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The Clash - Inoculated City

The Clash - Inoculated City Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Combat Rock
Released: 1982

Inoculated City Lyrics

The soldier boy for his soldier's pay, obeys
The sergeant at arms, whatever he says
The sergeant will for his sergeant's pay, obey
The captains until his dying day
The captain will, for his captain's pay, obey
The general order of battle play
The generals bow to the government, obey the charge
You must not relent

What of the neighbours and the prophets in bars?
What are they saying in our public bazaars?
We are tired of the tune, "you must not relent"

At every stroke of the bell in the tower, there goes
Another boy from another side
The bulletins that steady come in say those
Familiar words at the top of the hour
The jamming city increases its hum, and those
Terrible words continue to come
Through brass music of government, hear those
Guns tattoo a roll on the drums

No one mentions the neighbouring war
No one knows what their fighting is for
We are tired of the tune, "you must not relent"

The generals bow to the government
We're tired of the tune, "you must not relent"

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

Inoculated City

Lyrically and musically this song is a follow-up to The Clash's 1981 single "The Call Up." It's a jaunty tune about the futility of war and war crimes and the actions of soldiers being defended by the age-old adage of "I was just following orders:

"The sergeant will for his sergeant's pay
Obey the general order of the battle play
The generals bow to the government
Obey the charge you must not relent"

A possible inspiration for these lyrics - written by Clash guitarist Mick Jones - is XTC's 1980 single "Generals and Majors."

Interestingly, the original version of the song had a sample from a US TV commercial about the toilet cleaner 2,000 Flushes. What point it served the song is uncertain (perhaps a comment on rampant commercialism), but it sounds pretty good at least. The company behind the product, Flushco Inc., threatened a million-dollar lawsuit and a temporary injunction against the manufacture of the Combat Rock LP, and the whole saga forced The Clash to go into hiding to avoid being served with a writ.

In the end the sample was withdrawn, and isn't present on the CD re-release. However, the original version of the song (with sample intact) is floating around on original pressings.

The song had already been chopped down by nearly two minutes from an early mix by Jones as part of the Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg early mix of the album. When this overlong mix was edited down by producer Glyn Jones, "Inoculated City" was one of many tracks to be cut down to decrease the run time.

This was featured on the B-side of the US release of the "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" single. It was played live by The Clash for a short time in 1981, during their Paris residency and on the following UK tour.

The Clash - The Guns Of Brixton

The Clash - The Guns Of Brixton Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: London Calling
Released: 1979

The Guns Of Brixton Lyrics

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you'll have to answer to
Oh, The Guns Of Brixton

The money feels good
And your life you like it well
But surely your time will come
As in heaven, as in hell

You see, he feels like Ivan
Born under the Brixton sun
His game is called survivin'
At the end of the harder they come

You know it means no mercy
They caught him with a gun
No need for the Black Maria
Goodbye to the Brixton sun

You can crush us
You can bruise us
Yes, even shoot us
But oh-the guns of Brixton

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

You can crush us
You can bruise us
Yes, even shoot us
But oh-the guns of Brixton

Shot down on the pavement
Waiting in death row
His game is called survivin'
As in heaven as in hell

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you'll have to answer to
Oh, the guns of Brixton

Writer/s: SIMONON, PAUL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Guns Of Brixton

This song was written by bass player Paul Simonon, but only because he was envious of the royalties main songwriters Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were getting. He decided to get in on the songwriting himself, and this became one of the Clash's best known songs and a staple of their live set until their demise in the mid-'80s. Simonon takes lead vocal duties on the song, which is about gangsters in his home town Brixton, which is in South London.

Interestingly, he was reticent about singing lead vocals initially, but Strummer noted that "they're your lyrics, you sing them" and the rest of the band agreed. Simonon notes: "The vocal mike was right up against the glass panel of the control room and sitting two feet behind the glass was some American CBS bloke. That's probably why the vocals came out the way they did."

Brixton was the site of race riots in 1981 and again in 1985. This song captures the alienation many citizens of Brixton felt leading up to the riots.

The central plot has Ivan, the anti-hero character from the popular film The Harder They Come (the soundtrack of which contained many of The Clash's favorite Reggae songs, including the title track) in urban South London ("You see, he feels like Ivan, born under the Brixton sun, his game is called survivin', at the end of the harder they come") and on the wrong side of the law ("When the law break in, how you gonna go? Shot down on the pavement, or waiting on death row").

In 1990 the bassline to "The Guns of Brixton" was sampled in the Beats International (AKA Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim) hit single "Dub Be Good To Me," and became a UK hit single, meaning Simonon received a credit of the royalties for his bassline. Interviewed by Scott Rowley on October 1999 for Bassist magazine, Simonon said that he "was surprised that it became number one, that was quite shocking. And the fact that it was my performance that they had lifted. The smart thing would've been to copy it and change it slightly, but they just lifted it straight off. So, really, I have done Top of the Pops! I met up with Norman [Cook] and we came to an arrangement which was much needed at the time. But I thought it was a really good idea and it was quite reassuring for that to happen to my first song."

This song was not released as a single when the London Calling album first came out, however in 1990 with the re-release of London Calling on CD, a remixed version entitled "Return to Brixton," which included the original "Guns of Brixton" mix on the B-side, was released and reached #57 on the UK charts in July 1990. Interestingly, a typo on the sleeve notes of the CD release meant Paul Simonon's name was misspelled as Paul Simon; although a very successful recording artist in his own right, the actual Paul Simon (half of Simon and Garfunkel) had nothing to do with the writing of "The Guns of Brixton"!

The song was always a popular live fixture, and Simonon's moment of glory onstage as he took lead vocals. He would swap instruments with Joe Strummer, who would play bass whilst Simonon played some rhythm guitar and sang (or usually bellowed) his vocals with great gusto. An example of this is the live version of the song which appears on the From Here To Eternity live compilation CD, taken from one of their many New York shows in June 1981. The song was first played live by the band at a September 1979 show in Chicago and at almost every show after that.

