We don't live in America - The Countdown to the False Dots new album release on Saturday 4th July

On Saturday the 4th of July, The False Dots release our new album, We Don't live in America. We will be playing live at the Jester Festival to launch the new album. The album has been 48 years in gestation featuring on track that was originally conceived in 1978, at a gig at the Electric Ballroom, performed by The Fall. It also features the first track ever played by the band, at our first rehearsal, which sounds amazingly fresh. Every day I will be previewing a track and telling the story behind it. We start with the title track - We Don't live in America.

This is a track that has taken on a life of its own in our set. I wrote it very much as a reaction to certain right wing commentators, politicians and people on X/Facebook, etc around the time Donald Trump first became President. I was not overly impressed by the fawning and the desire to become more like a distopian Trumpite version of Great Britain. As I often do, I listened to the breakfast news, looked at social media, then walked to work. On this particular day, I felt I had to write a song stating why I love living in London and why I would never live in America. It is a great place for a Holiday, but I could never live there happily. Here are the lyrics.

We don’t live in America

We don’t live in Ameri---ca x 4

 
Verse 1                          
We don’t have a president with big big cars
We don’t have a flag which has any stars (Tom)
We don’t fry villains in Electric chair!
We’re not allowed guns and we don’t care (Rog and Tom)

Verse 2 

We call all our mates something rude
We love a cup of tea to wash down food
We knock back beers with indecent hurry
And have three more with a Ruby Murrey

Restaurant portions aren’t that big
But then again we're not greedy pigs
Chips are something we eat with fish
Roast beef dinner is our national dish
 
Chorus
We don’t live in Ameri---ca x 4 

Verse 3
We drink warm beer, kick round footballs
We love the proms at the Albert Hall (Tom)
Liz was the boss, now we’ve got a King
He wears a crown and genuine Bling (Both)
We moan at the bus stop in the rain
And dream of a holiday over in Spain
If you want a ciggie it’s an oily rag!
When you see the Queen she don’t wear drag

Chorus
We don’t live in Ameri---ca x 4 
 

I wanted it to be a joyous upbeat of what is best about the UK. I worked out a basic chord progression that seemed to work, then I was on a London International Ska Festival Cruise and the DJ played the song Pigbag. As we have a brilliant Trumpeter in Tom Hammond, I thought it would be a good way to start the set. We had been starting our set with a slow, dub reggae style number from our last album, called Wacky Races. To make life easy for soundmen, we always start with a song that starts on drums, brings in bass, then trumpet then guitar to help them get a level. I realised that we could use this. 

At the first gig we played it, people were blown away. They also loved the sentiment. I realised that it was actually an absolutely fundamental pillar of what we are. Tony Gleed, who runs the music at the Dublin Castle told me we had to put it on the albums. We got a load of mates down to do some chants and then filmed it and it all just came together really easily. Once we recorded it, I realised that it had to become the title track for the album. Some things in music need a massive amount of work and are pretty average in the cold light of day. This number works really well and we spent almost no effort on any aspect of it. 

As the Presidency of Trump has progressed, almost none of the commentators who inspired the song are still openly associating them with Trumpism. I think most Americans are embarrassed at how it has panned put. Here is the 8 second canvas we did for Spotify.