"Take Down The Union Jack"
Billy Bragg
Must I Paint You A Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg (2003)
Tabbed by mescalero77

Capo 5th fret

    EADGBe
Ab :466544
Am :x02210
Bb :x1333x
C  :x32010
D  :x0023x
D/B:x2023x
E  :022100
E7 :020130
F  :133211
G  :320033

(G) (C) (D/B) (G) - (D) (Am) (C) (G)

 G
Take down the Union Jack
   C       D/B      G
It clashes with the sunset
    D             Am
And put it in the attic
         C             G
With the Emperor's old clothes
G
When did it fall apart? 
C        D/B    G
Sometime in the Eighties
         D             Am                   C              G
When the great and the good gave way to the greedy and the mean

F
Britain isn't cool you know 
     C               G
It's really not that great
F                 C
It's not a proper country
                G             D 
It doesn't even have a patron saint
             F        C
It's just an economic union
       Ab       Bb      D/B     E7
That's past its sell-by date 

G
Take down the Union Jack
   C       D/B      G
It clashes with the sunset
   D                 Am
And ask our Scottish neighbors 
   C                      G
If independence looks any good
     G
Cos they just might have a clue
       C       D/B      G
How to take an abstract notion
   D         Am
Of personal identity and turn it 
C          G
Into nationhood

F
Is this the 19th Century 
         C           G
That I'm watching on TV?
F                     C
The dear old Queen of England
        G         D
Handing out those MBE's
F               C
"Member of the British Empire"
             Ab        Bb      D/B     E7
That doesn't sound too good to me

C           D                     E                
Gilbert and George are taking the piss, aren't they?
C           D                     E       
Gilbert and George are taking the piss
C                  D                      E                
What could be more British than "Here's a picture of me bum"? 
C           D                     E     E7
Gilbert and George are taking the piss

G
Take down the Union Jack
   C       D/B      G
It clashes with the sunset
    D                 Am
And pile up all those history books
C               G     
But don't throw them away
G
They just might have a clue
      C       D/B    G
About what it really means
         D            Am               C          G
To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England-dot-co-dot-UK
         D            Am               C          G
To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England-dot-co-dot-UK