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The Clash - Cheapskates

The Clash - Cheapskates Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Give 'Em Enough Rope
Released: 1978

Cheapskates Lyrics

I have been a washer up
An' he has been a scrubber up
An' I seen him a picking up
Dog ends in the rain
An' he has never read a book
Though I told him to take a look
He lifted his pool hall cue
For another game
But it ain't no modern miracle
That we found the golden rule
What you can't buy you gotta steal
An' what you say can't steal you better leave

I don't like to hang about
In this lonely room
'Cause London is for going out
And trying to hear a tune
But people come pouncing up to me
And say what are you doing here
You're supposed to be a star
Not a cheapskate bleeding queer

Like a load of rats from a sinking ship
You slag us down to save your hip
But you don't give me the benefit
Of your doubt
'Cause I'll bite it off and spit it out

We're Cheapskates anything'll do
We're cheapskates what are we supposed to do?
An' we can rock
Hey hey let's roll
An' we can walk
An' do the stroll

Just because we're in a group
You think we're stinking rich
'N we all got model girls
Shedding every stitch
'N You think the cocaine's flowing
Like a river up our noses
'N every sea will part for us
Like the red one did for Moses

Well I hope you make it one day
Just like you always said you would some day
And I'll get out my money and make a bet
That I'll be seein' you down the launderette

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

Cheapskates

The lyrics to this song are a thinly veiled attack on the music press and critics of the time who took aim at The Clash in late 1977 and early 1978, accusing them of selling out and becoming decadent Rock Stars in the wake of their signing to major label CBS and producing their first album. The band are clearly angry over the assumption that they would change as they became more famous ("But people come poncing up to me and say what are you doing here? You're supposed to be a star, not a cheapskate bleeding queer), and at what they see as critics attacking the band to save their own image ("Like a load of rats from a sinking ship, you slag us down to save your hip").

A latter verse is dedicated to claiming that The Clash don't have the Rock Star trappings of money, sex and drugs - ironically though, many close to the group claim that the band did indeed mix with drugs rather often during the time - indeed, drummer Topper Headon would later be fired from the group in 1983 because of problems with severe drug addictions. At the time of the album's release in 1978, guitarist Mick Jones admitted to Garry Bushell that "the song was written during a heavy period of drug-taking. The lyrics are meant to be a satire on that."

Cheapskates was introduced into The Clash's live set in June 1978, and was played for the rest of the year before being dropped just before their first US tour.

The Clash - Drug-Stabbing Time

The Clash - Drug-Stabbing Time Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Give 'Em Enough Rope
Released: 1978

Drug-Stabbing Time Lyrics

Drug stabbing time
Well I got working on the Ford line
A paying off the big fine
Drug stabbin' time

Drug stabbin' time
Is from nine to nine
Nobody wants a user
Nobody needs a loser
So kick him out that door
An' don't answer it no more

Drug stabbin' time
It's a Greenwich Mean Time
Your friends all hate each other you think
You've got another
But who's at the door?
Don't answer it no more

Drug stabbin' time
In a bedroom crime
There's a tape recording on a telephone line
An' it's ringin' from the floor
So don't answer it no more

Now I was lying in my room
It was raining drugs all afternoon
I hear this car pull up outside
Comes to a stop like, skreeee

Someone's in a hurry
'N someone better worry
'Cos these four guys all had on their feet
A pair of black shoes shining and neat
I thinks

Black shoes on
No that's bad news
Here they come charging up the stairs alright
Sonny just tell us where

Drug stabbin' time
Don't ask me mate
Working on the ford line
Paying off the big fine
Drug stabbin' time

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

Drug-Stabbing Time

"Drug-Stabbing Time" was first demoed at the Clash's rehearsal space, Rehearsal Rehearsals, in January 1978 and so was one of the first songs written for second album Give 'Em Enough Rope.

The lyrics written by singer Joe Strummer are fiercely anti-drugs, and describe in great detail the paranoia they can induce - not just from usage, but from the fear of getting caught, as the subject of the song does in an elaborate police sting ("I hear this car pull up outside, Comes to a stop like, skreeee", "Blackshoes on, No that's bad news, Here they come charging up the stairs alright, Sonny just tell us where").

It's quite possible that Strummer had seen early rushes of the film Rude Boy, a film about a fictional roadie for The Clash and featuring lots of live Clash footage from 1977-79, where a subplot involves a drug bust. Or it's possible he was talking from personal experience - what makes the anti-drugs message ("Nobody wants a user, nobody needs a loser") hugely ironic is that members of the group, mainly guitarist Mick Jones, were heavily involved in drug usage at the time. Critic Marcus Gray noted that this fact serves "to rob it of much comedy value."

The song was debuted live on the On Parole tour in June 1978, and remained in the live set into 1979, which is better than most of the Give 'Em Enough Rope non-single tracks. The song was dropped after the Pearl Harbour tour, although it was revived for one last performance in Monterey in September 1979.