The Clash - Jail Guitar Doors

The Clash - Jail Guitar Doors Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Clash US
Released: 1978

Jail Guitar Doors Lyrics

Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine
A little more every day
Holding for a friend till the band do well
Then the D.E.A. locked him away

Clang clang, go the Jail Guitar Doors
Bang bang, go the boots on the floor
Cry cry, for your lonely mother's son
Clang clang, go the jail guitar doors

An' I'll tell you 'bout Pete, didn't want no fame
Gave all his money away
"Well there's something wrong, it'll be good for you, son"
And so they certified him insane

And then there's Keith, waiting for trial
Twenty-five thousand bail
If he goes down you won't hear his sound
But his friends carry on anyway
Fuck 'em!
Jail guitar doors
Fifty four/forty six was my number
Jail guitar doors
Right now someone else has that number

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

Jail Guitar Doors

"Jail Guitar Doors" started life as a song written by singer Joe Strummer for his previous band, the 101ers, either as presently titled or given the different title "Lonely Mother's Son" - reports vary. Strummer brought the song with him to The Clash, but wasn't comfortable with playing it in his new band as he wanted a totally clean cut from the past. It was only in late 1977 that guitarist Mick Jones revisited the song and rewrote the lyrics, eventually having the band re-record it at CBS Studios in September of that year. Roadie Johnny Green remembers the session, and stated that "that funny noise at the beginning is the hi-hat, which was bent. We amplified it right up and everyone loved it."

Musically, the song takes cues from the New York Dolls' back catalogue, as well as David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel." The closing refrain is a direct lift of Toots and the Maytals' "54-46 That's My Number."

The three verses tell the story of one guitarist who gets in trouble for drug possession, which ties together with the sadness and regret of the chorus; seeing people you look up to throw their lives away in such fashion ("Clang clang, go the jail guitar doors, bang bang, go the boots on the floor").

The first verse mentions a character called Wayne ("Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine, a little more every day"), which is likely a reference to the MC5's Wayne Kramer.

The second verse discusses the fate of a Peter ("An' I'll tell you 'bout Pete, didn't want no fame, gave all his money away"), which is more than likely Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green.

The final verse is about a Keith ("And then there's Keith, waiting for trial, twenty-five thousand bail") which is very clearly The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards.

All three men were guitar heroes of Mick Jones growing up, so it would make sense that the "what a shame" feel of the lyrics would relate to Jones' own feelings upon seeing his childhood heroes locked up. After his own drug bust in July 1978, Jones would add a fourth verse into live performances discussing his hope that he doesn't end up meeting the same fate as his heroes.

The first live performance of the song came in Zurich in October 1977, a month after it was recorded, and it remained a solid feature of The Clash's live set for the next 18 months (including with Jones' self-inflicted extra verse after July 1978). It would later be released as the B-side to the "Clash City Rockers" single in 1978, and would only appear on the US version of The Clash's self-titled first album. It would eventually get a UK release on Super Black Market Clash, and in the enormous Singles Box compilation in 2006.

A number of artists have covered this song, including the Rockabilly band The Caravans in 2003, and Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke for his first solo album Pawnshop Guitars in 1994. This version featured other members of Guns N' Roses, as well as Pixies vocalist Frank Black and freelance guitarist Ryan Roxie.

The popular folk musician Billy Bragg used the title "Jail Guitar Doors" as the name for his independent initiative with the aim of providing musical equipment and funding recording projects in prisons and for ex-inmates to help use music as a way of rehabilitating prisoners and ex-convicts. A US version of the Jail Guitar Doors initiative was set up by Wayne Kramer (apropos considering his name-check in the original song) with much the same aim: to use music and performing to help rehabilitate prisoners and cut down on prison violence.

The Clash - Janie Jones

The Clash - Janie Jones Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Clash
Released: 1977

Janie Jones Lyrics

He's in love with rock'n'roll, woah
He's in love with gettin' stoned, woah
He's in love with Janie Jones, woah
He don't like his boring job, no

He's in love with rock'n'roll, woah
He's in love with gettin' stoned, woah
He's in love with Janie Jones, woah
He don't like his boring job, no

And he knows what he like to do
He knows he's gonna have fun with you
You lucky lady
And he knows when the evening comes
When his job is done, he'll be over in his car for you

He's in love with rock'n'roll, woah
He's in love with gettin' stoned, woah
He's in love with Janie Jones, woah
He don't like his boring job, no

In the in-tray, lots of work
But the boss at the firm always thinks he shirks
But he's just like everyone, he's got a Ford Cortina
That just won't run without fuel
Fill her up, Jacko

He's in love with rock'n'roll, woah
He's in love with gettin' stoned, woah
He's in love with Janie Jones, woah
He don't like his boring job, no

And the invoice it don't quite fit
No payola in his alphabetical file
Send for the government man!
And he's just gonna really tell the boss
He's gonna really let him know exactly how he feels
It's pretty bad

He's in love with rock'n'roll, woah
He's in love with gettin' stoned, woah
He's in love with Janie Jones, woah
He don't like his boring job, no, no, no

Let them know, let them know

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

Janie Jones

"Janie Jones" was one of the first ever songs written by The Clash, written not long after singer Joe Strummer had joined to initially form the band in 1976. The tune and chorus apparently came to guitarist Mick Jones whilst riding on the 31 bus from Harrow Road to Chalk Farm in London, with Strummer subsequently helping out with the rest of the lyrics.

Musically the song is very simple, with bassist Paul Simonon's one-note bassline in the choruses being very noticeable. It could be speculated that this is a deliberate musical attempt to emphasize the monotony and boredom of the lyrics, but more likely it's because at this stage Simonon was still learning to play bass properly and couldn't physically play anything more complicated!

The lyrics concern the average working life, and the struggle to try and find some fun in a boring office job. The protagonist attempts to have some fun by meeting up with a lady friend after hours ("An' he knows when the evening comes, when his job is done he'll be over in his car for you"), and also discusses how the dull job and abusive boss ("An' in the in-tray lots of work, but the boss at the firm always thinks he shirks") is necessary to cut a living ("But he's just like everyone, he's got a Ford Cortina that just won't run without fuel").

