tell us that both this song and "In The Dark Places" were partially inspired by extracts from Russian Folk Lyrics, a book containing rhymes used by village "wailers" after someone has died. One chapter of the collection contains lyrics concerning serving soldiers.
  • This, along with "Let England Shake," was used in the 2014 UK miniseries The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain.

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