Lyrics for the album "London Calling" by The Clash

London Calling

London calling to the faraway towns
Now that war is declared and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls
London calling, now don't look at us
All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain't got no swing
'Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
London is drowning and I live by the river

London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, an' go it alone
London calling upon the zombies of death
Quit holding out and take another breath
London calling and I don't wanna shout
But when we were talking I saw you nodding out
London calling, see we ain't got no highs
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes

[chorus]

London calling, yeah, I was there, too
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, won't you give me a smile?

Brand New Cadillac

Driiiiiiiive!!!

My baby drove up in a brand new Cadillac
She said, "Hey, come here, Daddy
I ain't never comin' back!"

Baby, baby, won't you hear my plea?
C'mon, sugar, come on back to me
She said, "Balls to you, Big Daddy."

She ain't never coming back!

Jimmy Jazz

The police walked in for Jimmy Jazz
I said, he ain't here, but he sure went fast
Oh, you're looking for Jimmy Jazz

Sattamassagana for Jimmy Dread
Cut off his ears and chop off his head
Police came looking for Jimmy Jazz

SO if you're gonna take a message 'cross this town
Maybe put it down somewhere over the other side
See it gets to Jimmy Jazz

Don't you bother me, not anymore
I can't take this tale, oh, no more
It's all around, Jimmy Jazz

J-a-zee zee J-a-zed zed
J-a-zed zed Jimmy Jazz
And then it sucks, he said, suck that!
So go look all around, you can try your luck, brother
And see what you found
But I guarantee that it ain't your day
Chop! Chop!

Hateful

Well, I got a friend who's a man
What man?
The man who keeps me from the lovely
He gives me what I need
What you need? What you got?
I need it all so badly

Oh, anything I want he gives it to me
Anything I want he gives it, but not for free
It's hateful
And it's paid for and I'm so grateful to be nowhere

This year I've lost some friends
Some friends? What friends?
I dunno, I ain't even noticed

You see, I gotta go out again
Again? My friend
I gotta see that mainman

I killed all my nerves
My nerves? What swerves?
And I can't drive so steady

I've lost my memory
My mind? Behind!
I can't see so clearly

[chorus]

Rudie Can't Fail

Sing, Michael, sing
on the route of the 1980s!
Hear them sayin'
How you get a rude and a reckless?
Don't you be so crude and a feckless
You been drinking brew for breakfast
Rudie can't fail

So we reply
I know that my life make you nervous
But I tell you that I can't live in service
Like the doctor who was born for a purpose
Rudie can't fail

We hear them sayin'
Now first you must cure your temper
Then you find a job in the paper
You need someone for a saviour
Oh, Rudie can't fail

So we sa-ay
Now we get a rude and a reckless
We been seen lookin' cool an' a speckless
We been drinking brew for breakfast
So Rudie can't fail

Okay! So where you wanna go today?
Hey boss man!
You're looking pretty smart
In your chicken skin suit

Rudie can't fail!
Rudie can't fail!
Rudie can't fail!
Rudie can't fail!

You think you're pretty hot
In your pork pie hat
But...
Look out, look out...
Sky juice!...10 cents a bottle!

Spanish Bombs

Spanish songs in Andalucia
The shooting sites in the days of '39
Oh, please, leave the vendanna open
Fredrico Lorca is dead and gone
Bullet holes in the cemetery walls
The black cars of the Guardia Civil
Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica
I'm flying in a DC 10 tonight

Spanish bombs, yot' quierro y finito
Yote querda, oh ma corazon
Spanish bombs, yot' quierro y finito
Yote querda, oh ma corazon

Spanish weeks in my disco casino
The freedom fighters died upon the hill
They sang the red flag
They wore the black one
But after they died it was Mockingbird Hill
Back home the buses went up in flashes
The Irish tomb was drenched in blood
Spanish bombs shatter the hotels
My senorita's rose was nipped in the bud

[chorus]

The hillsides ring with "Free the people"
Or can I hear the echo from the days of '39?
With trenches full of poets
The ragged army, fixin' bayonets to fight the other line
Spanish bombs rock the province
I'm hearing music from another time
Spanish bombs on the Costa Brava
I'm flying in on a DC 10 tonight
Spanish songs in Andalucia, Mandolina, oh ma corazon
Spanish songs in Granada, oh ma corazon

The Right Profile

Say, where did I see this guy?
In Red River?
Or a place in the sun?
Maybe the Misfits?
Or "From Here to Eternity"?

