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SONG LYRICS

SANDINISTA!

THE CLASH - December 1980

The Clash in NY

  1. The Magnificent Seven (Clash) - 5:33
  2. Hitsville U.K. (Clash) - 4:21
  3. Junco Partner (Clash/Traditional) - 4:52
  4. Ivan Meets G.I. Joe (Clash) - 3:05
  5. The Leader (Clash) - 1:42
  6. Something About England (Clash) - 3:42
  7. Rebel Waltz (Clash) - 3:26
  8. Look Here (Clash) - 2:45
  9. The Crooked Beat (Clash) - 5:28
10. Somebody Got Murdered (Clash) - 3:34
11. One More Time (Clash) - 3:32
12. One More Dub (Clash) - 3:36
13. Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice) (Clash) - 4:51
14. Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) (Clash) - 4:31
15. Corner Soul (Clash) - 2:42
16. Let's Go Crazy (Clash) - 4:24
17. If Music Could Talk (Clash) - 4:36
18. The Sound of Sinners (Clash) - 4:01
19. Police on My Back (Grant) - 3:17
20. Midnight Log (Clash) - 2:10
21. The Equaliser (Clash) - 5:46
22. The Call Up (Clash) - 5:28
23. Washington Bullets (Clash) - 3:51
24. Broadway (Clash) - 5:49
25. Lose This Skin (Clash) - 5:08
26. Charlie Don't Surf (Clash) - 4:54
27. Mensforth Hill (Clash) - 3:42
28. Junkie Slip (Clash) - 2:48
29. Kingston Advice (Clash) - 2:37
30. The Street Parade (Clash) - 3:28
31. Version City (Clash) - 4:23
32. Living in Fame (Clash) - 4:52
33. Silicone on Sapphire (Clash) - 4:14
34. Version Pardner (Clash) - 5:23
35. Career Opportunities (Jones/Strummer) - 2:30
36. Shepherds' Delight (Clash) - 3:27

Mikey Dread - Mixing
The Clash - Producer, Sleeve Design
Joe Strummer - Guitar, Vocals
Ellen Foley - Vocals
Jerry Green - Engineer
Gary Barnacle - Musician
Bill Barnacle - Musician
Steve Bell - Animation
Tymon Dogg - Vocals
Mike Dreas - Vocals
Maria Gallagher - Musician
Mick Gallagher - Keyboards, Musician
Ray Gascogne - Musician
Topper Headon - Vocals, Drums (Snare)
Den Hegarty - Musician
Mick Jones - Guitar, Vocals
Ivan Julian - Musician
J.D. Nicholson - Keyboards, Engineer, Musician
Davey Payne - Musician
Bill Price - Engineer, Mixing
Paul Simonon - Bass, Vocals
Norman Watt Roy - Musician
David Yates - Musician
Pennie Smith - Photography
Len Lewis - Musician
Noel Temp Bailey - Musician
Battersea - Musician
Gerald Baxter-Warman - Musician
Timon Dogg - Musician
Rudolf Adolphus Jordan - Musician
Jules - Sleeve Design
Maxie Mckenzie - Engineer
Terry McQuade - Musician
Anthony Nelson Steele - Musician
Jody Winscott - Musician



The Magnificent Seven



Ring! Ring! It's 7:00 A.M.!
Move y'self to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and you bankers, too
Must get up an' learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too
Churning out that boogaloo
Gets you up and gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?
Gimme Honda, Gimme Sony
So cheap and real phony
Hong Kong dollars and Indian cents
English pounds and Eskimo pence

You lot! What?
Don't stop »! Give it all you got!
You lot! What?
Don't stop »! Yeah!

Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
She's seen the ads, she thinks it's nice
Better work hard - I seen the price
Never mind that it's time for the bus
We got to work - an' you're one of us
Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk

"When can I tell 'em wot I do?
In a second, maaan...oright Chuck!"

Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss
It's our profit, it's his loss
But anyway lunch bells ring
Take one hour and do your thanng!
Cheeesboiger!

What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin' Gypsies on the pavement
Now the news - snap to attention!
The lunar landing of the dentist convention
Italian mobster shoots a lobster
Seafood restaurant gets out of hand
A car in the fridge
Or a fridge in the car?
Like cowboys do - in T.V. land

You lot! What? Don't stop ». Huh?

So get back to work an' sweat some more
The sun will sink an' we'll get out the door
It's no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages
You're frettin', you're sweatin'
But did you notice you ain't gettin'?
Don't you ever stop » long enough to start?
To take your car outta that gear
Don't you ever stop » long enough to start?
To get your car outta that gear
Karlo Marx and Fredrich Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint - but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence

What have we got? Yeh-o, magnificence!!

Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
Went to the park to check on the game
But they was murdered by the other team
Who went on to win 50-nil
You can be true, you can be false
You be given the same reward
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way - through the kitchen
Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin
Who's more famous to the billion millions?
News Flash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie
Oooohh...bub-bye

Magnificence!!

FUCKING LONG, INNIT?

top »


Hitsville U.K.



They cried the tears, they shed the fears,
Up and down the land,
They stole guitars or used guitars
- So the tape would understand,
Without even the slightest hope of a 1000 sales
Just as if, as if there was, a hitsville in U.K.,
I know the boy was all alone, til the hitsville hit U.K.

They say true talent will allways emerge in time,
When lightening hits small wonder -
Its fast rough factory trade,
No expense accounts, or lunch discounts
Or hypeing up the charts,
The band went in, 'n knocked 'em dead, in 2 min. 59
I know the boy was all alone, til the hitsville hit U.K.

- No slimy deals, with smarmy eels - in hitsville U.K.
Lets shake'n say, we'll operate - in hitsville U.K.
The mutants, creeps and musclemen,
Are shaking like a leaf,
It blows a hole in the radio,
When it hasnt sounded good all week,
A mike'n boom, in your living room - in hitsville U.K.
No consumer trials, or A.O.R., in hitsville U.K.,
Now the boys and girls are not alone,
Now the hitsville's hit U.K.

top »


Junco Partner



Down the road came a Junco Partner
For he was loaded as can be
He was knocked out, knocked out loaded
He was a'wobblin' all over the street

Singing 6 months ain't no sentence
And one year ain't no time
I was born in Angola
Serving 14 to 99

Well I wish I had me $1 million dollars
Oh one million to call my own
I would raise meat and say, "grow for me baby"
I would raise me a tobacco farm

Well I wish I would have me a great deal of money
Yeah and mighty good things all over town
Now I ain't got no more money
All of my good friends are putting me down

So now I gotta pawn my rifle and pistol
Yeah I'm gonna pawn my watch and chain
I would have pawned my seat Gabriella
But the smart girl she wouldn't sign her name

Give me headstone when I die

top »


Ivan Meets G.I. Joe



So you're on the floor, at 54
Think you can last - at the Palace
Does your body go to the to and fro?
But tonight's the night - or didn't you know
That Ivan meets G.I. Joe

He tried his tricks- that Ruskie bear
The United Nations said it's all fair
He did the radiation - the chemical plague
But he could not win - with a cossack spin

The Vostok Bomb - the Stalin strike
He tried every move - he tried to hitch hike
He drilled a hole - like a Russian star
He made every move in his repertoire

When Ivan meet G.I. Joe

Now it was G.I. Joe's turn to blow
He turned it on - cool and slow
He tried a payphone call to the Pentagon
A radar scan - a leviathan

He wiped the Earth - clean as a plate
What does it take to make a Ruskie break?
But the crowd are bored and off they go
Over the road to watch China blow!

When Ivan meets G.I. Joe

top »


The Leader



Atom secrets, secret leaflet
Have the boys found the leak yet?
The molehill sets the wheel in motion
His downfall picks up locomotion

The people must have something good to read on a Sunday

The leader's wife takes a government car
In the dark to meet her minister
But the leader never leaves his door ajar
As he swings his whip from the Boer War

He wore a leather mask for his dinner guests
Totally nude and with deep respect
Proposed a toast to the votes he gets
The feeling of power and the thought of sex!

Now the girl let the fat man touch her
Vodka fumes and the feel of a vulture
The driver waited in the embassy car
The fat man's trap was set for capture
So the girl let the thin man touch her
Mixing questions, drunken laughter
The ministry car was waiting there
A minister knows his own affair

The people must have something good to read on a Sunday

top »


Something About England



They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an' roses
If England were for Englishmen again

Well I saw a dirty overcoat
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dancehall called for an' ambulance
The bars all closed up fast

My silence gazing at the ceiling
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it's all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
I'll tell you a thing or two

I missed the fourteen-eighteen war
But not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths

The next war began and my ship sailed
With battle orders writ in bed
In five long years of bullets and shells
We left ten million dead
The few returned to old Piccadily
We limped around Leicester Square
The world was busy rebuilding itself
The architects could not care

But how could we know when I was young
All the changes that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
England never closed this gap

So leave me now the moon is up
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell

The streets were by now deserted
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone

top »


Rebel Waltz



I slept and I dreamed of a time long ago
I saw an army of rebels, dancing on air
I dreamed as I slept, I could see the campfires,
A song of the battle, that was born in the flames,
and the rebels were waltzing on air.

