The Clash

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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

es I am the dictator the more guns I got the better
Yes I am the liquidator I carry the old Beretta
You know there once was freedom
You know how dangerous that can be
The people used to dance & sing
& they used to run wild in the streets
But now I am the voice
Howling from your radio
From my armour plated Cadillac
You'll hear what I say goes

Yes I am the dictator I satisfy the U.S. team
I always do my killing in the woods & keep the city gutters clean
Cos I need a few more dollars
For my fighter pilot to be free
To dive bomb on the population
If they go running wild in the streets
Yes I am that voice...etc

Yes I am the crusador I spent twenty years in exile
But now I am the invader & I'm never never gonna die
Yes I am the dictator my name is on your ballot sheet
But until my box has your cross you know the form is incomplete
And you know........etc

The sheik he drove his cadillac

Shareef
Rockin the casbah
Rock

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it
You know he really hates it
Really, really hates it

between cool confusion
and kung fu in the car park
could the weekend be losing
that reactive spark

even in the shebeen
or down in the meat rack
longtime i feel cold
to send cinderella's shoe back

along the length of the wire
party jam on the line
i can't hear a thing
can't get no number nine

now we must get in touch
if the night is to burn
someone out there in luck
lend me your star for a turn

as heroes fix their hair
some are saving their breath
just on the walkways tonight
for a glue bag death

screens flick in unison
some gaze at the soul
from the tiers and the heights
go for the fifteenth floor stroll

it's immediately obvious;
anybody star-gilt
would have left this club
way before it was built

this strikes you so late
as the guy with the broom
sweeps you and the bottles
right out of the room

now i wash in the factory
confess in the tile house
i don't need to bleed anybody
to strike out

today my godfather
he sent a note from the jail
said go get 'em kid
but don't get chained to the rail

between cool confusion
and kung fu in the car park
could the weekend be losing
that romantic spark

even in the shebeen
or down in the meat rack
long time i feel cold
to send cinderella's shoe back

Gonna scrape the trouble off my boots!

As they were dancing in the evening
And the light shone through the trees
This girl my eye was following
Asked the band to play her a beat

Singin' she'd do that long time jerk
She hit me where it hurts
Ohhh your heart
Now my heart will burst
Oh no

Ah, but it took me back to that wonderland
I witnessed long ago
Babbling words of preachers
Sayin'- "Don't bury me no more"

Ohh...

And I've forgotten how to worry
And I don't know how to run
Against the odds I realize
This struggle could be won!

We dance

Long time jerk
She did it to me first
Ohhh my heart
With that long time jerk

Ah! Say..... Do that long time jerk.

Bring on those tapes from the past
They make you look better in a mirror
Feel that long time jerkin'
Between the taker and the giver

Feel that...

Long time jerk
She hit me where it hurts
Oh I felt my heart
Now my heart will burst

I've forgotten how to worry
And I don't know how to run
Against the odds I realize
This struggle could be fun!

Oh, through lanes and streets and houses
And reversing rush of time
She made me re-invent the world
Before inventing time
(Before inventing time)

Long time jerk
Oh, she hit me where it hurts
Ohhhhh my heart
Long time jerk

Long, long, long, long, long
Long time
Long time jerk

The mini cab
The driver is black
This time of night
You better sit in the back

Got a few smokes
Under your hat
The cops are lookin' out
For the petrol on the black

This time I think
So what the hell
There's that female
I know too well

Why should I lean
Get out my mind again
I ridin' in the back alone
The stranger rides again

To see my lovely town
That always brings you down
Where every drifter drifts
For many miles around

We take a casual drive
For two miles up the road
The cops pull us over
And search right through our clothes

They give him hell
They check him on the air
I sit there with the drugs in my hair

As soon as I get home
I call Heathrow
Want a standby fare to Borneo

This is Radio Clash
Stealing all transmissions
Beaming from the mountaintop
Using aural ammunition

With extreme prejudice
On a terminator mission
This is Radio Clash
Consider your position

Step it up, get down low

Breaking news flash
Assassination
The whole country has been shot

Evil will abate
In Revelation
In the Ministry of Whitewash

Wait, wait
Don't switch off the death
Yes, we have the latest score
Rebel Islanders: 101 and Home Yard: 44

This is Radio Clash
And we count your thoughts
When lightning splits the sky in half
Sharper than a sword

And in the thundercloud
You see another cloud
Bones as big as sticks
Even angels were in hell on the morning of the sixth

Like buckets of venom in (????)
They've got a master plan
Human wars over there
And we'll come and knock 'em down

And he reaches the other side first
Gets a job in the dirty old town
And he reaches the other side first
Gets a job in the dirty old town

This is not free
This is not free Europe
No, no, no, no, no
Nor an armed force network

