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"It's incredible. While I was resting, he (Bernie Rhodes, the manager) had finished the album, gave it a title, and got it into the stores." (Joe Strummer)
With the ambiguous but successful COMBAT ROCK (1982), The Clash returned to expressing themselves more directly and also closer to what they had done at the beginning of their career. An album, in short, that consecrates them even more to the general public, but with the extension of the American tours, it foreshadows the end of the Strummer/Jones alliance, consumed with the last concert held together on May 29, 1983 at the U.S. Festival. On the following September 10, on the pages of NME, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon announce the dismissal of their friend Mick Jones due to incompatibilities regarding the band's artistic direction. By the end of the year, with the new recruits Pete Howard (drums), Nick Sheppard (guitar), and Vince White (guitar), they planned more dates in the U.S.A. and others in Europe for 1984, which included the two historic evenings on February 27 and 28 at the Palasesto in Milan. With the lineup many will remember as that of the other Clash, they proceed to record a new album which, with the years—and for lack of artistic continuity—even Strummer himself will not deem worthy of being considered as the coherent closing chapter of the band's discography.
The sixth work of the London band is an opportunity to listen to a certain pop-rock with a clearly radio-friendly flavor (and deliberately spiced with some biting guitars...), which perhaps aimed to break into the ears of the audience not strictly adolescent, yet capable of getting hooked on easily assimilable melodies and the highly elaborate videos that at the time (let's not forget we're talking about the end of 1985...) were rampant on the dominant MTV. There's no surprise in the disappointment that might arise from listening to "Dictator" or the excessive lightness of "Are You the Red..Y" with clear references to the danceable and contemporary sounds elegantly and naturally conceived by a certain Prince Roger Nelson. The sharp impact of "Dirty Punk" doesn't raise the stakes like the piercing attempt at a rediscovered originality of "We Are The Clash", which resolves into a feeble declaration of a new identity towards the former Mick Jones. Echoes of the Stones emerge in the harsh riff of "Cool Under Heat", while "Movers and Shakers" is truly a pity for those synths!) could have been a good restart, letting the electronic funk of "Fingerpoppin'" play the role of a delightful surprise not even that out of context. It won't be the melodic indulgence of "North and South" or the pleasant ska of "Three Card Trick" to rebalance the failed attempt at experimentation in "Play To Win", not to mention the synth-rock of "Life Is Wild" which, taking us to the end of the listen, confirms how sometimes even the most beautiful fairy tales don't always have a happy ending.
The album, hastily assembled by the all-purpose manager Bernie Rhodes (also co-author of all the tracks), was released in the market at the beginning of November 1985, produced by one Jose Unidos, in which those closest to the band would recognize as the pseudonym under which the new management Strummer/Rhodes operated. Recorded between January and March of the same year, it was preceded about two months earlier by a powerful single like "This Is England", which was able to hark back to the band's glorious past and the only track that Strummer would save from that controversial period, including it in THE ESSENTIAL CLASH, the compilation curated by himself and published a few months after his death. "TIE" spontaneously stands out above all other tracks on the album, representing, to its credit, a bold and successful protest anthem of the renewed Clash, transforming over the years, and unknowingly, into an inspired swan song.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Dictator (03:02)
Yes 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 and sing
and 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 and 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 and 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.
02 Dirty Punk (03:11)
Gonna be a dirty punk
Gonna rock your neighborhood
Do the sound of rebel funk
Turn it up loud like it should
I could hear your momma scream
She's gonna waste herself away
When your daddy smashed that TV screen
I understand what he had to say
I'm going to get me a big, big, big
Big, Big car
Then I'm gonna drive, drive, drive
I'm gonna drive so far
Up your boulevard
Up your boulevard
So far up your boulevard
Gonna be a dirty punk
While my brother dresses clean
He used to be the local hunk
The girls all ride in my machine(?)
How bout the time I made him drunk
And he insult my brotherhood
I shout out I am a dirty punk
Gonna rock your neighbohood
I'm going to get a big, big, big
Big, Big car
Then I'm gonna drive, drive, drive
I'm gonna drive so far
Up your boulevard
Up your boulevard
So far up your boulevard
Gonna get a big, big, big
Go faster!
