10/30/2016 , , , ,
The Clash - Gates of the West
The Clash - Gates of the West


The Clash - Gates of the West Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Cost of Living
Released: 1979

Gates of the West Lyrics


I would love to be the lucky one on chill
Avenue
Who could keep your heart warm when ice has turned it blue
But with the beggin' sleeping losers as they turn in for the night
I'm looking back for home and I can see the lights

I should be jumpin' shoutin' that I made it all this way
From Camden Town station to Fortieth and Eighth
Not many make it this far and many say we're great
But just like them we walk on an' we can't escape our fate
Can't you hear the sighing
Eastside Jimmy and Southside Sue
Both say they needed something new

So I'm standing at the Gates of the West
I burn money at the lights of the sign
The city casts a shadow of the perfect crime
I'm standing at the gates of the east
I take my pulse and the pulse of my friend
The city casts a shadow, will I see you again?

The immigrants an' remnants of all the glory years
Are clustered around the bar again for another round of beers
Little Richard's in the kitchen playing spoons and plates
He's telling the waitress he's great

Ah say I know somewhere back'n'forth in time
Out on the dustbowls, deep in the roulette mine
Or in a ghetto cellar only yesterday
There's a move into the future for the USA.

I hear them crying
Eastside Jimmy and Southside Sue
Both said they needed something new

Standing at the gates of the west
In the shadow again
I'm standing at the gates of the west
In the shadow again

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

Gates of the West
  • The music and basic tune to this song was based upon "Ooh Baby, Ooh (It's Not Over)," an early Mick Jones composition that he wrote before The Clash formed in 1976. Their first attempt at recording it was during the Give 'Em Enough Rope sessions at Basing Street Studios in May 1978, under the working title of "Rusted Chrome." The song came together in sessions in New York in September 1978 and finally completed at Wessex with engineer Bill Price (who went on to help produce the Clash albums London Calling and Sandinista!).
  • Clear influences on "Gates of the West" include "Time Is Tight" by Booker T and the MGs, of which the opening bass riff is very reminiscent (The Clash covered the song for the Black Market Clash rarities LP), and Bruce Springsteen's 1970s output.

    The lyric, "I should be jumpin' and shoutin' that I made it all this way, from Camden Town station to Fortieth and Eighth" is a deliberate nod to Mott the Hoople's "All The Way From Memphis," which includes the line "From the Liverpool Docks to the Hollywood Bowl."
  • This was included on The Cost of Living EP, and was a fan favorite. The Clash never played it live, however, which prompted one fan at a September 1979 concert at the New York Palladium to shout out a request for it. Singer Joe Strummer answered by admitting they couldn't play the song live because "it's a bit complicated!"