It also includes the first of many anti-establishment sentiments in Clash songs ("This time he's gonna really tell the boss, gonna really let him know exactly how he feels").

Period references include the aforementioned Cortina (a popular cheap car of the time), the sitcom Love Thy Neighbour ("Fill 'er up, Jacko!") and the 1950s Payola radio scandal ("There's no payola in his alphabetical file").

The title comes from the actual name of a controversial cabaret singer/vice queen from the 1950s and '60s who attracted controversy from being involved in the payola Radio One scandal in the 1960s in a "sex for airplay" scenario. Her other scandals included attending the premiere of a film in 1964 in a topless dress, and being arrested and jailed in 1973 for not just the Payola scandal but also for running a brothel and perverting the course of justice by threatening witnesses. She also had a partial pop career in the 1960s, including a single "Witches' Brew" which peaked at #46 in the UK Singles Chart. According to the band, they used her name because someone like her would seem impossibly glamorous to someone working in a dull office job. She subsequently became friends with the band, and together with The Clash and the Blockheads (credited jointly as The Lash) she released another single in 1982 entitled "House of the Ju-Ju Queen," which was also produced by Joe Strummer.

The song is notable in The Clash's canon in that it is the only song of theirs to be played from first show to last. The band played so many shows and had a policy of rotating their setlist night by night, so it's hard to say that it was played at every single show, but it certainly featured in 99% of their shows and tours to all accounts. It was played in their first shows in 1976, and in their farewell shows in 1985.

The simple nature of the song means that it is very easy to cover, and many cover versions of the song exist, including versions by the Rockabilly band The Farrell Brothers (for the This Is Rockabilly Clash album), Bush, The Paddingtons, The Slackers (ft. Chris Murray), Songdog, and famously by Pete Doherty's band Babyshambles.

The Babyshambles cover is notable for several reasons - lots of stars of the British indie rock scene feature on the track, including the Kooks, the Gulliemots and the Dirty Pretty Things. This was Carl Barat's first collaboration with Doherty since the breakup of The Libertines, although neither actually met during the recording process. The music video features the original Janie Jones of the title being chauffeured around London in a limousine with original Clash guitarist Mick Jones.

The Clash - Know Your Rights

The Clash - Know Your Rights Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Combat Rock
Released: 1982

Know Your Rights Lyrics

This is a public service announcement
With guitar
Know Your Rights
All three of them

Number one
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a crime
Unless it was done
By a policeman
Or an aristocrat
Oh, know your rights

And number two
You have the right to food money
Providing of course
You don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

Know your rights
These are your rights
Hey, say, Wang

Oh, know these rights

Number three
You have the right to free speech
As long as
You're not dumb enough to actually try it

Know your rights
These are your rights
Oh, know your rights
These are your rights
All three of 'em
Ha!
It has been suggested in some quarters
That this is not enough
Well

Get off the streets
Run
Get off the streets

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

Know Your Rights

The lyrics to "Know Your Rights" are a very sarcastic look at oppression of the poor and working classes via limiting their human rights. Joe Strummer likely wrote them as a sarcastic response to a series of public service announcements in poor areas reminding the civilians of their basic human rights - this would certainly explain the "This is a public service announcement... WITH GUITARS!" introductory line.

According to the lyrics, people only have three human rights:

1) The right not to be killed, unless it is done by a policeman or an aristocrat (perhaps referencing two recent incidents, the deaths of Sunderland boxer Liddle Towers (see also The Angelic Upstarts' "The Murder Of Liddle Towers") and New Zealand schoolteacher Blair Peach in incidents involving police brutality).

2) The right to food money - as long as you don't mind "a little investigation, humiliation, and if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation," a possible reference to the stricter tests and investigations one had to pass in order to receive welfare payments in the UK at the time.

3) The right to free speech - "as long as you're not actually dumb enough to try it!"

The song was written in August/September 1981 at the Ear Studios, and was an obvious choice for both opening song on the Combat Rock record and leadoff single from the album, peaking at #43 on the UK Charts with the B-side "First Night Back in London." It became a popular live song from 1982 to 1984 with it's heavy drums and Rockabilly guitar breaks. A representative version recorded in Boston in September 1982 features on the From Here to Eternity live compilation.

The song has been covered numerous times, most famously by Pearl Jam, who regularly perform a live cover, as well as by General Soup Kitchen, The Cowans, The Frisk and Primal Scream.

The Clash - London's Burning

The Clash - London's Burning Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Clash
Released: 1977

London's Burning Lyrics

London's Burning
London's burning

All across the town, all across the night
Everybody's driving with full headlights
Black or white, you turn it on, you face the new religion
Everybody's sitting 'round watching television

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine
London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine

I'm up and down the Westway, in and out the lights
What a great traffic system, it's so bright
I can't think of a better way to spend the night
Than speeding around underneath the yellow lights

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine
London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine

Now I'm in the subway and I'm looking for the flat
This one leads to this block, this one leads to that
The wind howls through the empty blocks looking for a home
I run through the empty stone because I'm all alone

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine
London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine

London's burning

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

London's Burning

"London's Burning" (named after the popular nursery rhyme about the Great Fire of London in 1666) is mainly about the punk scene's main choice of drug at the time: amphetamine sulphate, AKA speed ("I can't think of a better way to spend the night, than speeding around underneath the yellow lights").

"I decided quite quickly that the up wasn't worth the down," noted singer Joe Strummer.

It is also one of The Clash's most overt songs about urban alienation, and while they and other first-generation Punk bands became stereotyped for writing songs about tower blocks and inner-city wastelands, this is actually the only Clash song on their first album to reference tower blocks directly ("The wind howls through the empty blocks looking for a home, I run through the empty stone 'cos I'm all alone").

Fellow punk band The Ruts would later go on to have a minor hit with the 1979 single "Babylon's Burning," and were quick to acknowledge the influence "London's Burning" had on that song.

