Charles Burchill, Michael Joseph Macneil, James Kerr | April 1989, Simple Minds
David Sinclair (1989) of Q magazine praised the song in a five-star Street Fighting Years album review: “The utterly beguiling melody of ‘This Is Your Land‘, featuring a deadpan Lou Reed, cloaks a stinging rebuke on the issue of the environment while gently leading the listener up towards the panoramic splendour of the instrumental coda” (Sinclair, 1989).
(Listen to the song on Apple Music or Spotify)
The song is a commentary on environmental issues. Jim Kerr said in New Musical Express (NME) February 4, 1989: “There’s one called ‘This Is Your Land,’ which might sound terribly contrived, but it’s probably because we’ve been up here recording it amongst the very elements, the mountains, the sea the sky. You see all this, and then you see the nuclear submarines passing your window. It’s obscene, and people should take charge of their land and not let it happen.”
PRIMO Res Publica 