The Clash

Back in the garage with my bullshit detector
Carbon monoxide making sure it's effective
People ringing up making offers for my life
But I just wanna stay in the garage all night

We're a garage band
We come from garageland

Meanwhile things are hotting up in the West End alright
Contracts in the offices, groups in the night
My bummin' slummin' friends have all got new boots
An' someone just asked me if the group would wear suits

I don't wanna hear about what the rich are doing
I don't wanna go to where the rich are going
They think they're so clever, they think they're so right
But the truth is only known by guttersnipes

There's twenty-two singers! But one microphone
Back in the garage
There's five guitar players! But one guitar
Back in the garage
Complaints! Complaints! Wot an old bag
Back in the garage
All night

friday or saturday, what does that mean
short space of time needs a heavy scene
monday is coming like a jail on wheels

48 hours needs 48
48 hours needs 48
48 hours needs 48
thrills
48 thrills

so tell me an' i'll take the tube
you know a girl, yeah well she's bound to be rude
can't get nothing at the places i've been

i've combed this town from top to bottom
i try to get around but my legs are broken
every time i miss it 'cos i ain't got a ticket

48 hours needs 48 thrills
kicking for kicks

Police and thieves in the streets
Oh yeah!
Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition
Police and thieves in the street
Oh yeah!
Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

From Genesis to Revelation
The next generation will be hear me
From Genesis to Revelation
The next generation will be hear me

And all the crowd comes in day by day
No one stop it in anyway
And all the peacemaker turn war officer
Hear what I say

[Vocal ad lib]

Police, police, police and thieves oh yeah
Police, police, police and thieves oh yeah
From Genesis oh yeah
Police, police, police and thieves oh yeah

Scaring, fighting the nation
Shooting, shooting their guns and ammunition

Police, police, police and thieves oh yeah
Police, police, police and thieves oh yeah
Here come, here come, here come
The station is bombed
Get out get out get out you people
If you don't wanna get blown up

[Vocal ad lib]

standing in the bog of a west end bar
guy on the right leaning over too far
money in my pocket gonna put it in the slot
open up the pack see what type i got

i didn't want to hold you
i didn't want to use you
protex, protex blue
all wanna do

it's a fab protective for that type of a girl
but everybody knows that she uses it well
it's the therapeutic structure i can use at will
but i don't think it fits my b.d. drill

sitting in a carriage of a bakerloo
erotica my pocket got a packet for you
advert on the escalator on my way home
i don't need no skin flicks, i wanna be alone

i didn't want to hold you
i didn't want to use you
protex, protex blue
all i wanna do

johnny, johnny

i get violent when i'm fucked up
i get silent when i'm drugged up
want excitement, don't get none, i go wild

i don't know what can be done about it
if you play the game you get nothing out of it
find out for yourself try bein' a goody goody

you better cheat cheat
no reason to play fair
cheat cheat or don't get anywhere
cheat cheat if you can't win

nobody knows what they are doing
it's beyond your control, an' friday night's a ruin
if you wanna survive you better learn how to lie

don't use the rules
they're not for you, they're for the fools
and you're a fool if you don't know that
so use the rule you stupid fool

The 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 opportunity, the ones that never knock

I hate the army an' I hate the R.A.F.
I don't wanna go fighting in the tropical heat
I hate the civil service rules
And I won't open letter bombs for you

Bus driver....ambulance man....ticket inspector

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, well, I got no choice

Careers
Careers
Careers

Ain't never gonna knock

London's burning! London's burning!

All across the town, all across the night
Everybody's driving with full headlights
Black or white turn it on, face the new religion
Everybody's sitting 'round watching television!

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial 99999

I'm up and down the Westway, in an' out the lights
What a great traffic system - it's so bright
I can't think of a better way to spend the night
Then speeding around underneath the yellow lights

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial 99999

Now I'm in the subway and I'm looking for the flat
This one leads to this block, this one leads to that
The wind howls through the empty blocks looking for a home
I run through the empty stone because I'm all alone

London's burning with boredom now...
London's burning dial 99999

deny
you're such a liar
you won't know the truth if it hits you in the eye
deny
you're such a liar
you're selling your no-no all the time

an' you said we were going out
to the 100 club
then you said it ain't my scene
but then you turned up alone
then you turned up alone

then you said you'd given it up
gone an' kicked it in the head
you said you ain't had none for weeks
but baby i seen your arms
baby i seen your arms

do you think i'm a raving idiot?
just got off the boat
step in line, sign this form - you ain't got a hope
baby ain't got a hope - you ain't got a hope

what a liar - deny
what a liar

What the hell is wrong with me? I'm not who I want to be
I tired spot cream an' I tried it all I'm crawling up the wall!