First recorded at CBS Studios London for the sessions for their debut album, Mick Jones' improvised guitar solo near the end of the song was fiercely at odds with punk rock's minimalist attitude (which often opposed guitar solos at all, let alone complex ones). An alternative version, taken from the 'live' session in Dunstable for the "White Riot" promo film in April 1977 (live in that they were playing in a studio to a small assembled audience of journalists) was released as the B-side to the controversial "Remote Control" single in May 1977.

This song became a hugely popular live favorite, and remained in their set pretty much from its first ever performance at Screen on the Green in April 1976 (their third ever show). A common trend would involve Strummer changing the lyrics to match the town where they were performing; for example, the first time this occurred at a show in Birmingham in late 1976, the song became "Birmingham's Burning." This improvisation reached a peak at a show in Paris in 1977, where the song became "Paris Is Singing" and almost the entire original lyrics were disregarded in favor of new stream-of-consciousness ones, including a popular reference to local Punk band The Stinky Toys.

A hugely energetic version recorded at the Rock Against Racism show in April 1977 would later feature (with some studio overdubs) in the Rude Boy movie and on the From Here to Eternity live compilation album.

Several notable covers exist, including one by the '90s alt-rock band Silverchair.

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.

The Clash - Revolution Rock

The Clash - Revolution Rock Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: London Calling
Released: 1979

Revolution Rock Lyrics

Revolution Rock, it is a brand new rock
A bad, bad rock, this here revolution rock

Careful how you move, Mac, you dig me in me back
An' I'm so pilled up that I rattle
I have got the sharpest knife, so I cut the biggest slice
But I have no time to do battle

Everybody smash up your seats and rock to this
Brand new beat
This here music mash up the nation
This here music cause a sensation
Tell your ma, tell your pa everything's gonna be all right
Can't you feel it? Don't ignore it
Gonna be alright

Revolution rock, I am in a state of shock
So bad, bad rock, this here revolution rock

Careful how you slide, Clyde, all you did was glide
And you poured your beer in me hat
With my good eye on the beat, living on fixation street
And I ain't got no time for that

Everybody smash up your seats and rock to this
Brand new beat
This here music mash up the nation
This here music cause a sensation
Tell your ma, tell your pa everything's gonna be all right
Can't you feel it? Don't ignore it
Gonna be alright

Revolution rock,
Everybody smash up your seats and rock to this
Brand new beat
This here music mash up the nation
This here music cause a sensation
Tell your ma, tell your pa everything's gonna be all right
Can't you feel it? Don't ignore it
Gonna be alright

Revolution rock,

To the cruellist mobsters in Kingstown,
With the hardest eyes and the coldest tongue
Is your heart so made of rock
That the blood must flow 'round the block?
Are you listening mobsters? Hey!
All people grow old, gotta die,
While those kinda fools go rolling by
It's food for thought, mobsters
Young people shoot their days away
I've seen talent thrown away
All you loan sharks!

The organ plays
And they're dancing to the brand new beat
This here music mash up the nation
This here music cause a sensation
Tell your ma-ma-ma-ma, tell your pa-pa-pa-pa everything's gonna be all right
Can't you feel it? Don't ignore it
Everything's gonna be alright
I say, revolution rocks

There's that old cheese grater
Rubbing me down
This must be the way out

Here's the cheap bit
OO la oo la oo la

Any song you want
Playing requests now on the bandstand
El Clash Combo
Paid fifteen dollars a day
Weddings, parties, anything
And Bongo Jazz a speciality

Writer/s: J. EDWARDS, D. RAY
Publisher: CONEXION MEDIA GROUP, INC., NEWMAN & COMPANY CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Revolution Rock

This song was originally recorded by the Jamaican group Danny Ray and the Revolutioneers in 1976. Danny Ray sampled the Jackie Edwards song "Get Up" on the track, so Edwards and Ray are the credited songwriters of "Revolution Rock."

When The Clash recorded the song, lead singer Joe Strummer changed some of the original lyrics, inserting a reference to Bobby Darin's "Mack The Knife" ("Careful how you move, Mac, you dig me in me back") and to the Punk craze of smashing/ripping up seats in venues with seating instead of standing room ("Everybody smash up your seats, and rock to this brand new beat").

First recorded at Wessex in July 1979, an instrumental version of this song features over the end credits of the Rude Boy movie taken from these early sessions. The song was then re-recorded with Guy Stevens for London Calling, with new instrumental parts by the Irish Horns.

Always a fun song to play live, often becoming quite a rave-up, "Revolution Rock" was a live fixture from it's introduction at The Clash's 1979 Christmas shows in London until it was dropped in mid-1981.

The Clash - Sean Flynn

The Clash - Sean Flynn Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Combat Rock
Released: 1982

Sean Flynn Lyrics

You know he heard the drums of war
When the past was a closing door

The drums beat into the jungle floor

Past was always a closing door
Closing door

Rain on the leaves and the soldiers sing
You never-never hear anything

They filled the sky with a tropical storm

You know he heard the drums of war
But each man knows what he's looking for

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

Sean Flynn

The song is named after real-life photojournalist Sean Flynn, the son of Hollywood star Errol Flynn. It is based on the story of Flynn and Dana Stone, who were both widely respected war correspondents and photographers working extensively with Time magazine. In April 1970 Flynn and Stone traveled from Phnom Penh in Vietnam and were stopped at a checkpoint before being led away by either Vietcong or Khmer Rouge members. Neither were ever seen again, and CIA intel suggests that they were executed by their captors in 1971.

The mournful, eerie feel of the song is inspired by these events, and coincides with singer Joe Strummer's interest in the Vietnam War. He was intrigued by how many Americans seemed to feel a guilt about even getting involved in the war in the first place, let alone losing it.

"Sean Flynn" was written in 1981 at Vanilla studios in London, and recorded at Marcus Music studios in April of that year. The full version of the song is over seven minutes long; much of the backing track is drummer Topper Headon's work - the oriental-sounding drum patterns were his idea. Joe Strummer worked out his lyrics to this pattern, while session musician Gary Barnacle added multi-layered saxophone solos throughout the song. Mick Jones used an echo box and multiple overdubs for his guitar parts. "Playing chromatically, like an Irish reel," according to engineer Jeremy Green.