This is Radio Clash
Stealing all transmission
Beaming from the mountaintop
Aural ammunition

A riggy diggy dig dang dang

This is Radio Clash
Stealing information
By his will as a (???)
Use careful confirmation

Bribery, extortion
Legal legislation
Security is life indeed
Accept no other explanation

This is Radio Clash
On pirate satellite
Orbiting your living room
Everybody hold on tight

Don't you ever stop
Long enough to start
Take your car out of that gear

Don't you ever stop
Long enough to start
Get your car out of that gear

he panorama of the city is wrong
in fact the city seems to be gone!
burning rubber and smoke in my eyes
there's a flat burning junkheap
for twenty square miles!
they took it into the nuclear mine
judging by this, they left nothing behind
down in the bunkers in the crust of the earth
now crouch the wealthy and the noble of birth

if i could a ride a train around the city
that holds this as our fate
i'd hide from electro-circuit central
to the shock inducer gate
not forgetting the by-pass
across the washington hooks
through the phones and desks and screens
of the kremlin's crook of crooks

there's some panel in a circuit board
destination of the override
scanning the wild wind
blowing through the berlin corridor
spotlit in a palace, shielded from dust
malfunction or not, the failsafe is the crux
so far away from us,
shaking with the mystery tears
one lonely night in ladbroke grove
far away in the deserts of omaha!
they got it nailed down-swiss tight!
the bank notes of europe
the emperors and kings
curl in the autumn as the burning of leaves
and i've cleaned my black guitar...

My Daddy was a bankrobber
But he never hurt nobody
He just loved to live that way
And he loved

Never loved a shovel
Break

The old man spoke up in a bar
Said I never been in prison
A

Someday you'll meet your rocking chair
Cos that's where we're spinning
There's

Yeah

My daddy was a bankrobber
But he never hurt nobody
He

Get away, get away

Money

He loved to steal your money

stay around don't play around
this old town and all
seems like i got to travel on

a lot of people won't get no supper tonight
justice tonight

runnin and a hiding tonight
justice tonight

remember to kick it over
no one will guide you through armegideon time
it's armagideon
it's not christmas time

a lot of people
a lot of people use a calculator
a lot of people won't get no supper tonight
a lot of people sittin' down by the light

the battle is gettin hotter
armagideon time
armagideon

remember to kick it over
armagideon time

a lot of people ain't got no supper tonight
a lot of people got to stand out back

yes, it's time for the dr. goebbels
show!

there's a tower in the heart of london
with a radio station right at the top
they don't make the city beat
they're making all the action stop

a long time ago there were pirates
beaming waves from the sea
but now all the stations are silent
'cos they ain't got a government license

wanna tell your problems
phone in from your bedsit room
having trouble with your partner
let us all in on the news

if you wanna hear a record
or get the word from Aidan Day
he picks all the hits to play
to keep you in your place all day

capital radio
in tune with nothing
don't touch that dial

I would love to be the lucky one on chill avenue
Who could keep your heart warm when ice has turned it blue
But with the beggin' sleeping losers as they turn in for the night
I'm looking back for home and I can see the lights

I should be jumpin' shoutin' that I made it all this way
From Camden town station to 44th and 8th
Not many make it this far and many say we're great
But just like them we walk on an' we can't escape our fate
Can't you hear the sighing
Eastside Jimmy and Southside Sue
Both say they needed something new

So I'm standing at the gates of the west
I burn money at the lights of the sign
The city casts a shadow of the perfect crime
I'm standing at the gates of the east
I take my pulse and the pulse of my friend
The city casts a shadow, will I see you again?

The immigrants an' remnants of all the glory years
Are clustered around the bar again for another round of beers
Little Richard's in the kitchen playing spoons and plates
He's telling the waitress he's great

Ah say i know somewhere back'n'forth in time
Out on the dustbowls, deep in the roulette mine
Or in a ghetto cellar only yesterday
There's a move into the future for the USA.

I hear them crying
Eastside Jimmy and Southside Sue
Both said they needed something new

Standing at the gates of the west
In the shadow again
I'm standing at the gates of the west
In the shadow again

the high street shops are boarded up
an' the terrace it is fenced in
see-through shields are walled across
the way that you came in
but there's no need to get excited

as the lorries bring the bacon in
'cos the housewives are all singing
groovy times are here again

they discovered one black saturday
that mobs don't march they run
so you can excuse the nervous triggerman
just this once for jumping the gun
as they were picking up the dead
out of the broken glass
yes it's number one, the radio said
groovy times have come to pass!