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

New York, 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

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?

Nembutol numbs it all
But I prefer alcohol
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!!!!

Lost in the Supermarket

I'm all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in her for that special offer
Guaranteed personality

I wasn't born so much as I fell out
Nobody seemed to notice me
We had a hedge back home in the suburbs
Over which I never could see

I heard the people who lived on the ceiling
Scream and fight most scarily
Hearing that noise was my first ever feeling
That's how it's been all around me

[chorus]

I'm all tuned in, I see all the programmes
I save coupons from packets of tea
I've got my giant hit discoteque album
I tempty a bottle and I feel a bit free

The kids in the halls and the pipes in the walls
Make me noises for company
Long distance callers make long distance calls
And the silence makes me lonely

[chorus]

And it's not hear
It disappear

Clampdown

What are we gonna do now?
Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
'Cause they're working for the clampdown
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we're working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers

The judge said five to ten but I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown
Kick over the wall 'cause governments to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?

The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don't owe nothing, so boy get runnin'
It's the best years of your life they want to steal

You grow up and you calm down
You're working for the clampdown
You start wearing the blue and brown
You're working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
It makes you feel big now
You drift until you brutalize
You made your first kill now

In these days of evil presidentes
Working for the clampdown
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For working for the clampdown
But ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!

And I've given away no secrets

Who's barmy now?

The Guns of Brixton

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on yoru 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 never 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 survival
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

Wrong 'Em Boyo

Stagger Lee met Billy and they gto down to gambling
Stagger Lee throwed seven
Billy said that he throwed eight
So Billy said, hey Stagger! I'm gonna make my big attack
I'm gonna have to leave my knife in your back

Why do you try to cheat?
And trample people under your feet
DOn't you know it is wrong?
To cheat the trying man
So you better stop, it is the wrong 'em boyo

You lie, steal, cheat and deceit
In such a small, small game
Don't you know it is wrong

Billy Boy has been shot
And Stagger Lee's come out on top
Don't you know it is wrong
To cheat the trying man
To cheat Stagger man
You'd better stop
So you must start all over again-all over again
You got to play it, Billy, play, you got to play it, Billy, play
And you will find it is the right 'em boyo

But if you must lie and deceit
And trample people under your feet
Don't you know it is wrong
It is the wrong 'em boyo

Death Or Glory

Every cheap hood strikes a
Bargain with the world
And ends up making payments on a
Sofa or a girl
Love 'n' hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands
The hands that slap his kids around 'cause they don't understand
How death or glory becomes just another story

'N' every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock 'n' roll
Grabs the mike to tell us he'll die before he's sold
But i believe in this-and it's been tested by research
That he who fucks nun will later join the church

From every dingy basement on every dingy street
I hear every dragging handclap over every dragging beat
That's just the beat of time-the beat that must go on
If you been trying for years-then we already heard your song

Koka Kola

Elevator! Going up!

In the gleaming corridors of the 51st floor
The money can be made if you really want some more
Executive decision-a clinical precision
Jumping from the windows-filled with indecision
I get good advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze

It's the pause that refreshes in the corridors of power
When top men need a top up long before the happy hour
Your snakeskin suit and your alligator boot
You won't need a launderette, you can send them to the vet!

Koka Kola advertising and kokaine
Strolling down the Broadway in the rain
Neon light sign says it
I read it in the paper-they're crazy!
Suit your life, maybe so
In the White House-I know
All Over Berlin (they've been doing it for years)
And in Manhattan!

Coming through the door is a snub nose 44
Diggadum...diggadum...diggadum
What the barrel can't snort it can spatter on the floor
Your eyeballs feel like pinballs and your tongue feels like a fish
Diggadum...diggadum...diggadum
You're leaping from the windows-saying don't
Give me none of this! Ayaiiiiirrrghhh! *@!!*@!!*!
Hit the deck!