This is a spectacular mood piece, one that many hardcore Clash fans consider one of the most under-appreciated in the band's canon. However, not everybody liked it. Manager Bernie Rhodes sat through an early mix and at the end apparently threw his hands up and shouted "Does EVERYTHING have to be a raga?!" It's possible this accusation was aimed not just at this track, but other lengthy songs such as "Straight To Hell" that were recorded for the album. On the plus side, Rhodes' exclamation gave Strummer the opening line for "Rock the Casbah."

This was one of many longer tracks on the record which ended up causing much tension during the mixing process. Joe Strummer discovered that their previous album, the triple-LP Sandinista!, was very hard to obtain - many record shops even in New York didn't stock the record. So Strummer decided that their next album would be a single one so it would be easier to sell, as well as being more straightforward musically. Except that Jones disagreed, and wanted another sprawling double or triple LP like Sandinista! or London Calling.

Jones produced an early mix of the finished album, named Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg, in late 1981, which Strummer criticized for being overlong and self-indulgent. It included all the tracks at full length, as well as several tracks which remain unreleased (including a 12-minute improvised Jazz piano instrumental called "Walk Evil Talk"). The veteran producer Glyn Johns took over production of the album and was tasked with cutting the running time down, and against Jones' wishes he cut several tracks (some of which became B-sides and others which are still unreleased) from the LP altogether, and slashed the runtime down of other tracks. "Sean Flynn" was one of the worst hit, being cut from eight minutes plus down to just over four minutes.

Because of the extreme complexity of the backing track, as well as the surreal nature of the song, it was never performed live by the band.

The Clash - Something About England

The Clash - Something About England Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Sandinista!
Released: 1980

Something About England Lyrics

They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an' roses
If England were for Englishmen again

Well I saw a dirty overcoat
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dance hall called for an' ambulance
The bars all closed up fast

My silence gazing at the ceiling
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it's all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
I'll tell you a thing or two

I missed the fourteen-eighteen war
But not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths

The next war began and my ship sailed
With battle orders writ in bed
In five long years of bullets and shells
We left ten million dead
The few returned to old Piccadilly
We limped around Lester Square
The world was busy rebuilding itself
The architects could not care

But how could we know when I was young
All the changes that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
England never closed this gap

So leave me now the moon is up
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell

The streets were by now deserted
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone

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

Something About England

"Something About England" is one of many crazy musical variations on the Sandinista! album, with The Clash experimenting with Music Hall, one of British music's oldest genres, stretching back to Victorian and Edwardian times. The campy vaudeville elements sound an odd contrast to Punk music, but Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten was very open about how much Music Hall "comedy of the absurd" elements he incorporated into his stage persona.

The lyrics are structured as a conversation between the narrator, guitarist Mick Jones, and a wistful old tramp, singer Joe Strummer. The first verse is a putdown of lazy racism - higher social classes blaming immigration for a society's ills ("They say immigrants steal the hubcaps of the respected gentlemen, they say it would be wine an' roses if England were for Englishmen again").

Joe Strummer's lyrics in the character of a wistful tramp are some of the most political and social commentary in The Clash's back catalogue, bemoaning how two world wars and the industrial revolution still couldn't break down the class system which causes such disharmony in England ("But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace England never closed this gap"). Though musically the song is nothing like old Punk-Rock Clash, the lyrics stick right to the core values of Punk of anti-establishment and protest against social ills.

Musically "Something About England" is very complex, with Jones playing piano for the whole song, drummer Topper Headon playing a delicate 'quotation-mark' percussion beat and a horn section comprising of session musician Gary Barnacle, Gary's father Bill (a noted jazz musician) and military bandsman David Yates). Because of this complexity (and the worry that the first verse may be misinterpreted by certain sections of the audience), the song was never performed live.

The Clash - The Street Parade

The Clash - The Street Parade Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Sandinista!
Released: 1980

The Street Parade Lyrics

When I was waiting for your phone call
The one that never came
Like a man about to burst
I was dying of thirst

Though I will never fade
Or get lost in this daze
Though I will disappear
Into The Street Parade

It's not too hard to cry
In these crying times
I'll take a broken heart
And take it home in parts
But I will never fade

I was in this place
By the first church of the city
I saw tears on the face
The face of a visionary

Though I will disappear
To join the street parade
Disappear and fade
Into the street parade

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

The Street Parade

"The Street Parade" was, despite only being a largely unappreciated track, one that was highly rated by The Clash. It featured in most of their 1981 concerts, and was the uncredited final bonus track on the Clash on Broadway compilation - rumored to be uncredited as the band were determined to get the song on the compilation even though the record label were happy with the tracks already picked from Sandinista!.

The lyrics could be viewed as a hint towards Joe Strummer's struggles with depression later in the 1980s, after The Clash had broken up. Even though at the time of the song's writing, it seems he was struggling with identity and being detached from the real life he was trying to represent in songs with The Clash by the trappings of fame ("It's not too hard to cry, In these crying times"). The idea of losing himself in a crowd is clearly an appealing one, wanting to escape into a situation where no-one recognizes him ("Though I will disappear, To join the street parade, Disappear and fade, Into the street parade").

The recording of this song is much like most songs on the Sandinista! album, with many extra instruments adding to the sound - in this case, a floating horn section and snatches of Caribbean marimbas.

