Heartland
I'm listening to songs on my home computer's Windows Media Player, and The The's "Heartland" came up. That's the western-electro song that ends with the chorus "This [i.e. the UK] is the 51st state of the USA." Repeated often.
So I searched on that phrase and got this 1986 interview with Matt Johnson:
Hey listen, they’re playing the new single by The The on Radio One’s wedding special. ‘Heartland’ is the second instalment of Matt Johnson’s latest musical incarnation....Its portrayal of piss stinking shopping centres and senior citizens in fear of the lives is connecting in the minds of a few human beings not glued to the box.
The phone lines at Radio One are burning – ‘bloody great, puts the whole thing into perspective,’ says X from Carlisle. ‘Outrageous, disgusting moral degenerate’, blubs brainless of Basildon....Mr radio producer demands to see lyric sheet before The The get played again on HIS show. Welcome back to the fray Matt!...
‘Heartland’ just happens to be one of the best singles released this year. Matt’s finally managed to nail the steely sound that he’s been searching for, and matched it with some of the best modern bluesy vocals – deep and twisted one minute, with sweet backing singers the next, and soaring string sections and a harmonics solo that’ll stop you in your tracks. Yes, I like it!
‘With ‘Heartland’ I wanted to write a song which could be played on a guitar or piano as an accompaniment to the voice in some little voice in some little bar in Rio De Janeiro in 10 years time. The power of this song is in the song itself, not the production, and I think it’s the best song I’ve ever written, it sums up everything I’m saying. It now goes to the top of my list of my own top five songs.
‘It sums up my feelings for this country, which although it frequently disgusts me, I still feel for it. It’s set somewhere between Wapping and Whitechapel on a really beautiful, cold, clear autumn day when the sun’s at a particular angle. If I’m ever going to have a successful single, it has to be this one, it’s the one that deserves it.
‘I should add, by the way, that the line ‘this is the 51st state of the U.S.A.’, doesn’t mean that I am anti-American. ‘Heartland’ is anti American foreign policy not anti America, because I actually think there’re a lot of good things about the place, there are some good attitudes there.’
Well, I disagree with Matt on one point (only one?). While the song is powerful, the production truly brings it home, mixing the harmonica, backing vocals, Matt's voice, and all the other instruments together in that wonderful fade at the end.
A commenter at the Drudge Report said the following just a few days ago, in response to a New York Times article about the middle class in Iraq. The commenter feels that the UK is not the 51st state:
our 51st state
Anyone remember The The? Heartland?...
Matt Johnsons point was that the Ray-gun/ Thatcherite unholy alliance of the 80s put greedy war-mongers in charge and the suffering was mostly felt by the middle class.
Change "pound" into "dinars" and flash forward twenty years or so and you'll still find resonance.
And the line made it into Irish parliamentary discussions:
Mr. Gogarty: Are we closer to Boston or Berlin? We are closer to Boston. In the 1980s a band, The, The, had a hit with a song called "Heartlands". The chorus had a line, "This is the 51st state of the USA", which referred to Thatcher's Britain in the 1980s. However, it could just as easily refer to the Ireland of the 2000s. We are closer to the USA than we are to Berlin. The US has many great things, but it also has the highest levels of poverty and inequality. Is that what we want? Do we want the social European model or the highs and lows of the US model? Unfortunately, the Government is wedded to outmoded Thatcherite policies. It has been in power for so long it thinks it is royalty. I hope the Minister for Finance, Bonnie Prince Charlie, is watching this debate on the monitor because I have a message for him. He is more like King Richard in "Richard III" - a horse, a horse, my budget for a horse breeder. There is more money being given to horse breeders than to pensioners. There is something wrong in our society....
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