I'm So Bored With The USA

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"I'm So Bored With The USA"

Song by The Clash
from the album The Clash
Released	8 April 1977
Recorded	March, 1977
Genre	Punk rock
Length	2:25
Label	CBS
Writer(s)	Joe Strummer, Mick Jones
Producer(s)	Mikey Foote
The Clash track listing
Remote Control (2)	"I'm So Bored With The USA" (3)	White Riot (4)

'I'm So Bored With The USA is a song by influential band The Clash from their eponymous debut album The Clash.

The song began life as another track I'm So Bored With You a love song written by Mick Jones about his girlfriend, according to Kieth Topping's The Complete Clash book, the same woman who was the topic of Deny. According to the story often told by the song's authors Joe Strummer and Mick Jones including on their documentary Westway to the World the change came about by Strummer mishearing the song's title when Jones played him it during their first meeting at Davies Road Squad however early recordings including on the popular live bootleg 5 Go Mad At The Roundhouse include the song in its original form. However by the 20th of September 1976's concert at the Roundhouse, Camden the song was using its new title.

Originally demoed with slightly different lyrics during The Clash's second demo session with their soundman Mickey Foote as producer I'm So Bored With The USA's lyrics does what the title suggests, condemning America. Referring to the drugs problems in the US Army (particularly Heroin), America supporting dictatorships (something that was later elaborated on with their track Washington Bullets), the surf culture and the American television as well as mentioning the Watergate scandal, Starsky and Hutch and Kojak with the chorus expressing the inescapability of the USA's influence and indeed the futility of the song.

A mainstay in the band's set until 1978 when its appearances became less frequent, except in America where it was often used as the band's opening song.