‘Straight to Hell’ - The Clash, 1982
I first heard this song from Dave (the other blogger on this site) a year or so ago as I wouldn’t have listened to much of The Clash in the past although a lot of people kept recomending them to me. Dave has this fetish of creating ipod greatest hits playlists of his favourite bands. I think we were heading to the electric picnic festival last year and this song randomly came on. It was the only song that asked to play again and again on the way down. Not that I didn’t like any of the other songs, I did, but this song grabbed my attention. Big Time.
Taken as a single from the album Combat Rock, The musical sound of the song reminds me a lot of reggae while the content is really a protest song, typical from what I hear in Clash songs, about various misgivings happening in the world around the time the song was written or slightly before it. The first verse talks about the steel workers in England during the Iron Ladies rule.
‘If you can play on the fiddle
Hows about a british jig and reel?
Speaking kings english in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise‘
Is the second verse of the song that made me sit up straight and really listen to the song. From all the protest war songs that I’ve heard, I’ve never heard any singer sing about the consequences of fatherless children left behind when soldiers go home. Generally war songs are about the soldiers themselves and what the war is about etc so this is a refreshing take on the subject of war. The war in the song is specifically about the vietnam war but applies to war in general. Check out the lyrics
‘Ywanna join in a chorus
Of the amerasian blues?
When its christmas out in ho chi minh city
Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home
See me got photo photo
Photograph of you
Mamma mamma mamma-san
Of you and mamma mamma mamma-san
Lemme tell ya bout your blood bamboo kid.
It aint coca-cola its rice.‘
The vision of America and Immigration are the subjects of the third and fourth verses respectively. While they are also good, but as stated above, its the second verse that got me hooked. There is a youtube video of the song here . Never has a song really credited the tag as a classic more so than this song.
Last 5 posts by Des
- 'Fearless' - Pink Floyd, 1983 - December 30th, 2008
- 'Frankie Teardrop' - Suicide, 1977 - December 19th, 2008
- 'After Midnight' - J J Cale, 1971 - December 17th, 2008
- 'Acid Tongue'- Jenny Lewis, 2008 - December 12th, 2008
- 'Baltimore'- Randy Newman, 1977 - December 9th, 2008
