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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!"

The Clash - Groovy Times

The Clash - Groovy Times Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Cost of Living
Released: 1979

Groovy Times Lyrics

The High Street shops are boarded up
An' the terrace it is fenced in
See-through shields are walled across
The way that you came in
But there's no need to get excited

As the lorries bring the bacon in
'cause the housewives are all singing
Groovy Times are here again

They discovered one black Saturday
That mobs don't march they run
So you can excuse the nervous triggerman
Just this once for jumping the gun
As they were picking up the dead
Out of the broken glass
Yes it's number one, the radio said
Groovy times have come to pass!

Groovy times groovy times groovy times

The intake is on the uptake
The acceleration's pretty grim
I can remember his first appearance
Now look what's happened to him
So they put him in a dog suit
Like from 1964
The king of early evening TV
Groovy times forever more

Groovy times

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

Groovy Times

Singer Joe Strummer explained: "what sparked the song was that they started to put fencing around English football grounds. It looked horrible, like cages with the fans inside. It distressed me."

His instincts were proven right a decade after the song was released when 96 fans were killed at a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989. The incident, which took place at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, became known as the Hillsborough disaster.

Like "Gates of the West," which was recorded around the same time, "Groovy Times" was first demoed in Utopia Studios for the Give 'Em Enough Rope sessions before being completed in Wessex in 1979 with Bill Price producing. Musically it is another subtle departure from The Clash's Punk roots, heavily dominated by acoustic guitars and harmonica (played apparently by Bob Jones - guitarist Mick Jones later said "That's me, it's a Bob Dylan joke").

The lyrics: "I can remember his first appearance, now look what's happened to him. So they put him in a dog suit, like from 1964, the king of early evening TV" appear to be an amusing reference to TV presenter Bill Grundy, who's career spiraled downhill after he drunkenly goaded the Sex Pistols into swearing on prime time TV in 1976 in what became known as the Filth and the Fury scandal. By the time of "Groovy Times"' writing, he was presenting Sunday evening religious programmes.