What's my name naaaame...naaaame....naaaame....

I tried to join a ping-pong club, sign on the door said all full up!
I got nicked, fighting in the road an' the judge didn't even know

What's my name

Dad go pissed so I got clocked
Couldn't hear the Tannoy so he lost the lot
Offers Mum a bribe through the letter box
Drives you fucking mad

Now I'm round the back of your house at night
Peeping in the window - are you sleeping tight?
I laugh at your locks with my celloid strip
An' you won't know who came

What's my name

Hate and war - the only things we got today

An' if I close my eyes
They will not go away
You have to deal with it
It is the currency

Hate...hate...hate...

The hate of a nation
A million miles from home
An' get war from the junkies
Who don't like my form

I'm gonna stay in the city
Even when the house fall down
I don't dream of a holiday
When hate an' war come around

Hate and war...

I have the will to survive
I cheat if I can't win
If someone locks me out
I kick my way back in

An' if I get aggression
I give it to them two time back
Every day it's just the same
With hate an' war on my back

Hate and war - I hate all the English
Hate and war - they're just as bad as wops
Hate and war - I hate all the politeness
Hate and war - I hate all the cops

I wanna walk down any street
Looking like a creep
I don't care if I get beat up
By any Kebab Greek

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
Nobody wants
To go to jail!

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

Yankee soldier
He wanna shoot some skag
He met it in Cambodia
But now he can't afford a bag

Yankee dollar talk
To the dictators of the world
In fact it's giving orders
An' they can't afford to miss a word

I'm so bored with the U...S...A...
But what can I do?

Yankee detectives
Are always on the TV
'Cos killers in America
Work seven days a week

Never mind the stars and stripes
Let's print the Watergate Tapes
I'll salute the New Wave
And I hope nobody escapes

I'm so bored with the U...S...A...
But what can I do?

Move up Starsky
For the C.I.A.
Suck on Kojak
For the USA

Who needs remote control
From the Civic Hall
Push a button
Activate
You gotta work an' you're late

It's so grey in London town
With a panda car crawling around
Here it comes
Eleven o'clock
Where can we go now?

Can't make a noise
Can't get no gear
Can't make no money
Can't get outta here

Big business it don't like you
It don't like the things you do
You got no money
So you got no power
They think you're useless
An' so you are - puuuuuuunnnnnk!

They had a meeting in Mayfair
They got you down an'
They wanna keep you there
It makes them worried
Their bank accounts
That's all that matters
And you don't count

Can't make no progress
Can't get ahead
Can't stop the regress
Don't wanna be dead

Look out' those rules and regulations

Who needs the Parliament
Sitting making laws all day
They're all fat and old
Queuing for the House of Lords

Repression - gonna start on Tuesday
Repression - gonna be a Dalek
Repression - I am a robot
Repression - I obey

He's in love with rock'n'roll woaahh
He's in love with gettin' stoned woaahh
He's in love with Janie Jones
But he don't like his boring job, no...

An' he knows what he's got to do
So he knows he's gonna have fun with you
You lucky lady!
An' he knows when the evening comes
When his job is done he'll be over in his car for you

An' in the in-tray lots of work
But the boss at the firm always thinks he shirks
But he's just like everyone, he's got a Ford Cortina
That just won't run without fuel
Fill her up, Jacko!

An' the invoice it don't quite fit,
There's no payola in his alphabetical file
This time he's gonna really tell the boss
Gonna really let him know exactly how he feels
It's pretty bad!

Let them know - how you feel

Hanging about down the market street
I spent a lot of time on my feet
When I saw some passing yabbos
We did chance to speak

I knew how to sing
y' know an
They knew how to pose
An' one of them had a Les Paul
Heart attack machine

All the young punks
Laugh your life
Cos there ain't much to cry for
All the young cunts
Live it now
Cos there ain't much to die for

Everybody wants to bum a ride
On the rock 'n' roller coaster
And we went out
Got our name in small print on a poster
Of course we got a manager
Though he ain't the mafia
A contract is a contract
When they get 'em out on yer

You gotta drag yourself to work
Drug yourself to sleep
You're dead from the neck up
By the middle of the week