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Essential Clash
Released: 1981

This Is Radio Clash Lyrics

Interrupting all programs

This Is Radio Clash from pirate satellite

Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
Cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights
This is radio clash on pirate satellite

This sound does not subscribe
To the international plan
In the psycho shadow of the white right hand
Then that see ghettology as an urban Vietnam
Giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm

This is radio clash tearing up the seven veils
This is radio clash please save us, not the whales
This is radio clash underneath a mushroom cloud
This is radio clash
You don't need that funeral shroud

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty

Hands of law have sorted through
My identity
But now this sound is brave
And wants to be free - anyway to be free

This is Radio clash on pirate satellite
This is not free Europe
Not an armed force network
This is Radio Clash using audio ammunition
This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?
This is Radio Clash using aural ammunition
This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?
This is Radio Clash on pirate satellite
Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
This is radio Clash on pirate satellite
This is radio Clash everybody hold on tight

A-riggy diggy dig dang dang

Go back to urban 'nam

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

This Is Radio Clash

The initial idea for "This Is Radio Clash" apparently came from a conversation between singer Joe Strummer, aide Kosmo Vinyl and manager Bernie Rhodes about the band setting up their own radio station. Having read Dispatches by Michael Herr, Strummer wrote the line "ghettology is an urban Vietnam" and later fleshed out the lyrics at Marcus Music in Kensington in April 1981 in the inaugural sessions before the song was completed at the Electric Lady studios in New York in November of that year.

Joe Strummer admitted in an interview with Melody Maker in 1988 that he had nicked the bassline from the Queen hit "Another One Bites The Dust" (which in itself shares many similarities with another Disco classic, Chic's "Good Times").

The song as a whole is the band's tribute to New York rap acts such as the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - indeed, Strummer's sinister high-pitched laugh at the start of the song was directly inspired by Grandmaster Flash's "The Message."

Two sets of lyrics exist for "This Is Radio Clash" - the original, featuring references to the Bill of Rights, Napalm and the American Armed Forces Network, and a separate set that was recorded onto another take, later named just "Radio Clash." Confusingly they are both identical tracks bar the lyrics, and even feature as A and B sides on the single, which led to some mistakes in later re-releases - on the Story of the Clash Volume 1 compilation, the tracklisting lists "This Is Radio Clash," but it is in fact the "Radio Clash" version on the CD.

After the musical mish-mash of the Sandinista! album, many critics were hoping the band would get back to more traditional sound, which probably explains some of the more scathing reviews of this song when it came out, as critics tired of the band's dalliance with Hip-Hop influences. Gavin Martin, usually a supporter of the band, ripped it apart upon release in NME: "Another rag-bag of musical clichés and political simplifications sprawling, splintered fantasy which presents the zombified vision of would-be guerillas with rampant hysteria."

It's worth noting that many UK critics really took against The Clash from 1980 onwards when the band started spending more and more time in America, which in turn meant the band resented coming home more and more. Ironically, by the time of the 30th Anniversary of London Calling's release, NME were desperately trying to backtrack on their more negative comments from 1979-83, claiming that their original review of the album was highly rated. It wasn't!

Don Letts' music video for "This Is Radio Clash" drew on footage shot for the unreleased Clash on Broadway film, which was a documentary shot by Letts during 1981 as he accompanied The Clash on their New York residency in Bonds Casino, including two full gigs from their 16-gig stay at the venue across two weeks and footage of the band backstage and living life in New York. It was mooted for a November 1982 release, but perhaps due to turmoil within the band, the project was quietly forgotten about, and by 1994 Joe Strummer told Mojo magazine that "as far as I know the reels were stored in a rental place in New York. Bernie (Rhodes, their manager) forgot to pay the rent and the footage was destroyed."

A cutting copy of 30 minutes' worth of footage was found by Letts in a cupboard in the mid-1990s, and what is left of the film was put together for release on the Westway to the World DVD. One of the few surviving live performances from the Bonds shows is, ironically, of "This Is Radio Clash" in one of it's first live outings.

The Clash - What's My Name

The Clash - What's My Name Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Clash
Released: 1977

What's My Name Lyrics

What the hell is wrong with me?
I'm not who I want to be
I tired spot cream an' I tried it all
I'm crawling up the wall

What's My Name, name, name

I tried to join a ping-pong club
Sign on the door said "all full up"
I got nicked, fighting in the road
The judge didn't even know

What's my name, name, name

Dad go pissed so I got clocked
Couldn't hear the Tannoy so he lost the lot
Offers mum a bribe through the letter box
Drives you fucking mad

Now, I'm round the back of your house at night
Peeping in the window, are you sleeping tight?
I laugh at your locks with my celluloid strip
An' you won't know who came

What's my name, name, name

What's my name, name, name

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

What's My Name

This is the one writing credit that original guitarist Keith Levene got from The Clash on the first album. He claimed to "have a hand" in every song on the first album, but this is disputed by the rest of the band. Joe Strummer always claimed that Levene was too busy doing drugs (heroin and speed, allegedly) to rehearse and hence his subsequent sacking from the band.

Levene claims to have written most of the song with his fellow guitarist Mick Jones in May 1976, and showed it to Sex Pistols singer John Lydon (with whom he would later form the post-punk band Public Image Ltd.). Strummer however remembers that "the only parts the song had when it came was, 'What's my name?' That's all the song was. I put in a few verses to keep the choruses apart."

Judging by early live bootlegs from 1976 to mid 1977, the lyrics were still being worked out (an early version featured a chilling coda about breaking into a house with a flick-knife).

The final lyrics to "What's My Name" are a brutal look at rejection and domestic violence ("Dad got pissed, so I got clocked") and depersonalisation to such an extent that the narrator is literally asking "what's my name?" - he can't even join a ping-pong club ("I went to join the ping-pong club, sign on the door said 'all full up'").

A live favorite from the first Clash album, this is one of the most raw punk tracks from the set when played in a live context; others being "White Riot," "Janie Jones" and "I'm So Bored With The USA." As such, the song remained in the Clash live canon from 1976 till around 1980, before being revived with the rejigged lineup in 1984 with Paul Simonon inexplicably promoted to lead vocals.

The version on the From Here to Eternity live compilation is taken from a Camden show in July 1978 and is the same one as seen in the Rude Boy movie, featuring extensive overdubs from the original scratchy sound take.

The Clash - The Right Profile

The Clash - The Right Profile Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: London Calling
Released: 1979

The Right Profile Lyrics

Say, where did I see this guy?
In 'Red River'?
Or a 'Place In The Sun'?
Maybe 'The Misfits'?
Or 'From Here to Eternity'?