I danced with a girl to the tune of a waltz
that was written to be danced on the battlefield
I danced to the tune of a voice of a girl
A voice that called "Stand till we fall
we stand till all the boys fall."

As we danced came the news that the war was not won
5 armies were coming, with carrige and gun
Through the heart of the camp
swept the news from the front
A cloud crossed the moon, a child cried for food
We knew the war could not be won.

So we danced with a rifle, to the rhythm of the gun
in a glade through the trees i saw my only one
Then the earth seemed to rise hell hot as the sun
The soldiers were dying, there was tune to the sighing.
The song was an old rebel one.

As the smoke of our hopes rose high from the field
My eyes played tricks through the moon and the trees
I slept as I dreamed I saw the army rise
A voice began to call, stand till you fall
The tune was an old rebel one.

top »


Look Here



Look here!
What d'you think you're
Gonna be doin' next year?
No lie...
How you know you're not
Gonna up and die?
No doubt...

Soon enough your friends
Will find you out
Take care...
You know you might not have
Too much time to spare
I say...

How long have you been acting
Up this way?
One knows...
When you gonna get
Your own floorshow
I'm hip...
And you could use a button
On your lip

Look here
What d'you think you're
Gonna be doing next year
I'm hip!

top »


The Crooked Beat



Start the car lets make a midnight run
Across the river to South London
To dance to the latest hi-fi sound
Of bass, guitar and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure off
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

Take a piece of cloth, a coin for thirst
For the sweat will start to run
With a cymbal splash, a word of truth
And a rocking bass and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure on
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

So one by one they come on down
From the tower blocks of my home town
Stepping with the rhythm of the rockers beat
Drowning out the pressure of the crooked beat
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the tension on
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

It has crooked past this crooked street
Where cars patrol this crooked beat
Badges flash and sirens wail
They'll be taking one and all to jail

Prance! Prance! You want a law to dance?

top »


Somebody Got Murdered



Someone lights a cigarette
While riding in a car
Some ol' guy takes a swig
And passes back the jar
But where they were last night
No-one can remember
Somebody got murdered
Goodbye, for keeps, forever

Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever

And you're minding your own business
Carrying spare change
You wouldn't cosh a barber
You're hungry all the same
I been very tempted
To grab it from the till
I been very hungry
But not enough to kill

Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever

Somebody got murdered
His name cannot be found
A small stain on the pavement
They'll scrub it off the ground
As the daily crown disperses
No-one says that much
Somebody got murdered
And it' left me with a touch

Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever
Sounds like murder!
Those shouts!
Are they drunk down below?

It's late, and my watch stop »ped
Some time ago
Sounds like murder!
Those screams!
Are they drunk down below?

top »


One More Time



Must I get a witness? for all this misery
There's no need to, brothers everybody can see
That its one more time in the ghetto you know
One more time if you please now
One more time to the dying man
They say one more time if you please

The old lady kicks karate
For just a little walk down the street
The little baby he knows kung fu
He tries it on those he meets
Cos its a one more time!

You don't need no silicone to calculate poverty
Watch when Watts town burns again
The bus goes to Montgomery

Cos it's a one more time in the ghetto
One more time if you please
One more time for the dying man

One more time to be free

top »


One More Dub



Stop » wastin' time
Right

One more breath

One more time in the ghetto
One more time if you please
One

One more time for the dying man
One more time if you please now

One more time

top »


Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)



Now lightning strikes in old New York
It may be dark but I wanna talk
It might rain, it might snow
Too many things I got to know
If this is spring than it's time to sing
Never mind the l'il birdies wing
Look out, look out, old New York
New York's coming an' New York talks
Hey! Strike! Not once...
Strike! But twice!

Get out your money - peel a slab
Roll some notes an' hail a cab
Drive in church drive in back
Drive down Seventh in a tank
Take in the sights, feel the breeze
See New York's one and only tree
It can be found in Garbage park
But don't inspect it after dark
Strike! New York! Lightning!
Not once but twice.

Accidental hike in the transit strike
Roller skate or ride a bike
Three to a car, Brooklyn Bridge
You won't get far if you're privileged
Graffiti Jack sprays in black
An Englishman can he read it back?
Deli Joe he ought to know
He runs the gang on Pastrami Row
Strike! Lightning strike!

Because glass to glass, street to street
Buildings touch St. Peter's feet
From car to bar, prez to shah
Everything is in the jar
The 4 winds blow cos the 4 winds know
Takes a special hustle to make a roll
Honey girl on her feet
I wish everything to make her sweet
Strike! Twice! OK so roll!
From Harlem! Strike one!