Face front you got the future shining
Like a piece of gold
But I swear as we get closer
It look more like a lump of coal
But it's better than the factory
Now that's no place to waste your youth
I worked there for a week once
I luckily got the boot

I have been a washer up
An' he has been a scrubber up
An' I seen him a picking up
Dog ends in the rain
An' he has never read a book
Though I told him to take a look
He lifted his poolhall cue
For another game
But it ain't no modern miracle
That we found the golden rule
What you can't buy you gotta steal
An' what you say can't steal you better leave

I don't like to hang about
In this lonely room
'Cos london is for going out
And trying to hear a tune
But people come pouncing up to me
And say what are you doing here
You're supposed to be a star
Not a cheapskate bleeding queer

Like a load of rats from a sinking ship
You slag us down to save your hip
But you don't give me the benfit
Of your doubt
'Cos I'll bite it off and spit it out

We're cheapskates anything'll do
We're cheapskates what are we supposed to do?
An' we can rock
Hey hey let's roll
An' we can walk
An' do the stroll

Just because we're in a group
You think we're stinking rich
'N we all got model girls
Shedding every stitch
'N You think the cocaine's flowing
Like a river up our noses
'N every sea will part for us
Like the red one did for Moses

Well I hope you make it one day
Just like you always said you would some day
And I'll get out my money and make a bet
That I'll be seein' you down the launderette

we met when we were in school
never took no shit from no one, we weren't fools
the teacher says we're dumb
we're only having fun
we piss on everyone
in the classroom

when we got thrown out i left without much fuss
an' weekends we'd go dancing
down streatham on the bus
you always made me laugh

got me in bad fights
play me pool all night
smokin' menthol

i practised daily in my room
you were down the crown planning your next move
go on a nicking spree
hit the wrong guy
each of you get three
years in brixton

i did my very best to write
how was butlins?
were the screws too tight?
when you lot get out
were gonna hit the town
we'll burn it fuckin' down
to a cinder

cos years have passed and things have changed
and i move anyway i wanna go
i'll never forget the feeling i got
when i heard that you'd got home
an' i'll never forget the smile on my face
'cos i knew where you would be
an' if you're in the crown tonight
have a drink on me
but go easy...step lightly...stay free

Drug stabbing time
Well I got working on the Ford line
A paying off the big fine
Drug stabbin' time

Drug stabbin' time
Is from nine to nine
Nobody wantsa user
Nobody needs a loser
So kick him out that door
An' don't answer it no more

Drug stabbin' time
It's a Greenwich Mean Time
Your friends all hate each other you think
You've got another
But who's at the door?
Don't answer it no more

Drug stabbin time
In a bedroom crime
There's a tape recording on a telephone line
An' it's ringin from the floor
So don't answer it no more

Now I was lying in my room
It was raining drugs all afternoon.
I hear this car pull up outside
Comes to a stop like, skreeee

Someone's in a hurry
'N someone better worry
'Cos these four guys all had on their feet
A pair of black shoes shining and neat
I thinks

Blackshoes on
No that's bad news
Here they come charging up the stairs alright
Sonny just tell us where

Drug stabbin time
Don't ask me mate
Working on the Ford line
Paying off the big fine
Drug stabbin' time

I swear by Almighty God
To tell the whole truth
And nothing but the truth

Guns guns
They torture all the women and children
Then they've put the men to the gun
'Cos across the human frontier
Freedom's always on the run

Guns guns a-shaking in terror
Guns guns killing in error
Guns guns guilty hands
Guns guns shatter the lands

A system built by the sweat of the many
Creates assassins to kill off the few
Take any place and call it a court house
This is a place where no judge can stand

Sue the lawyers and burn all the papers
Unlock the key of the legal rapers
A jury of a billion faces
Shouted out condemned out of hand

Guns guns, and nobody's kidding
Guns guns, or foolin' around
Guns guns, the violence is singing
Guns guns, a silence the sound

'N I Iike to be in Aferica
A-beatin' on the final drum
'N I like to be in U.S.S.R.
Makin' sure these things will come
'N I like to be in U.S.A.
Pretending that the wars are done
'N I like to be in Europa
Saying goodbye to everyone

Guns guns there's guns on the roof
Guns guns they're made to shoot

Everybody's looking for last gang in town
You better watch out for they're all comin' around