groovy times groovy times groovy times

the intake is on the uptake
the acceleration's pretty grim
i can remember his first appearance
now look what's happened to him
so they put him in a dog suit
like from 1964
the king of early evening tv
groovy times forever more

standing in a queue of a school canteen
guys on the corner they were laughin' at me
but i don't mind if they see it all
you know i gotta come clean
i gotta come clean
i got a crush on you

my mind don't need it but my body do
a little bit of loving and attention for you
although we're only strangers
they don't need to know
i gotta cum clean, i gotta cum clean
ooh, i got a crush on you

i wanna get serious right away
1-2, i got a crush on you
what you doin' today or any other day?
1-2, i got a crush on you
just one look and i go insane
1-2, i got a crush on you

your daddy never comes to get you
`cos lives so far away
but his i-talian chauffeur shows up every day
but i'll get you in the corner, i'll get you all
alone
i gotta cum clean, i gotta come clean

i got a crush on you

1-2, i got a crush on you
1-2, i got a crush on you
1-2, i got a crush on you
i said 1-2
i got a crush on you

why should i get a crush on yet?

It is you, oh yeah
It is you, oh yeah

I said a pressure drop,
Oh pressure, oh yeah
Pressure's gonna drop on you
I said pressure drop
Oh pressure, oh yeah
Pressure's gonna drop on you

I said when it drops
Oh you gonna feel it
Oh that you were doin' it wrong, wrong, wrong
Now when it drops
Oh you gonna feel it
That you were doin' it wrong and how

I said when it drops
You gonna feel it
That you've been doin' it wrong
Now when it drops, drop
You gonna feel it
That you've been doin' wrong

Now when it drops, drop
Feel it
You make the wrong move
Now when it drops, drop
You gonna feel it
That you've been it doin' wrong

I said, pressure drop
Oh pressure, oh yeah
Pressure's gonna drop on you
Pressure drop
Oh pressure, oh yeah
Pressure's gonna drop on you

Now when it drops on your dirty little head
Where you gonna go?
It's you, you, you
When it drop on, oh you're gonna feel it
What you're doing is wrong, wrong, wrong
Pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure...
I said a pressure drop

the prisoner meets the muppet hi-fi
north of watford junction
we get in but we don't have fun
an' we leave before the truncheons
so it's back to watch the day to day
saga of working people
hanging out the washing and clipping coupons
and generally being decent

johnny too bad meets johnny be good
in the charing cross road
that's the only thing that happened today
says the west end jungle code
and all the germans and all the french
jam themselves down the tube
and re-enact the second world war
while the rude boys get rude!

and i look to my left
and i look to my right
and i'm looking for a man
i'm looking for a sign
i don't wanna be the prisoner

the prisoner lives in camden town
selling revolution
the prisoner loads his tracking arm up
with self-disillusion
your mother does the washing up
your old man digs the garden
you're only free to dodge the cops
an' bunk the train to stardom

this is the city of the dead
as we lie side by side in bed
i'd do something else instead
but it is the city of the dead

we went out kickin' around
but you got drunk an' fallen down
an' i wished i could be like you
with the soho river drinking me down

in the city of the dead
fall in love an' fall in bed
it wasn't anything you said
except i know we both lie dead

don't you know where to cop
that's what new york johnny said * * * *
you should get to know your town
just like i know mine

while all the windows stare ahead
an' the streets are filled with dread
every nation in the world
slinks through the alley after girls

what we wear is dangerous gear
it'll get you picked on anywhere
though we get beat up we don't care
at least it livens up the air

but somedays we hide inside
all courage gone and paralysed
sniff that wind of ugly tension
today the jerks have got aggression

it is the city of the dead

Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine
A little more every day
Holding for a friend till the band do well
Then the D.E.A. locked him away

Clang clang, go the jail guitar doors
Bang bang, go the boots on the floor
Cry cry, for your lonely mother's son
Clang clang, go the jail guitar doors

An' I'll tell you 'bout Pete, didn't want no fame
Gave all his money away
"Well there's something wrong, it'll be good for you, son"
And so they certified him insane

And then there's Keith, waiting for trial
Twenty-five thousand bail
If he goes down you won't hear his sound
But his friends carry on anyway
Fuck 'em!
Jail guitar doors
54/46 was my number
Jail guitar doors
Right now someone else has that number

in 1977 i hope i go to heaven
cos i been too long on the dole
and i can't work at all

danger stranger
you better paint your face
no elvis, beatles, or the rolling stones
in 1977

in 1977
knives in west 11
lent so lucky to be rich
sten guns in knightsbridge

danger stranger
you better paint your face
no elvis, beatles or the rolling stones
in 1977

in 1977
you're on the never never
you think it can't go on forever
but the papers say it's better
i don't care 'cos i'm not all there
no elvis, beatles or the rolling stones

in 1977
sod the jubilee
in 1978
in 1979
stayed in bed
in 1980
in 1981
the toilet don't work
in 1982
in 1983
here come the police
in 1984