Harlem slum to penthouse block
On every door I already knocked
There wasn't anybody that I didn't leave alone
Somebody lying under every stone
Everything that a man could need
In a bag down by my knee
That looks good, this ain't got seeds
Cheaper than booze down in the bowery
Lightning strike! Old New York!
Everything's light! Strike!

Hey ho such a night
I'll see y'all when the lightning strike
A polaroid caught in the act
You're married too and that's a fact
But I won't peek and I won't squeek
Down by the trucks on Christop »her Street
It's Cuban Day - Oi Vey
Chinese New Year let's call it a day
Tootsie! Hey Chi man!
That melody is Puerto Rican
Hey Chi man is what he's speaking
An' there's the road down into London Town
Where many cars get broken down
It's the Westway from Ladbroke Grove
Runs down to Old Hounslow
Just thought I'd mention the new extention
That run's down the 59th street intersection
Did you hear the news y'all?
London Town on the Broadway!

top »


Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)



The towers of London, these crumbling rocks
Reality estates that the hero's got
And every hour's marked by the chime of a clock
And whatcha gonna do when the darkness surrounds?
You can piss in the lifts which have broken down
You can watch from the debris the last bedroom light
We're invisible here just past midnight

The wives hate their husbands and their husbands don't care
Their children daub slogans to prove they lived there
A giant pipe organ up in the air
You can't live in a home which should not have been built
By the bourgeoise clerks who bear no guilt
When the wind hits this building this building it tilts
One day it will surely fall to the ground...

Fear is just another commodity here
They sell us peeping holes to peek when we hear
A bang on the door resoundingly clear
Who would really want to move in here?
The children play faraway, the corridors are bare
This room is a cage it's like captivity
How can anyone exist in such misery?

It has been said not only here

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To go back in the morning
To be strong in the morning"

top »


Corner Soul



Is the music of grove skin rock
Soaked in the diesel of war boys war?
Blood, black gold and the face of a judge
Is the music calling for a river of blood?

Beat the drums tonight, Alphonso
Spread the news all over the grove
The big meeting has decided
That total was must burn on the grove

Does it mean I should take my machete
To chop my way through the path of life?
Does it mean I should run with the dog pack
Is that the way to be the one to survive?

Never need a gun says Tai Chi
Move on up to dragon snaps his tail
Fall back on still waters
Hammer with his eye on the nail

Spread the word tonight please, Sammy
They're searching everyhouse on the grove
Don't go alone now, Sammy!
The wind has blown away the corner soul

Tell the news for me, Sammy
They're searching every place on the grove
But don't go down alone new, Sammy!
The wind has blown away the corner soul

Is the music calling for a river of blood?

top »


Let's Go Crazy



Summon up the mass! Play on the pan!
Staring dreads are jerking their locks
As the white star liner sank in the docks
But on the drummers face, there is a look of dread
As he drums away 400 years of dread
The dancer man-in the power of mas
Is smoking to the mighty sparrow's blast

But you better be careful
You still got to watch yourself

You wanna be crazy
So you wanna go crazy
Let's go crazy
So you wanna be crazy
Then let's go crazy
Let's go crazy

The lawful force are here of course
For special offenders for the special court
But the young men know when the sun has set
Darkness comes to settle the debt
Owed by a year of S.U.S. and suspect
Indiscriminate use of the power of arrest

They're waiting for the sun to set

The mighty observer who keeps his cabinets hot
A great meeting of rhythm and face
A humming of values and a children's place
But the sticks man gives the copper good excuse
To shut off the ganja and control the juice

To control the juice

So you wanna go crazy? Then let's go crazy
So take it on crazy! So they get all crazy
Bricks and bottles corrugated iron
Shields and helmets carnival time
'N moa ambassa, sledgehammer sound
Ray symbolic from jamdown town

top »


If Music Could Talk



[Left Channel]
Make sure!
Taking cover in the bunker tonight
Waiting for Bo Diddley's headlights
I feel alright
Gotta Fender Stratosphere
I can do anything tonight
It's in neon lights an' global rights
Frank? He's on the phone
There ain't no German girl outside
But who cares when its warm inside?
With music
Special mystery of music tragically
Exchanging slaves for majesties
Modern waves of tragedy
Packing a to pience colt pair of shoots
A shiny grey mexican suit
The blue eyed traffic can sashay by
'Cos tonight the sailor boys have hit Shanghai
The kick-out traffic goes creaking by
I smash my glass and shout shanghi
My drummer friend comes shooting by
He said Errol Flynn will never die
Oh no! Who am I to question why?
And are you lonesome tonight
And do ya need a country cowboy
Who's just thin and tight in those
Brrrr bus depot jeans
With a squirt resistant stud stud
Hey stoner