And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "What's he like?"
And everybody say, "He sure look funny"
That's Montgomery Clift, honey!

New York, New York, 42nd Street
Hustlers rustle and pimps pimp the beat
Monty Clift is recognized at dawn
He ain't got no shoes and his clothes are torn

And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "What's he like?"
And everybody say, "He sure look funny"
That's that Montgomery Clift, honey!

I see a car smashed at night
Cut the applause and dim the light
Monty's face is broken on a wheel
Is he alive? Can he still feel?

And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "Shine a light"
And everybody say, "It's not funny"
That's Montgomery Clift, honey!

Shoot his right profile

And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "What's he like?"
And everybody say, "He sure look funny"
That's Montgomery Clift, honey!

Nembutol, numbs it all
But I prefer alcohol

And everybody say, "What's he like?"
And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "He sure look funny"
That's Montgomery Clift, honey!

He said go out and get me my old movie stills
Go out and get me another roll of pills
There I go again shaking, but I ain't got the chills

ARRRGHHHGORRA BUH BHUH DO ARRRRGGGGHHHHNNNN!!!!

And everybody say, "What's he like?"
And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "He sure look funny"
That's Montgomery Clift, honey!

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

The Right Profile

"The Right Profile" is about actor Montgomery Clift (A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity) and his troubled life. Clift had problems with pills and alcohol. The car crash into a tree discussed in this song occurred in 1956, while he was driving home from a party at Elizabeth Taylor's house. She saved his life then, but he died in 1966 of coronary occlusion, what some have called the "slowest suicide" in cinema history.

London Calling producer Guy Stevens had lent singer Joe Strummer a copy of Patricia Bosworth's 1978 biography of Clift, and suggested that perhaps Strummer write a song about him. With Stevens also suffering from alcohol and drug problems, perhaps Strummer saw parallels between Clift and The Clash's troubled producer? Roadie Johnny Green suggested that this was the case in his memoirs.

After Clift's car accident, his face was mangled and he needed plastic surgery for a broken jaw. He continued to make movies, but had to be shot from "The Right Profile" to look good, hence the name of the song.

Clift has been the subject of other songs as well, including R.E.M.'s "Monty Got a Raw Deal" from their 1992 album, Automatic for the People.

An the album cover is a photo of Clash bass player Paul Simonon smashing his instrument during a show at The Palladium in New York City. He later regretted doing it, because it was his best bass. The smashed bass is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Musically "The Right Profile" is one of the highlights of the London Calling album, featuring heavy usage of the Irish Horns to create a swing feel. Sadly this also proved to be the song's performance downfall, as unlike other horn-heavy songs on the album (such as "Revolution Rock" and "Rudie Can't Fail"), there was no way it could be played live without the horn section.

The Clash - Police and Thieves

The Clash - Police and Thieves Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Clash
Released: 1977

Police and Thieves Lyrics

We're going through a tight wind

Police and Thieves in the streets, oh yeah
Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition
Police and thieves in the street, oh yeah
Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

From genesis to revelation
The next generation will be, hear me
From genesis to revelation
The next generation will be, hear me
And all the crowd comes in, day by day
No one stops it in any way
All the peacemaker, turn war officer
Hear what I say, he-e-ey

Police and thieves in the streets, oh yeah
Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition
Police and thieves in the street, oh yeah
Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

From genesis to revelation
The next generation will be, hear me
Throw it up, throw it up, throw it up, throw it up, throw it up
Oh yeah
Throw it up, throw it up, throw it up, throw it up, throw it up
Oh yeah

And all the crowd come in, day by day
No one stop it in anyway
All the peacemaker, turn war officer
Hear what I say, he-e-ey

Police, police, police and thieves, oh yeah
Police, police, police and thieves, oh yeah
From genesis-is-is-is-is-is-is-is-is-is, oh yeah
Police, police, police, police and thieves, oh yeah

And I'm scaring, I'm fighting the nation, oh yeah
Shooting, shooting their guns and, guns and ammunition, oh yeah
Oh yeah, police, police, police and thieves, oh yeah
I'm scaring, oh yeah
I'm scaring the nation, police, police, police, police, oh yeah

Here come, here come, here come
The station is bombed, oh yeah
Get out, get out, get out you people
If you don't want to get blown up, oh yeah
The police, the police and the thieves, oh yeah
You got an extra grand
But you got trapped in the middle of police, police, police
Police, police, police, police
Police, police, police, police
Police, police, police, police
Police, police, police, police

Writer/s: MURVIN, JUNIOR / PERRY, LEE
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Police and Thieves Song Chart

This was written by the reggae artist Junior Murvin, who recorded it in his falsetto style in 1976. The Clash, who were huge reggae fans, covered the song. It's the first example of The Clash incorporating reggae into their repertoire, something that can be heard in original songs like "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" and "Guns of Brixton." At the time, reggae was the music of Britain's oppressed Jamaican population.

The album was The Clash's first, and it was released only in the UK. As the band gained popularity in the US, there became a huge demand for it there, and about 100,000 copies were sold in the States as an import. A greatly altered version was finally released in the US in 1979.

The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go? Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Combat Rock
Released: 1982

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Lyrics

Darling you got to let me know
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
If you say that you are mine
I'll be here till the end of time
So you got to let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

It's always tease tease tease
You're happy when I'm on my knees
One day is fine, and next is black
So if you want me off your back
Well come on and let me know
Should I Stay or should I go?

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know

This indecision's bugging me
Esta indecision me molesta
If you don't want me, set me free
Si no me quieres, librame
Exactly whom I'm supposed to be
Digame quien tengo ser

Don't you know which clothes even fit me?
Sabes que ropas me queda?
Come on and let me know
Me tienes que decir
Should I cool it or should I blow?
Me debo ir o quedarme?

Split

Should I stay or should I go now?
Me entra frio por los ojos
Should I stay or should I go now?
Me entra frio por los ojos
If I go there will be trouble
Si me voy va a haber peligro
And if I stay it will be double
Si me quedo va a ser doble
So you gotta let me know
Me tienes que decir
Should I cool it or should I blow?

