| features in: Album Chart of 1982 → ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1980s → |
The fifth Clash album, released in May 1982, was dominated by it’s 4 singles. The rockabilly opener “Know Your Rights” was the first of the four to be released. You have 3 basic rights as a human: 1.The right not to be killed. Murder is a crime, unless it is done by a policeman, or an aristocrat. 2.The right to food money, providing of course, you don’t mind a little investigation, humiliation, and, if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation. 3.The right to free speech (as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it). Public service Clash have resumed trading. For the second single, Mick Jones stepped up to the mic. for the indie rocker “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”. He needn’t have worried, in September 1983, he’d be fired anyway. The jangling “Rock The Casbah” continues The band’s fascination with new wave dance groove fusion. The song gives a fabulist account of a ban on rock music by the Sharif or King (who, it turns out, was imagined as former manager Bernie Rhodes!) being defied by the population, who proceed to “rock the casbah.” The King orders jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. Undertones from the far east continue on the album’s 4th single, “Straight to Hell”, released in September 1982. In one verse Strummer sings the Amerasian Blues in a vitriolic indictment of American soldiers who fathered Vietnamese children and promptly disappeared without trace. The US government made it nearly impossible for soldiers who served in Vietnam to bring back their children, and the mothers of those children. They took the position that since they were at war with the North Vietnamese, and since there was really no way to tell for sure if someone was from the North or the South, it would be dangerous to allow a huge influx of immigrants from Vietnam who might actually be communists or spies. It was an ugly stain on the nation and it’s documented here forever. In DC, it was another entry on Joe’s burgeoning file…
The Jukebox Rebel
19–Jul–2008
| Tracklist |
| A1 | [03:39]  The Clash - Know Your Rights (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones) Rock n Roll / Rockabilly |
| A2 | [03:58]  The Clash - Car Jamming (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) New Wave |
| A3 | [03:06]  The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Alternative Rock |
| A4 | [03:44]  The Clash - Rock The Casbah (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) New Wave |
| A5 | [03:48]  The Clash - Red Angel Dragnet (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Dubbeat |
| A6 | [05:30]  The Clash - Straight To Hell (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Dubbeat |
| B1 | [04:55]  The Clash - Overpowered By Funk (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Disco / Funk |
| B2 | [02:32]  The Clash - Atom Tan (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) New Wave |
| B3 | [04:30]  The Clash - Sean Flynn (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Dubbeat |
| B4 | [04:45]  The Clash - Ghetto Defendant (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Dubbeat |
| B5 | [02:43]  The Clash - Inoculated City (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) New Wave |
| B6 | [03:08] The Clash - Death Is A Star (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Nicholas Headon) Songwriter |
