Monday, October 31, 2016

Straight to Hell by The Clash

If you can play on the fiddle
How's about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King's English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise

There ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys

Y'wanna join in a chorus
Of the Amerasian blues?
When it's 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 ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.

Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san
Please take me home
Oh Papa-san
Everybody they wanna go home
So Mamma-san says

You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International
Hah! Junkiedom U.S.A.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
and rat poison
The volatile Molatov says-

PSSST...
HEY CHICO WE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YA...
VAMOS VAMOS MUCHACHO
FROM ALPHABET CITY ALL THE WAY A TO Z, DEAD, HEAD

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here

Go straight to hell boys

I HEARD A MIND BLOWING COVER OF THIS SONG IN A LITTLE BAR NEAR WHERE I LIVED IN L.A. IT MAY HAVE BEEN THE VIPER ROOM DURING THE 2000 CONVENTION. AT ANY RATE, THIS SONG FREQUENTLY RUNS THROUGH MY MIND. AT LEAST THE MA MA MA MA MA SAN AND THE GO STRAIGHT TO HELL BOY PART.

4 comments:

Dan Tschirhart said...

Ah yes, and now a song from the "Only band that matters"

I have been a Clash fan since I was a kid, when 'Rock the Casbah' came out

My sister bought the album 'Combat Rock' and I was hooked

This song has always been one of my favorites

- and yes it gets stuck in my head a lot, too

It's actually a pretty sad song about injustices, and the plight and struggles of immigrants throughout the world

But damn if it isn't catchy

The Clash had a talent for doing that

This was actually the last song recorded for Combat Rock

It was made in a "mad, creative rush" on the eve of the New Year - Dec 30, 1981

I remember I was enjoying this album and I told my sister that I wish we had more of Clash to listen to

She told me I was an idiot, and that Dad already had two of their records

So I looked through the stack and found 'London Calling' and 'Sandinista'

It was like a Christmas present from the world of music

So on that cold, wintry day in Laramie, Wyoming

- I became a Clash fan for life

Aaron said...

This song is less angry and more of a profound social commentary. And it actually is fun to listen to. I never listened to the clash and I suspect I missed out. I discovered joe strummmer after the clash split up. I had two of his solo albums and I loved them.

Dan Tschirhart said...

Yeah, I have all of Joe Strummer's albums and they are fantastic

His last one - 'Streetcore' - is one of my favorite albums of all

Pirate Aggro said...

Yes the Clash was one of the best. I remember watching MTV for hours in the hope that Rock the Casba would come on. My friend and I would discuss at length why the guitarist had a mask which was torn off at the end of the video. Not everyone loved them. Shareef don't like it.