Then I'm gonna go! Big!
Let's go to (???)
Up your boulevard
Up your boulevard
Go so far up your boulevard
Gonna drive my big, big, big
Big, Big car
Then I'm gonna drive, drive, drive
I'm gonna drive so far
Up your boulevard
Up your boulevard
So far up your boulevard
06 Movers and Shakers (03:03)
The boy stood in the burning slum
Better times had to come
Fate lay in the hands that clap
The muscles that move & the power that raps
He went up on money street
Waving an poping to the beat
Off his wits an on his feet
He worked a coin from the cold concrete
Movers & shakers come on you got what it takes to make it
Movers an shakers come on even if you have to fake it
Where the highway meets the lights
With a red bandanna & rapid wipes
He shines glass and he cleans chrome
He'll accept what he gets thrown
This man earns cos its understood
Times are bad and he's makin good
Down on him but he's got it beat
He's working coin from the cold concrete
Movers & shakers come on....etc
And when i see you down & i say
That aint no way through that aint no way through
Movers & shakers come on....etc
Way back in some city heat
When a friend was anybody with food to eat
It was lousy life with a leaking roof
We got up to find that truth
Make a drum from a garbage can
Allow your tongue to be a man
When the beat propels you off your seat
You got it made in the cold concrete
Movers & shakers come on!
07 This Is England (03:53)
I hear a gang fire on a human factory farm
Are they howling out or doing somebody harm
On a catwalk jungle somebody grabbed my arm
A voice spoke so cold it matched the weapon in her palm
This is England
This knife of Sheffield steel
This is England
This is how we feel
Time on his hands freezing in those clothes
He won't go for the carrot
They beat him by the pole
Some sunny day confronted by his soul
He's out at sea, too far off, he can't go home
This is England
What we're supposed to die for
This is England
And we're never gonna cry no more
Black shadow of the Vincent
Falls on a Triumph line
I got my motorcycle jacket
But I'm walking all the time
South Atlantic wind blows
Ice from a dying creed
I see no glory
When will we be free
This is England
We can chain you to the rail
This is England
We can kill you in a jail
The British boots go kick them
Got 'em in the head
Police ain't watchin'
The newspapers been read
Who cares to protest
A (???) in the eye like a flare
Out came the batons and
The British warned themselves
This is England
The land of (il)legal dances
This is England
Land of a thousand stances
This is England
This knife of Sheffield steel
This is England
This is how we feel
This is England
This is England
09 Play to Win (03:09)
''[Spoken]''
''[Voice:]'' Hey wotcha! (??) piranah
''[Joe:]'' Yup and the piranah got it
''[Voice:]'' Yeah, well if it's hooligan you want
''[Joe:]'' We British will tear upon the street
''[Voice:]'' (???) gun you down.
''[Joe:]'' Well I don't see you living in Germany.
''[Voice:]'' Yankee (???)
''[Joe:]'' (???)
''[Voice:]'' (???)
''[Sung]''
I long for the prairie
Of the wild frontier
We got to take it to the space age
graffiti bandit pioneers
''[Voice:]'' Wotcha! I thought I'd go call a taxi
''[Joe:]'' Well what you got is a police car
''[Voice:]'' Are you gonna (???) cleanin'?
''[Joe:]'' I thought you was a burglar
''[Voice:]'' (???)
''[Joe:]'' I'll say to give you a kiss
''[Voice:]'' Lord! I can't take the pressure.
''[Joe:]'' Come on lets go out get smashed.
I long for the prairie
Of the wild frontier
We got to take it to the space age
graffiti bandit pioneers
''[Voice:]'' Hey wotcha! What kind of food for the picnic
''[Joe:]'' Hey don't worry about our (???)
''[Voice:]'' (???) obviously then
''[Joe:]'' Well out there everyday it's all the same
''[Voice:]'' No. I don't want to turn to plastic
''[Joe:]'' Why don't you turn your plastic into gold?
