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The Clash
The Clash


Background information
Origin London, England
Genre(s) Punk Rock
Years active 1976—1986
Label(s) Columbia Records
Associated acts Gorillaz
The 101'ers
London SS
Generation X
The Rich Kids
Cowboys International
General Public
Big Audio Dynamite
Havana 3am
The Latino Rockabilly War
The Pogues
The Mescaleros
Carbon/Silicon
The Good, the Bad and the Queen
Website Website
Former members
Mick Jones
Keith Levene
Paul Simonon
Terry Chimes
Joe Strummer
Rob Harper
Nicky "Topper" Headon
Pete Howard
Nick Sheppard
Vince White



Music World  →  Lyrics  →  T  →  The Clash  →  Albums  →  Combat Rock

The Clash Album


Combat Rock (1982)
1982
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. . .


This is a public service announcement
With guitar!

Know your rights, all three of them!

Number 1:
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a CRIME!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or aristocrat...
Know your rights!

And Number 2:
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!

Number 3:
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!
All three of 'em!

And it has been suggested
In some quarters
That this is not enough!
Well....................

Get off the streets
Run!

. . .


Tonight they're closing up the world
N' sweeping smoke from cigarettes
And what is that funk multi-national
Anthem rocking from a thousand
King Kong cassette decks
Then a shyboy from Missouri
Boots blown off in a '60s war
Riding aluminium crutches
Now he knows the welfare kindness n'
Agent Orange color blindness
As we works from door to door
The violence in the carpets
The mirror of his wife
Drives the slum-bum dweller
To grind his hunting knife
In homesteads of cigar box-radios
Hive like bees
The body in the ice
Box has no date for freeeeeze

CHORUS
In a car jam

Selling is what selling sells
But only saints of the 7 avenues can sell
The hells
Fanning the drug afflicted leperizing acne
Once inisde the executive
He never leaves his home
Gorillas drag their victiims
Hyenas try to sue
Snakes find grass in concrete
There is no city zoo by
Ventilation units where towers
Meet the streets
The ragged stand in bags
Soaking heat up through their feet

This was the donly kindness
And it was accidental too

CHORUS

Now shaking single engined planes
Traffik-king stereos from Cuba
Buzzed the holy zealot mass

And drowned out Missa Luba
And drowned out Missa Luba
I thought I saw Lauren Bacall
I thought I saw Lauren Bacall
I swear
Hey fellas
Lauren Bacall
In a car jam
Yeah I don't believe it
In a car jam
Ah yeah positively absolutely

CHORUS

. . .


Darling you gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go?
If you say that you are mine
I'll be here 'til 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 it's 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 que tengo ser
Don't you know which clothes even fit me?
¿No sabes que ropas me queda?
Come on and let me know
Me tienes que decir

. . .


Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille

CHORUS
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

CHORUS

Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in-crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
And the temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive

CHORUS

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way

As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed

CHORUS

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.

. . .


I come from a long way away
And I know a fine thing when I see it.
See it
For the same reason no one ever
Pointed a telescope at the sun
Talking about the Red Angels of New York City

CHORUS
Who shot the shot?
Who got shot tonite?

Not even five enforcement agencies can save their own.
Never mind the people
Tonite it's raining on the Angels of the City
Did anyone prophesize these people?

Only Travis
Come in Travis
One of these days I'm gonna get myself organized.

All the animals come out at night.
Queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick venal.
Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets.

Thank god for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk. Listen you screwheads:
Here is a man who would not take it anymore.
A man who stood up against the scum, the filth.
Now I see clearly.

Personally I know the alley
Where Jack feeds on the birds of night
Not even bubbies on bicycles 2x2
Can stop the blood and feathers flying

Waring overalls and for once and for all
What is the dream?
I'll tell it
To live like they do in the movies
San Juan you listening?

Yeah I bet you are
Hands up for Hollywood
Hooray
I hear you
Snappy on the air
Hang in their
Wall to wall
You saved the worled
What else? You saved the girl
Chmpagne on ice
No stranger to Alcatraz
To boot
Or strip it down
Chop it a little
Being reasonable
Just freedom to move
To live
For women to take a walk in the park at midnite
Hey, but this is serious
She can't even get back home

I come from a long way off
And I know a lifegiver over a lifetaker
For the same reason no-one ever pointed
A gun at a policeman
Talking about the Red Angels of New York City
Yeah

. . .


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

. . .


If you ain't reggae for it..funk out!
No-one knocking at your door?
Overpowered by funk? Funk out!

Combatative, repetitive
Don't life just funk you out?
Asanine, stupifying
Can the clone line dry you out?

Part of the swarming mass? Funk out!
Slugged by the new increase?
Scared of the human bomb?
Overpowered by funk? Funk out!

Buy dog food
Rogue elephants
Tarzan on a ticker tape
Breakfast, serials?
You know you can't escape

Overpowered by funk
Don't you love our Western ways?
Car crashed by funk
Don't you love our Western ways?