Get over there in the spliffbunker one
Becos London Bridge was sold somehow
But it was too old anyhow
When Uncle Sam has broken down
We'll make him down in old Japan
Say yeee

Well there ain't no better blend
Than Joe Ely and his Texas Men
Where the wind blows
I ain't seen none like that scenery
You can see from a bus if you pay the price

Wave my arms around
Flag one of those taxi's maybe
I saw a girl somewhere somehow
Forever sticks in my mind somehow
I've just got three lines
And a pair of two's
Like a lucky roll of dice that you
You cast

[Right Channel]
If music could talk!
Which means
Whatever your mind can bring
Likethe apple fell off the tree
Pah! Fell right on his head
Yeah many years ago

There was a man who said
I am a shaman
A voodoo shaman
Got in trouble so he's going out
Mixing up and Haiti! Oh!
And the crickets
Buddy Holly said it was
Brrr Brrr yiii!

If music could talk you know

I feel kinda lonely
Standing out on the floor
Of Electric Ladyland...
Cos this is a good question Samson
Are you partly Arabic?

Chi man! Whatcho all about

I don't want to I can't hope to
Say it all in one go
Occasionally once or twice
A day I feel alive enough to say
Let's hear what the drummerman's
Got to say about
He said is it Errol Flynn's birthday or not?
Sept 12 until October
If they pack 2 piece
Colt pair of shoots
We got the shiny grey Mexican suits
I'm just wasting a great big
Corporation and the entire fund
The girders of Wall Street
And thetemples of money
And the high priests
Of the expense account
And Im wasting the whole thing
I come down in Yamaha-ha
They make the best pianos-time to step-up

top »


The Sound of the Sinners



As the floods of God
Wash away sin city
They say it was written
In the page of the Lord
But I was looking
For that great jazz note
That destroyed
The walls of Jericho

The winds of fear
Whip away the sickness
The messages on the tablet
Was valium
As the planets form
That golden cross Lord
I'll see you on
The holy cross roads

After all this time
To believe in Jesus
After all these drugs
I thought I was Him
After all my lying
And a-crying
And my suffering
I ain't good enough
I ain't clean enough
To be Him

The tribal wars
Burning up the homeland
The fuel of evil
Is raining from the sky
The sea of lava
Flowing down the mountain
The time will sweep
Us sinners by

Holy rollers roll
Give generously now
Pass the hubcap please
Thank you Lord

top »


Police On My Back



Well I'm running police on my back
I've been hiding police on my back
There was a shooting police on my back
And the victim well he wont come back

What have I done?

I been running monday tuesday wednesday
Thursday friday saturday sunday runnin
monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday
Saturday sunday

Yes, I'm running down the railway track
Could you help me? Police on my back
They will catch me if I dare drop back
Wont you give me all the speed I lack

top »


Midnight Log



Working for the devil
You'll have to pay his tax
That means going to see him
Down among the racks
You do his work so fine
He'll remember you

Worried for my friend
As he shows me round the flat
Where I don't wanna find him
His lips an' eyelids black
He don't believe my speech
That lines can and should be drawn
Lke if he had a shotgun
The barrels would be sawn

Swallowed by the river
Swollen by the rains
That leakin' ol' computer
Of fingerprints and names
Swimming in the river
That floods the neighborhood
I would call to you
But it would do no good

Voting for the law
That's the general occupation
First comes the public safety
Second comes the nation
You won't believe me now
But there's been some illumination
The wisest cops have realized
They fucked the operation

Cooking up the books
A respected occupation
The anchor and foundation of multi-corporations
They don't believe in crime
They don't know that it exists
But to understand
What's right and wrong
The lawyers work in shifts

'N speaking of the devil
He ain't been seen for years
'Cept every 20 mins
He zooms between me ears
I don't believe in books
But I read all the time
For ciphers to the riddles
An' reasons to the rhymes

top »


The Equaliser



No! Gangboss no!
We don't want the whip!

As you get weaker - it will get harder
So don't be like him
Keep your bones of effort and strngth
Don't sell them to him

We don't want no gangboss
We want to equalize
To my fathers fathers fathers father
Work was no joy
When his son had grown of age
You got to work now boy
Never ceasing for many years
Want to follow that boy?

Till half and half is equalized
Put down the tools
See the car see the house
See the fabulous jewels
See the world you have built it with shoulders of iron
See the world but it is not yours say the stealers of Zion

Geneva
Wall Street
Who makes them so fat?
Well well me an' you better think about that
In overdrive whooo

Till humanize is equalize
Put down the tools
Every face on every side
Throw down the tools
Stay at home
Don't check with Rome paint strike on the door
It's one to one the fight is on so don't go to war

We don't need no gangboss
We have to equalize

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The Call Up



It's up to you not to heed the call-up
'N' you must not act the way you were brought up
Who knows the reasons why you have grown up?
Who knows the plans or why they were drawn up?