''[Voice:]'' (???)
''[Joe:]'' Just get your face in a centerfold
''[Voice:]'' 2, 3, 4
I long for the prairie
Of the wild frontier
We got to take it to the space age
graffiti bandit pioneers
10 Fingerpoppin' (03:25)
This here finger of mine
Is gonna point to the beat, right on time
This finger points in a brand new dance
This finger points for a new romance
This here finger's got no ring
It'll point at anything
This finger points gonna pop tonight
Gonna point at the best girl in sight
Don't talk shop
Fingerpop
Don't talk shop
Fingerpop
Girls, girls round the floor
Are you wondering what you came for
Why do these boys stand in groups
Are they urban tribes of fighting troops
Girls, girls it's time to act
Time to beat gonna make contact
Make it plain and make it clear
Just point out who you want to hear
Don't talk shop
Round the house
Fingerpop
Dont' talk shop
(???)
Man or mouse
Don't talk shop
Fingerpop
Don't talk shop
Fingerpop
Boys, boys cat got your tongue
Can't you see she's the prettiest one
Better act real hurt
Just turn around kickin' the dirt
This here (???) is on selling street
Tell the girl who you want to meet
This here finger gonna point tonight
Gonna point at the best girl in sight
Gonna move
Gonna move
Gonna move
Gonna move
Girls, girls go around the floor
Can't remember what you came here for
Don't talk shop
Fingerpop
Don't talk shop
Fingerpop
This here finger of mine
Gonna point to the beat, right on time
This finger points in a brand new dance
This finger points for a new romance
This here finger's got no ring
And it gets to point at anything
This finger points rock tonight
Gonna point at the best girl in sight
11 North and South (03:32)
And so we say
We ain't got life
Don't want a cardboard cut-out
Don't want a plastic knife
Now I know, time can march
With it's chargin' feet
Now I know, words are only cheap
It's gonna be a burn out
All around this town
The South is up
But the North is down
There's gonna be a killin'
Of a woman and a man
Trying to feed that child
Without a coin in their hand
And so we say
Have you no use
For eight million hands
And the power of youth
Now I know, time can march
With it's chargin' feet
Now I know, words are only cheap
It's gonna be a burn out
All around this town
The South is up
But the North is down
There's gonna be a killin'
Of a woman and a man
Trying to feed that child
Without a coin in their hand
It's gonna be a burn out!
And so we say
We ain't diggin' no graves
We're diggin' a foundation
For a future to be made
Now I know, time can march
With it's chargin' feet
Now I know, words are only cheap
It's gonna be a burn out
All around this town
The South is up
But the North is down
There's gonna be a killin'
Of a woman and a man
Trying to feed that child
Without a coin in their hand
It's gonna be a burn out!
12 Life Is Wild (02:39)
Hey anybody got a cigarette?
Has anybody got a cigarette
Haven't you declared a disaster zone
Ho! Your car is a total wreck
And I just can't go back home
My girl if she had the dope
We'd get the messieurs on the phone
I still got to get up and go home
Don't start driving on my headstone
Go!
Life is wild life is free
Make him want to stop, gonna fall on me
Life is wild life is free
Make him want to stop, gonna (???) me
Here's to all of my kindred souls
He got a life but ain't got no style
Well heard that your story goes
You nearly broke down after half a mile
Hey that is the way it goes
You better keep a note on file
You'll have to reap what I suppose
Gets you a floor and a (???)
Life is wild life is free
Make him want to stop, gonna fall on me
Life is wild life is free
Make him want to stop, gonna (???) me
Somebody got a cigarette?
A guitar or a blank cassette
Hey! The last thing he'd expect in his bar
Gonna chart the rise of my star
Life is wild life is free
Make him want to stop, gonna fall on me
Life is wild life is free
Make him want to stop, gonna (???) me
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By currahee72
This is an embarrassing album to absolutely avoid.
The music contained in 'Cut The Crap' is a terrible mix of electronics, synthesizers, '80s keyboards, hard riffs, and ridiculous stadium chants.
