The Clash Songs - Groovy Times Lyrics

The Clash - Groovy Times

The Clash - Groovy Times Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Cost of Living
Released: 1979

Groovy Times Lyrics

The High Street shops are boarded up
An' the terrace it is fenced in
See-through shields are walled across
The way that you came in
But there's no need to get excited

As the lorries bring the bacon in
'cause the housewives are all singing
Groovy Times are here again

They discovered one black Saturday
That mobs don't march they run
So you can excuse the nervous triggerman
Just this once for jumping the gun
As they were picking up the dead
Out of the broken glass
Yes it's number one, the radio said
Groovy times have come to pass!

Groovy times groovy times groovy times

The intake is on the uptake
The acceleration's pretty grim
I can remember his first appearance
Now look what's happened to him
So they put him in a dog suit
Like from 1964
The king of early evening TV
Groovy times forever more

Groovy times

Writer/s: JOE STRUMMER, MICK JONES, PAUL SIMONON, TOPPER HEADON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, WARP MUSIC LIMITED
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Groovy Times

Singer Joe Strummer explained: "what sparked the song was that they started to put fencing around English football grounds. It looked horrible, like cages with the fans inside. It distressed me."

His instincts were proven right a decade after the song was released when 96 fans were killed at a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989. The incident, which took place at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, became known as the Hillsborough disaster.

Like "Gates of the West," which was recorded around the same time, "Groovy Times" was first demoed in Utopia Studios for the Give 'Em Enough Rope sessions before being completed in Wessex in 1979 with Bill Price producing. Musically it is another subtle departure from The Clash's Punk roots, heavily dominated by acoustic guitars and harmonica (played apparently by Bob Jones - guitarist Mick Jones later said "That's me, it's a Bob Dylan joke").

The lyrics: "I can remember his first appearance, now look what's happened to him. So they put him in a dog suit, like from 1964, the king of early evening TV" appear to be an amusing reference to TV presenter Bill Grundy, who's career spiraled downhill after he drunkenly goaded the Sex Pistols into swearing on prime time TV in 1976 in what became known as the Filth and the Fury scandal. By the time of "Groovy Times"' writing, he was presenting Sunday evening religious programmes.