Benny Goodman, trial by jury
A phone box-full of books
Dustcarts and sunrise
No-one gets off the hooks car crashed...
Food for the hungry millions? Funk out!
Home for the floating people?
Skin for the napalm victim?
Overdrunk on power
Funk out!

The final game will be solitaire
Overdrunk on power...funk out

Picture frame, tickets here
For the graffiti train
People at home show you care
Don't try
Fry me in your shockin' chairs
Funkpower over and out

This is a message from Futura
Don't prophisize the future
I liven up the culture
Because I'm deadly as a vulture
I paint on civilization
It's environmentally wack
So presenting my attack
I'll brighten up your shack
I'm down by law
That's a fact
Just give me a wall.
Any building dull or tall
I spray clandestine night subway
I cover red purple on top of grey
Hey, no slashing cuz it ain't the way
The T.A. blew 40 mil they say
We thew down by night
They scrubbed it off by day
OK tourists

. . .


Now the corporations stopped!
Stopped pushing fast food
Been a multiple shooting
Downtown at the bank
Reluctantly the panic begins
To catch fire
But it did not affect
The steady sale of jun
The state office looked
It looked like Hollywood
With make-up bleeding all over the cracks
Wo he blew his lines
Facing the cameras
He suffered the first

CHORUS
All live heart attack
Oh you've caught an even atom tan

The motor-cyanide
Cyanide suicide
He finally found the brick wall in his life
Shining up his engine
He dressed right up for it
At the top of the speedo
He crumpled the bike
There's plenty people runnin' runnin' for cover-
Hoping at best to hold off al the rest
Once last stand at the bunker fire
Machine gun and pitchfork and breast

CHORUS

But it isn't so easy
So easy for lovers
Chained in love
Stained at the top of the tower
The pink hearse is leaving at funeral speed
Driving your heart
Away with the flowers
All night I waited
I waited for a horseman
His ever faithful
His Indian friend
I'm not the only one
Of the caped crusader fan club watching the sky
For mankind's friend

CHORUS

Oh you've caught an even atom tan
Calamine

. . .


You know he just heard
The drums of war
when the past
Was a closing door

The drums beat into the jungle floor

CHORUS
Closing door
Closing door

Rain on the leaves
soldier sing
You never hear anything

They filled the sky with a tropical storm.

CHORUS

You know he head the drums of war
Each man knows what he's looking for

. . .


Do the worm on Acropolis
Slamdance the Cosmopolis
Enlighteen the populace
Hungry darkness of living
Who will thirst in the pit
Hooked in Metropolis
She spent a lifetime deciding
How to run from it
Addicts of Metropolis
Once fate had a witness
And the years seemed like friends
Girlfriend
Her babies can dream
But dreams begin like the end
Shot into eternity
Methadone kitty
Iron serenity
Ghetto Defendant
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Strung out committee

Walled out of the city
Clubbed down from uptown
Sprayed pest from the nest
Run out to Barrio Town
The guards are itchy
Forced to watch at the feast
Then sweep up the night
Flipped pieces of coin
Broken bottles
Exchanged for birthright
Graphed in a jiffy
Strung out committee
Sitting pretty
Graphed in a jiffy
No pity, pretty
The ghetto Prince of gutter poets
Was bounced out of the room
Jean Arthur Rimbaud
By the bodyguards of greed
For disturbing the tomb
1873
His words like flamthrowers
Paris Commune
Burnt the ghettos in their chests
His face painted whiter
And he was laid to rest
Died in Marseille
Buried in Charleville
Shut Up

Soap floods oil in water
All churn in the wake
On the great ship of progress
The crew can't find the brake
Klaxons are blaring
The admiral snores command
Submarines boil in oceans
While the armies fight with suns

. . .


The soldier boy for his soliders pay
Obeys the sergeant at arms whatever he says

The sergeant will for his sergeant's pay
Obey the captain til his dying day

The captain will for his captain's pay
Obey the generals order of battle play

The generals bow to the government
Obey the charge you must not relent

What of the neighbors and the prophets in bars?
What are they saying in the public bazaar?
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 bras music of government hear those
Guns tattoo a roll on the drums

No-one mentions the neighboring war
No one knows what they're fighting for
We are tired of the tune
You must not relent

. . .


And I was gripped by that deadly phantom
I followed him through hard jungles
As he stalked through the back lots
Strangling through the night shades

The thief of life
Moved onwards and outwards to love

In a one stop only motel
A storm bangs on the cheapest room
The phantom slips in to spill blood
Even on the sweetest honeymoon

The killer of love
Caught the last late Niagara bus

By chance or escaping from misery
Bu suddeness or in answer to pain
Smoking in the dark cinema
You could see the bad go down again

And the clouds are high in Spanish mountains
And a Ford roars through the night full of rain.

The killer's blood flows
But he loads his gun again

Make a grown man cry like a girl
To see the guns dying at sunset

In vain lovers claimed
But they never had met.

. . .


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