I had the title first, While You Were in Eng­land. A lot of things could hap­pen while being in Eng­land. A lot of things could hap­pen here while you’re away.

I always want­ed to write a song that has Eng­land in the title, and then I had this line “while you were in Eng­land” — so much hap­pened here, while you had it bet­ter, you were in Eng­land… And then when final­ly the lyrics found their way it all coin­cid­ed with that dread­ful vote in June 2016. And I was so dis­ap­point­ed, and dev­as­tat­ed, and dis­il­lu­sioned. And then I thought well, so this is my Brex­it song. Some­how it seems to make sense: The singer is singing this to some­one who has been away for some time—to Eng­land obviously—and is now com­ing back for what­ev­er rea­son. They prob­a­bly drove him out. He might be Pol­ish for all we know. Maybe he’s just back for a vis­it. Maybe it’s she after all.

 

While You Were in England – Lyrics

It’s good to see you once again
Right here where we both began
Before there were any big­ger plans
Much has changed since then
While you were in England

The paper mill closed overnight
Last June we had no fireflies
Josie has final­ly learned to drive
And so have I
While you were in England

Mutt got sick, I don’t know how
Couldn’t lift his paws up from the ground
I often think he’s still around
But Dad­dy put him down
When you were in England

They felled the tree we used to climb
In many a secret summertime
There’s hous­ing now by the riverside
Ah yes and Grand­ma died
While you were in England
While you were in England

And I guess you can say
Our lit­tle world has changed
We’re chang­ing day by day, it’s noth­ing strange
Some leave and some remain
Let’s not complain
How have you been?

Did you find use­ful things to do?
And the future that spoke to you?
Tell me which one of your vivid dreams
Final­ly did come true
When you were in England

I always knew we’d meet again
I see you as you were back then
I meant to write and to stay friends
But there was a life to mend
While you were in England
While you were in England
My heart