The sport of today is exciting
The in crowd are into infighting
When some punk sees some rock-olla
It's rock and roll all over
In every street and every station
Kids fight like different nations
And it's brawn against brain
And it's knife against chain
But it's all young blood
Flowing down the drain

The Crops hit the Stiffs
An' the Spikes whipped the Quiffs
They're all looking 'round

For the last gang in town

Meanwhile down in black town
Those old soul rebels are haingin' around
An' when some punk come alooking for sound
Rastaferi goes to ground
The white heart flipped his pocket dipped
'Cos a black sharp knife never slips
And they never say to one antoher
That tomorrow we might kill our brothers

Down from the edge of London
The rockabily rebels came
From another edge of London
Skinhead gangs call out their name
But not the Zydeco kids
From the high rise
Though they can't be recognized
When you hear a cajun fiddle
Then you're nearly in the middle
Of the last gang in town

it's lucy in the sky and all kinds of apple pie
she giggles at the screen 'cos it looks so green
there's carpets on the pavements
and feathers in her eye
but sooner or later, her new friends will realise
that julie's been working for the drug squad

well it seemed like a dream, too good to be true
stash it in the bank while the tablets grow high
in their millions

and everybody's high (hi, man...)
but there's someone looking down
from that mountainside
'cos julie's been working for the drug squad

and it's ten years for you
nineteen for you
and you can get out in twenty-five
that is if you're still alive

an' then there came the night of the greatest ever raid
they arrested every drug that had ever been made
they took eighty-two laws
through eighty-two doors
and they didn't halt the pull
till the cells were all full
'cos julie was working for the drug squad

they put him in a cell, they said you wait here
you've got the time to count all of your hair
you've got fifteen years
a mighty long time
you could have been a physicist
but now your name is on the mailbag list
julie's been working for the drug squad

gumbo!

tommy gun
you ain't happy less you got one
tommy gun
ain't gonna shoot the place up
just for fun
maybe he wants to die for the money
maybe he wants to kill for his country
whatever he wants, he's gonna get it!

tommy gun
you better strip it down for a customs run
tommy gun
waiting in the airport 'till kingdom come
an' we can watch you make it
on the nine o'clock news
standing there in palestine lighting the fuse
whatever you want, you're gonna get it

tommy gun
you'll be dead when your war is won
tommy gun
but did you have to gun down everyone?
i can see it's kill or be killed
a nation of destiny has got to be fulfilled
whatever you want, you're gonna get it!

tommy gun
you can be a hero in an age of none
tommy gun
i'm cutting out your picture from page one
i'm gonna get a jacket just like yours
an' give my false support to your cause
whatever you want, you're gonna get it!

okay, so let's agree about the price
And make it one jet airliner for ten prisoners
boats an' tanks and planes, it's your game
kings an' queens an' generals learn your name
i see all the innocents, the human sacrifice
and if death comes so cheap
then the same goes for life!

when johnny comes marching home again
he's coming by bus or underground
a woman's eye will shed a tear
to see his face so beaten in fear
an' it was just around the corner in the english civil war

it was still at the stage of clubs and fists
when that well-known face got beaten to bits
your face was blue in the light of the screen
as we watched the speech of an animal scream
the new party army was marching right over our heads

alright

there you are, ha ha, i told you so
says everybody that we know
but who hid a radio under the stairs
an' who got caught out on their unawares?
when that new party army came marching right up the stairs

when johnny comes marching home again
nobody understands it can happen again
the sun is shining an' the kids are shouting loud
but you gotta know it's shining through a crack in the cloud
and the shadows keep falling when johnny comes marching home

well, i just got back an' i wish i never leave now
who dat martian arrival at the airport?
how many local dollars for a local anaesthetic?
the johnny on the corner was a very sympathetic

i went to the place where every white face is an
invitation to robbery
an' sitting here in my safe european home
i don't wanna go back there again

wasn't i lucky n' wouldn't it be loverly?
send us all cards, an' have a laying in on a sunday
i was there for two weeks, so how come i never tell
that natty dread drinks at the sheraton hotel?

now they got the sun, an' they got the palm trees
they got the weed, an' they got the taxis
whoa, the harder they come, n' the home of ol' bluebeat
yes i'd stay an' be a tourist but i can't take the gunplay

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 heartache's in me till this day

[Chorus]
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

All the times
When we were close
I'll 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

Did you stand by me
No, not at all

Now I got a job
But it don't pay
I need new clothes
I need somewhere to stay
But without all these things I can do
But 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?

Did you stand by me
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way