It's up to you not to heed the call-up
I don't wanna die!
It's up to you not to hear the call-up
I don't wanna kill!

For he who will die
Is he who will kill

Maybe I wanna see the wheatfields
Over Kiev and down to the sea

All the young people down the ages
They gladly marched off to die
Proud city fathers used to watch them
Tears in their eyes

There is a rose that I want to live for
Although, God knows, I may not have met her
There is a dance an' I should be with her
There is a town - unlike any other

It's up to you not to hear the call-up
'N' you must not act the way you were brought up
Who give you work an' why should you do it?
At fifty five minutes past eleven
There is a rose...
Yeah!

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Washington Bullets



Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again

And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead

For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could he do?

'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop » any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!

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Broadway



"It ain't my fault
It's 6 'o'clock in the morning"
He said
As he came up out of the night

When he found I had no coins to bum,
He began to testify
Born in a depression
Born out of good luck
Born into misery
- In the back of a truck..

I'm telling you this mister
Don't be put off by looks
I been in the ring and I took those right hooks

Oh the loneliness
Used to knock me out - harder than the rest

And I've worked for breakfast
'N I ain't had no lunch
I been on delivery and received every punch

Suddenly I noticed that it weren't quite the same
Feel different one morning maybe it was the rain

But everywhere I looked all over the city
They're runnin' in an out of the bars
Someone stop »ped for a pick-up driving one of those cars
Y'see I allways wanted one of those cars
Long black 'n shiny an' pull up to the bars
Honk your horn, put down your windows, push yer button,
Hear it coming in
You can say I can see the light... roll!
Forward! Drive! Green lights! Green lights!
Intersection city coming a running comeback home I run back
Not that strong now
Yes who's there now, can I help you? Calling Intel station light

Did you put your money in? Yes I put it in
It say go, I say go, she say go, so we say go
Cos I can see the light all night tonight this night right now
Coming on forward motion across the ocean
An' up the hills yeh boys let's strike for the hills
While that petrol tank is full
Gimme a push gimme a pull
Gimme a llama gimme a mule
Gimme a donkey or gimme a horse

Down the avenue
So fine
In style

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Lose This Skin



Come with me. I won't hide
We're going on a ride
We meet each day, use time to see
While we're young and almost free

I've got to lose this skin I'm imprisoned in
Got to lose this skin I'm imprisoned in

Do not turn or hate to see
All the things you think we've got
Do not turn or hate to see
What happened to the wife of Lot

We're alone or so they say
We're not on our own in that way
When we're alone it's real tough going
We can take a part in someone else's play

Come with me, I thought he said
But that's not him anymore, he's dead
What's it like to be so free
So free it looks like lost to me

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Charlie Don't Surf



[Chorus]
Charlie don't surf and we think he should
Charlie don't surf and you know that it ain't no good
Charlie don't surf for his hamburger Momma
Charlie's gonna be a napalm star

Everybody wants to rule the world
Must be something we get from birth
One truth is we never learn
Satellites will make space burn

We've been told to keep the strangers out
We don't like them starting to hang around
We don't like them all over town
Across the world we are going to blow them down

[Chorus]

The reign of the super powers must be over
So many armies can't free the earth
Soon the rock will roll over
Africa is choking on their Coca Cola

It's a one a way street in a one horse town
One way people starting to brag around
You can laugh, put them down
These one way people gonna blow us down

[Chorus]

Charlie don't surf he'll never learn
Charlie don't surf though he's got a gun
Charlie don't surf think that he should
Charlie don't surf we really think he should
Charlie don't surf

Charlie don't surf and we think he should
Charlie don't surf and you know that it ain't no good
Charlie don't surf for his hamburger Momma
Charlie don't surf


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Mensforth Hill (instrumental)




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Junkie Slip



I wasn't going that far
The junkie slip!
I said I wasn't doin' it
The junkie slip!
Yea thought I'd find a rhythm in the junkie town
Thought I'd find a rhythm when the junkies hang around

Thought I'd go out walking to the junkie kind of beat
Setting on those bars that the junkies meet
The junkie slip!
Nail it down
The junkie slip!
This side of town
The junkie slip!
And whatcha knowing before you's a doin
The things they's a-knowing
You pawn your coat and your car
Pawned your cigar and your old guitar
You pawned your guitar and your saxaphone
You're pawning everything in your mother's home

Cos it's a junkie slip!
Just like rock n' roll
A junkie slip!
Like Johnnny did the stroll
And you know it feels alright
But what's that feeling on a Saturday night?