The Card Cheat

There's a solitary man crying, "Hold me."
It's only because he's lonely
If the keeper of time runs slowly
He won't be alive for long!

If he only had time to tell of all of the things he planned
With a card up his sleeve, what would he achieve?
It means nothing!

To the opium den and the barroom gin
In the Belmont chair playing violins
The gambler's face cracks into a grin
As he lays down the king of spades
But the dealer just stares
There's something wrong here, he thinks
The gambler is seized and forced to his knees and shot dead

He only wanted more time
away from the darkest door
But his luck it gave in as the dawn light crept in
And he lay on the floor

From the Hundred Year War to the Crimea
With a lance and a musket and a Roman spear
To all of the men who have stood with no fear
In the service of their King

Before you met your fate be sure you
Did not forsake your lover
May not be around anymore

Lover's Rock

Yeh, you must treat your lover girl right
If you wanna make lover's rock
You must know a place you can kiss to make lovers rock
'Cause everybody knows it's a crying shame
But nobody knows the boor babie's name
When she forgot that thing that she had to swallow

You Western man, you're free with your seed
When you make lovers rock
But woops! there goes the strength that you need
To make real cool lovers rock
'Cause a genuine lover takes off his clothes
And he can make a lover in a thousand go's
An' she don't need that thing that she had to swallow

Four Horsemen

Well they were given the grapes that go ripe in the sun
That loosen the screws at the back of the tongue
But they told no one where they had begun-four horsemen

They were given al lthe foods of vanity
And all the instant promises of immortality
Buyt they bit the dust screamin' insanity!-four horsemen

One was over the edge, one was over the cliff
One was lickin' em dry with a bloody great spliff
When they picked up the hiker he didn't want the lift
From the horsemen

But you!
You're not searching, are you now?
You're not looking anyhow
You're never gonna ride that lonely mile
Or put yourself up on trial
Oh, you told me how your life was so bad
An' I agree that it does seem sad
But that's the price that you gotta pay
If you're lazing all around all day
Four horsement coming right through
Four horsemen and they're pissing by you
They make you look like you're wearing a truss
Four hosemen and it's gonna be us

Well they gave useverything for bending the mind
And we cleaned out their pockets and we drank 'em blind
IT's a long way to the finish so don't get left behind
By those horsemen

And they gave us the grapes that went ripe in the sun
That loosen the scews at the back of the tongue
But we still told nothing 'bout what was to come
Four horsemen

I'm Not Down

If it's true that a rich man leads a sad life
N' that's what they from day to day
Then what do all the poor do with their lives?
Have nothing to say on judgment day?

I've been beat up, I've been thrown
Out but I'm not down, I'm not down
I've been shown up, but I've grown up
And I'm not down, I'm not down

On my own I faced a gang of jeering in strange streets
When my nerves were pumping and I
Fought my fear in, I did not run
I was not done

And I have lived that kind of day
When one of your sorrows will go away
It goes down and down and hit the floor
Down and down and down some more
Depression
But K now there'll be some way
When I can swing everything back my way
Like skyscrapers rising up
Floor by floor, I'm not giving up

So you rock around and think that
You're the ferfest
In the world, the whole wide world
But you're streets away from where
It gets the roughest
You ain't been there

Revolution Rock

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
Ans 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 Arl-right

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 strete
And I ai't got no time for that

Train in Vain (Stand by Me)

Say you stand by your man
Tell me something I don't understand
You said you love me and that's a fact
Then you left me, said you felt trapped

Well some things you can explain away
But my heart aches me still this day

You can stand by me
You're not alone
You can stand by me
No way

Roll the dice
And stay real close
I remember these things the most
I see all my dreams come tumbling down
I won't be happy without you around

So all alone I keep the wolves at bay
There is only one thing that I can say

[chorus]

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

You can stand by me
You're not alone

Now I got a job
But it don't pay
I need new clothes
I need some today
But without all these things I can do
Without your love I won't make it through
But you don't understand my point of view
I suppose there's nothing I can do

[chorus]

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

You can stand by me
You can stand by me
You're not alone
You can stand by me
Always
You can stand by me
You're not alone
You can stand by me
Always