Should I stay or should I go now?
Me entra frio por los ojos
If I go there will be trouble
Si me voy va a haber peligro
And if I stay it will be double
Si me quedo va a ser doble
So you gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go

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

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Song Chart

One of the more popular songs by The Clash, this one uses a very unusual technique: Spanish lyrics echoing the English words.

Singing the Spanish parts with Joe Strummer was Joe Ely, a Texas singer whose 1978 album Honky Tonk Masquerade got the attention of The Clash when they heard it in England. When Ely and his band performed in London, The Clash went to a show and took them around town after the performance. They became good friends, and when The Clash came to Texas in 1979, they played some shows together. They stayed in touch, and when The Clash returned to America in 1982, they played more shows together and Ely joined them in the studio when they were recording Combat Rock at Electric Ladyland Studio in New York.

In our 2012 interview with Joe Ely, he explained: "I'm singing all the Spanish verses on that, and I even helped translate them. I translated them into Tex-Mex and Strummer kind of knew Castilian Spanish, because he grew up in Spain in his early life. And a Puerto Rican engineer (Eddie Garcia) kind of added a little flavor to it. So it's taking the verse and then repeating it in Spanish."

When we asked Ely whose idea the Spanish part was, he said, "I came in to the studio while they were working out the parts. They'd been working on the song for a few hours already, they had it sketched out pretty good. But I think it was Strummer's idea, because he just immediately, when it came to that part, he immediately went, 'You know Spanish, help me translate these things.' (Laughs) My Spanish was pretty much Tex-Mex, so it was not an accurate translation. But I guess it was meant to be sort of whimsical, because we didn't really translate verbatim."

According to Strummer, Eddie Garcia, the sound engineer, called his mother in Brooklyn Heights and got her to translate some of the lyrics over the phone. Eddie's mother is Ecuadorian, so Joe Strummer and Joe Ely ended up singing in Ecuadorian Spanish.

About two minutes in, you can hear Mick Jones say, "Split!" While it sounds like it could be some kind of statement related to the song, Joe Ely tells us that it had a much more quotidian meaning. Said Ely: "Me and Joe were yelling this translation back while Mick Jones sang the lead on it, and we were doing the echo part. And there was one time when the song kind of breaks down into just the drums right before a guitar part. And you hear Mick Jones saying, 'Split!' Just really loud, kind of angry. Me and Joe had snuck around in the studio, came up in the back of his booth where he was all partitioned off, and we snuck in and jumped and scared the hell out of him right in the middle of recording the song, and he just looked at us and says, 'Split!' So we ran back to our vocal booth and they never stopped the recording."

The line, "If you want me off your back" was originally the sexually charged line "On your front or on your back." In April 1982, the famed '60s producer Glyn Johns was brought in to slash the album down and make it into a mainstream-friendly single-LP. In addition to cutting parts of songs out, he insisted that Mick Jones re-record this line, fearing that US radio stations would not touch a record with such a sexually suggestive line.

These sessions as a whole were in bad blood, with Jones furious that his original mixes of his songs were being massacred against his will, and it was this combined with other factors (such as the return of controversial manager Bernie Rhodes) which resulted in the breakdown of the band and Jones' sacking in 1983.

Mick Jones in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh said, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go? wasn't about anything specific and it wasn't pre-empting my leaving The Clash. It was just a good rocking song, our attempt at writing a classic."

In a 2009 Rolling Stone article on The Clash, they state that Jones wrote this song about his girlfriend Ellen Foley, who acted on the TV series Night Court and sang with Meat Loaf on "Paradise By the Dashboard Light."

It was speculated that the song was also a comment on Jones' position in the band, pre-empting his sacking in 1983 by over a year and a half. Strummer pondered this in interviews, as did Jones. "Maybe it was pre-empting my leaving" he noted in 1991, although he did conclude that it was more likely about a "personal situation" - presumably his relationship with Foley.

Psychobilly is the punk version of rockabilly; it's a fusion genre which also gets a nice sound out of elements of everything from doo-wop to blues, but with that punk edge to it. "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" resembles early punk, almost retro style, and so could be called rockabilly. More than anything, it compares very nicely with The Cramps.

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" is possibly one of the most covered Clash songs by dint of being one of the most popular. Just some of the groups to cover this song include Living Colour, Skin, MxPx, Weezer, ZZ Top, and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Anti-Flag covered the song at various festival dates in 2012, and more memorable versions exist by Die Toten Hosen and Australian pop star Kyle Minogue. It even shows up in "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Polkas On 45" medley - a takeoff on the "Stars On 45 Medley."

As a UK #1 single, what song did it replace as #1 on the UK charts? "Do the Bartman" by The Simpsons. Speaking of charts, while this song was their only #1 in the UK, The Clash got even less respect in the US; their highest chart on the Billboard was #8 for "Rock the Casbah". That's amazing when you consider how much airplay they get on the radio.

Introduced into The Clash's live set in Paris in September 1981, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" sat awkwardly in the set after Jones was fired - it was a hugely popular song so fans expected it to be played, but its author and singer was no longer in the band.

For a while in 1984 it was performed with new guitarist Nick Sheppard singing lead vocals, with the song developing into an aggressive Metal thrash with bellowed Punk-style vocals. In the end The Clash Mark II dropped the song altogether, although not before they also added some nasty lyrics about Jones (as was common in the post-Jones Clash, sadly). Two much more representative versions are the version of the song filmed at Shea Stadium in 1982 (supporting The Who) for the music video, and the version from Boston in 1982 that features on the From Here To Eternity live compilation.

Ice Cube and Mack 10 did a rap remake of this song for the 1998 Clash tribute album Burning London.

This was re-released as a single in February 1991 after it was used in a Levi's jeans television ad. It went to #1 in the UK, but didn't chart in the US.

Cheekily, Mick Jones used a vocal sample from this track on one of his post-Clash projects, Big Audio Dynamite. You can hear it on their song "The Globe."