You're itching itching itching in your pillow in the day
You're itching itching itching and you gave your coat away
Itching itching itching and then in your sleeping bag
There's a little packet that you thought you never had

It's a junkie slip!
Every night
Junkie slip!
Cold water fright
It's a junkie slip
And an old spoon cooky cooky cooky cooky afternoon
All afternoon and in the middle of the night

You're worse for the difference and it don't sleep tight
Don't pull the curtains don't put on the light
C-c-c-cos it's a junkie slip!
What's goin' on?
Was early night
I lit the fire
Finish alright
Yeh Edi-Edi-Edi-Yeh Edi-Juan
Him going to live with indian
Come in the car, it's an old machine
Riding from Brookway on a magazine
Be on that corner with a magazine

Do ya do ya do ya follow your friends?
Do I hear you saying that you're going back again?
It's a junkie slip!
Where? Did it end?
But did it ah did it did it ever end?
When did it ever end?
Don't ask me when on a Wednesday night
Don't ask me when on a Thursday night
I said oh? Who the hell are you?
You said oh! Well you met me
I said I can guess why

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Kingston Advice



In these days you can get no rice
No razor blades but you can get knife
In these days see the people run
They have no food but the boy have gun
In these days they don't throw the stone
Nor use the voice they use the gun alone
In these days to be an oddity
Be hunted down like a scarcity

In these days don't beg for life
Wanna take Kingston advice?
Oh please don't beg for your life

In these days the beat is militant
Must be a clash there's no alternative
In these days nations are militant
We have slavery under government
In these days in the firmament
I look for signs that are permanent
In these days with no love to give
The world will turn with no one left to live

In these days don't beg for life
Wanna take Kingston advice?
Please please don't beg for your life

In these days I don't know what to do
The more I see the more I'm destitute
In these days I don't know what to sing
The more I know the less my tune can swing

In these days you can get no rice
No razor blades but you can get knife
In these days see the people run
They have no food but the boy have gun


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The Street Parade



When I was waiting for your phonecall
The one that never come
Like a man about to burst
I was dying of thirst

Though I will never fade
Or get lost in this daze
Though I will disappear
And join the street parade

It's not too hard to cry
In these crying times
I'll take my broken heart
And take it home in parts

But I will never fade
Or get lost in this daze
Though I will disappear
And join the street parade

I was in this place
By the first church of the city
I saw tears on the face
The face of a visionary

Though I will disappear
To join the street parade
Disappear and fade
Into the street parade


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Version City



There is a train at Version City
Waiting for the rhythm mail
If you can jump then jump right now
She can pull you through to better days

Is that the train that they speak off
The one I heard in my younger days
All great bluesmen have rode her
I'm jumping up gonna ride that train

There's a lonely soul out on the crossroads
He's waiting there in the pouring rain
He's looking for that great ride yeh
That'll take him to oh what's her name

So I rode that train from Version City
For ninety-nine an' one half days
Never heard such rhythm sound
It was in my soul which was on the train

We went straight through Syndrum Inc.
Up an' over the Acapella Pass
Then Gibson Town and Fenderville
All stations to the Mesa Boogie Ranch
We saw that soul out on the cross roads
Waitin' there in the pouring rain
We called hey engine slow your rhythms
See he wants to ride the version train

We rode that train from Version City
For ninety-nine and one half years
I never seen such funky country
While riding with the engineers

Could not fill no application
Before I rode this rhythm train
Could not work at my station
Before I rode the version train

There is a train at Version City
Waiting for the rhythm mail
If you can jump then jump right now
She can pull you through to better days


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Living In Fame



So you've got to live up to your name
Or else I'll put you to shame... Listen!

If you say you a selector
You a fe have good selection
A-and I say if you say you a de special
Man I say I want to know your potential

You a say you a madness
You a say you a de best
But when I put you 'pon you feet
A-some a-some a say you can't play de beat

And I hear you say a Clash a you ruler
Say a Clash sound cooler, eh!
Say a Clash sound sweeter
And now-a-days man a measure mile in a metre, eh!

Live up to your name
Or else you die in shame
A-and a so me say fe live up to your name
A so me tell you say you die in shame

Some a dem a bodysnatcher
Some a dem a barracuda, eh!
But who a know fe me Jah Jah
Fe me Jah a me creator, eh!

