London Calling

The Album

The album consists of 19 tracks. The original copies of the album listed only 18 songs, with “Train In Vain” left off. It was supposed to be pressed onto a flexi-disc and given away on a promotion with NME, but that fell through, and was released with the rest of the album. It was released to critical acclaim, but commercial success was something else. It was a double album released for the price of a single one, so it took the record company (CBS) twice as long to make back their money, which led to a delay in the Clash receiving their royalties. Such a release was unprecedented in the music industry, but the Clash always bucked the line.

Track Listing

01. London Calling
02. Brand New Cadillac
03. Jimmy Jazz
04. Hateful
05. Rudie Can’t Fail
06. Spanish Bombs
07. The Right Profile
08. Lost In The Supermarket
09. Clampdown
10. The Guns of Brixton
11. Wrong ‘Em Boyo
12. Death Or Glory
13. Koka-Kola
14. The Card Cheat
15. Lover’s Rock
16. Four Horsemen
17. I’m Not Down
18. Revolution Rock
19. Train In Vain (Stand By Me)

The Song

London Calling tells the story of post-apocalyptic London, a city destroyed after World War Three. The song opens with a strident guitar, a clarion call that lets everyone know that something new is coming. Joe Strummer plays the part of the lone man left in London, calling out to the rest of the world, letting whoever is left know they are not alone. The listener is then treated to a backwards guitar solo (Mick Jones said he got the idea from Mott The Hoople), and finally, at the end, Jones uses his guitar to create a Morse-code like sound, that one can imagine being a message sent on an old telegraph.

The Video

The Clash, along with Don Letts, made London Calling into a music video. The band appears on a barge on the Thames. The barge was previously used during the commemoration of the Queen’s 25th year on the throne. Three of the band members, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon, appear decked out in fine clothes and new equipment. Strummer, however, appears dressed in normal clothes and using his old battered Telecaster. It makes for a very sharp contrast between Strummer and the rest of the band. If the viewer looks closely, during the video one can see that Simonon has two revolvers tucked into his waistband. After the video shoot, all the equipment was thrown into the river by the band’s roadies. This was the first time Don Letts ever shot a music video, and it shows. He didn’t even know that the Thames has a tide, so when they arrived to shoot the video, there was hardly any water, because it was low tide. During the shooting, it started to rain, and the rain is visible throughout the video. It is these little things that make the video such a success.

Lyrics

Courtesy of Plyrics.com:

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

[Chorus 1:]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out, and draw 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 high
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes

[Chorus 2: (x2)]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear era, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

Now get this

London calling, yes, 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?
London calling

London Calling is probably the most famous Clash album, and certainly has the most famous cover art. It is a picture of Paul Simonon smashing his bass on stage in New York, taken by Pennie Smith. She did not want the picture used, because it is out of focus, but it is now one of the most recognized images in rock history. The cover uses the same style as one of Elvis Presley’s albums, a recognition of what the Clash owed to early rock and roll. Some have seen it as a mocking gesture, but Joe Strummer was very conscious of rock history, and probably intended it as a compliment.