3/16/2016 , , , ,
The Clash - Complete Contro
The Clash - Complete Control


The Clash - Complete Control Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Clash
Released: 1977

Complete Control Lyrics


They said release 'Remote Control'
But we didn't want it on the label
They said, "Fly to Amsterdam"
The people laughed but the press went mad

Ooh ooh ooh someone's really smart
Ooh ooh ooh Complete Control, that's a laugh

On the last tour my mates couldn't get in
I'd open up the back door but they'd get run out again
At every hotel we was met by the Law
Come for the party - come to make sure!

Ooh ooh ooh have we done something wrong?
Ooh ooh ooh complete control, even over this song

They said we'd be artistically free
When we signed that bit of paper
They meant let's make a lotsa mon-ee
An' worry about it later

Ooh ooh ooh I'll never understand
Ooh ooh ooh complete control - lemme see your other hand!

All over the news spread fast
They're dirty, they're filthy
They ain't gonna last!

This is Joe Public speaking
I'm controlled in the body, controlled in the mind

Total
See-o-n control - that means you!

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

Complete Control Song Chart
  • Mick Jones and Joe Strummer wrote this about their record company's heavy-handed management. It chronicles how The Clash signed a contract and immediately lost control of their music.
  • The Clash were upset that CBS made them release a song called "Remote Control" as a single, and came up with this as retaliation. So in the UK in 1977, The Clash released a single they didn't like followed by another one (this) that ridiculed the decision to release the previous one. From that point on, The Clash went to great measures to get control of how their music was distributed.
  • This was the band's first album, but their record company would not release it in the US. This was yet another decision The Clash disagreed with.
  • The anti-establishment statements The Clash made on this song gave them a lot of credibility with their fans. As punk was ending, many bands were either fading away or changing their style, which was seen as selling out. The Clash managed to stay true to their values and gained a great deal of respect by doing so.
  • In the US, this album sold about 100,000 copies as an import, making it the biggest-selling import album of the '70s.
  • Mick Jones wrote most of the song, despite the fact it's credited as a Strummer/Jones joint composition. Joe Strummer ad libbed the "You're my guitar hero" and "This is Joe Public Speaking!" bits, and was so proud of Jones' efforts that except for a reference to a disastrous promotional trip to Amsterdam, he declared them finished.
  • This was not included in the original UK release of The Clash in 1977. When the album was released in the US in 1979, this was one of five songs added.
  • The Clash recorded the song at Sarn East Studios in Whitechapel in August of 1977, and it was drummer Topper Headon's first recording with the band since he replaced Terry Chimes earlier that year. It was produced by Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, and it's up for dispute just how much he contributed to the sound - engineer Micky Foote claimed that "he was s--t hot - he nearly blew the control room up," whereas Jones claims that "we went back and fiddled about with it. It was good what Lee did, but his echo sounded underwater to us. We brought out the guitars and made it sound tougher."
  • The title came from a conversation the Clash's manager Bernie Rhodes had with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. Joe Strummer noted in a 1991 interview that "Bernie and Malcolm got together and decided they wanted to control their groups... Bernie had a meeting in the Ship in Soho, after the Anarchy Tour. He said he wanted complete control. I came out of the pub with Paul (Simonon) collapsing on the pavement in hysterics at those words."
  • This was first played live, along with "Clash City Rockers," at Mont de Marsan in August 1977 on their European tour, and remained a firm fan favorite until the end of their career - first as a set opener, then as the first song of the encore. A live version of the song played in New York in June 1981 is the opening track on the live compilation album From Here to Eternity.
  • A bizarre cover version of the song by Kowalskis appears on the 1999 tribute album Backlash.