Flying saucers, rock-and-roll
Natty Dread a fe be in control
It's all in the whirlwind
I say you've gone with the blockhead

A-and I say me say dat some a dem a Sex Pistol
Nipple erectors
A so me tell you set dem sp...(?) man a gone
An...(?) farm(?)
And I'll tell you 'bout the X-generation...
Me know dem a victimed
'Cause dem no know fe me sweet Jah Jah, eh!

Clash a you ruler
Say a Clash sound cooler
A-and I tell you say a Clash sound sweeter
And now-a-days man measure mile in a metre
A none a dem deh measure gallon in a litre
And I tell you say me know dem a cheat ya

'Cause when you living inna fame
You got to live up to your name
Or else a suffer and you die inna shame
And I tell you say it's all in the game, eh!

Some a say dem a selector
Dem a fe have good selection
Or else deh moving in the wrong direction
And deh no know dis a reggae vibration
A-and a so me say a Clash a you ruler
And dis ya one a say it a musically cooler, eh!

Me say fe live up to your name
Or else you suffer and you die inna shame
'Cause when you living inna fame
A so me tell you say it's all in the game

And so me talkin' about
Specials and Madness beats,
Big body snatcher, (?), eh!

Flying saucers, rock-and-roll
See you gone in the whirlwind
A-and I tell you say, a you a de blockhead
And some will tell you dat you dreader than dread

And a-some a say a Clash a you ruler
See a Clash sound cooler, aaaye!
Clash sound sweeter
Man a measure mile in a metre, eh!

When you living inna fame
You got to live up to your name
Or else you suffer and you die inna shame
It's all in the game, eh!

This is the game of life
We no wa' no strife

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Silicone On Sapphire



Have you ever asked yourself
Who holds the key that winds up Big Ben?

[Right Channel:] Silicone on Sapphire
[Left Channel:] Connection
[R:] My prerogative is zero
[L:] When is your start
[L:] What is your data
[R:] Databus
[L:] Databus
[R:] I'm pushing your breakpoints
[L:] (Anytime Mike)(?)
[R:] Know my subroutine
[L:] Motorola exor(?)sizer
[R:] Modem connecting
[L:] In sync
[R:] Buffer
[R:] Handshaking
[L:] Throughput
[R:] Mnemonic code
[L:] I have your sentences right
[L:] Go ahead
[R:] Macro command
[L:] Yes
[R:] This is my micro instruction
[L:] Improper request
[L:] Output failed
[R:] Request debug
[L:] Improper request
[R:] Request debug
[L:] System debug freeze
[R:] Your memory is volatile
[L:] Freeze
[R:] Log(?), add this is my address bus
[L:] Log add
[R:] Kill
[L:] Kill
[R:] (?)
[L:] (?)
[R:] Rub out
[L:] You're on system interconnect
[L:] You are typing into my memory
[L:] Shift, shift, shift
[R:] That's better
[R:] Now my decoder
[R:] I request your zero variable storage
[L:] I am a Texas Instrument
[R:] Clear, overrun
[L:] My zero positive
[R:] Truth table
[L:] Connection
[R:] Give me your input
[L:] Vector interrupt
[R:] Erase function
[L:] Vector interrupt
[R:] Go to RAM, Go to RAM
[L:] Go yourself
[R:] Go to RAM
[L:] I (take it back)(?)
[R:] Your memory is volitile
[R:] Your inputs, are deprived
[L:] Save, save
[R:] Erase (bridge)(?)
[R:] Go to outputs
[L:] Large scale integration
[R:] No source statements
[L:] Give me, give me flowchart
[R:] All (died on call)(?) databus
[L:] Hardware, firmware
[L:] Inhibit, inhibit, overflow
[R:] Yes. Hardwired logic. Machine language
[L:] Connection deprived by request, request
[L:] Parallel operation
[L:] Give me push count stack
[L:] I must have your address first
[L:] Take your datalog recharge
[L:] Hello, hello
[R:] System debug freeze
[R:] Clear restore and exit
[R:] Exit all done


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Version Pardner



Down the road came a Junco Partner
For he was loaded as can be
He was knocked out, knocked out loaded
He was a'wobblin' all over the street

Singing six
Six

Well I wish I would have me a great deal of money
Yeah and a-mighty

Give me

Down
Junco Partner

Well I'm down

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Career Opportunities (Child Version)



They offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I'd better take anything they'd got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?

Career opportunities are the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock

I hate all of my school's rules
They just think that I'm another fool

Bus driver....ambulance man....ticket inspector
I don't understand

They're gonna have to introduce conscription
They're gonna have to take away my prescription
If they wanna get me making toys
If they wanna get me, I got no choice

Careers
Careers
Careers

Career opportunities, the ones that never knock

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Shepherd's Delight (instrumental)



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