The Clash Songs - Protex Blue Lyrics

The Clash - Protex Blue

The Clash - Protex Blue Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Clash
Released: 1977

Protex Blue Lyrics

Standing in the bog of a west end bar
Guy on the right leaning over too far
Money in my pocket gonna put it in the slot
Open up the pack see what type I got

I didn't want to hold you
I didn't want to use you
Protex, Protex Blue
All I want to do

It's a fab protective for that type of a girl
But everybody knows that she uses it well
It's a therapeutic structure I can use at will
But I don't think it fits my V.D. bill

I didn't want to hold you
I didn't want to use you
Protex, protex blue
All I want to do

Protex, protex blue
All I want to do

Sitting in the carriage of a bakerloo
Erotica my pocket, got a packet for you
Advert on the escalator on my way home
I don't need no skin flicks, I want to be alone

I didn't want to hold you
I didn't want to use you
Protex, protex blue
All I want to do, ooh, ooh, ooh

Johnny, Johnny!

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

Protex Blue

One of the handful of songs written just before Joe Strummer joined The Clash (back when the formative group was known as the London SS), guitarist Mick Jones had the song written even before bassist Paul Simonon met him. "It (Protex) was the brand in all the pub condom machines, it was a valid subject for a song" Jones noted wryly.

The song is laced with sniggery innuendo and is about a gent getting a condom in a pub toilet ("Money in my pocket gonna put it in the slot, open up the pack see what type I got") and pondering what exactly to use it for - the implication in the final verse being that it may be for his own purposes and not for use with a woman ("I don't need no skin flicks, I want to be alone").

"Protex Blue" holds a notable position in The Clash's canon as being the opening song at their first ever show. After this it was never consistently in the band's live set, and appeared sporadically down the years, including with a dramatic return to their set in the 16 Tons tour in 1980 with a radical rearrangement including a new middle section.