London Calling (song)
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| "London Calling" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Clash | ||
| from the album London Calling | ||
| B-side(s) | "Armagideon Time'" | |
| Released | 7 December 1979 (U.K.) | |
| Format | 7" single | |
| Recorded | 1979 at Wessex Studios | |
| Genre | Rock/Punk rock | |
| Length | 3:19 | |
| Label | CBS Records | |
| Writer(s) | Joe Strummer/Mick Jones | |
| Producer(s) | Guy Stevens | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| The Clash singles chronology | ||
| "The Cost of Living (EP)" (1979) |
"London Calling" (1979) |
"Bankrobber" (1980) |
"London Calling" is the hit song off the album of the same name (London Calling, 1979) by the U.K. punk rock band The Clash; it is also the album's first track. This apocalyptic, politically charged rant features the band's famous combination of reggae basslines and punk electric guitar and vocals.
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[edit] Sample
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[edit] Writing and recording
The song was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The title alludes to the BBC World Service's station identification: "This is London calling ...", that was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries.
The lyrics reflect the concern felt by Strummer about world events with the reference to "a nuclear error" to the incident at Three Mile Island, which occurred earlier in 1979. Joe Strummer has said: '"We felt that we were struggling about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with our fingernails. And there was no one there to help us.'"
The line "London is drowning/And I live by the river" comes from concerns that if the River Thames flooded, most of central London would drown, something that led to the construction of the Thames Barrier.
The lyrics also reflect desperation of the band's situation in 1979 struggling with high debt, without management and arguing with their record label over whether the London Calling album should be a single or double album. The lines referring to "now don't look to us/All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust" reflects the concerns of the band over its situation after the punk rock boom in England in 1977 had ended.
Musically, the song is far removed from their earlier style of frenzied punk rock I-IV-V-I chord progressions, as best exemplified on songs like "Career Opportunities" and "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.". The song is in a minor key — something The Clash had rarely used before — and the inherent dirge-like, apocalyptic feel is intensified by Topper Headon's martial drumming without backbeat, in perfect synchrony with staccato guitar chords; Paul Simonon's haunting and pulsating bass line; the group's deliberate, mid-tempo pace; and Strummer's icy lyrics and baleful delivery. Strummer's wolf-like howls or perhaps Rooster-like crows, during the instrumental break, further fuel the atmosphere of desolation and paranoia implied throughout the song. Like many of the tracks on London Calling — including "The Card Cheat", "Revolution Rock", and "Jimmy Jazz" — the song doesn't end by resolving strongly to the tonic or fading out, as most rock and roll songs do. Instead, it breaks down eerily, with Joe Strummer's cryptic last words "I never felt so much a-like..." echoing over Pete Townshend-inspired Morse code feedback.
"London Calling" was recorded at Wessex Studios located in a former church in Highbury in North London. This studio had already proved to be a popular location with The Sex Pistols, the Pretenders and the Tom Robinson band. The single was produced by Guy Stevens and engineered by Bill Price.
[edit] Chart success and critical response
"London Calling" was released as the only single in the UK from the album and reached #11 in the charts in December 1979. The song did not make the US charts as "Train in Vain" was released in a single and broke the band in the US reaching #23 on the pop charts.
"London Calling" was the first Clash song to chart elsewhere in the world reaching the top 40 in Australia. The success of the single and album was greatly helped by a memorable video shot by Don Letts showing the band playing the song on a boat on the Thames in the pouring rain.
Over the years, "London Calling" has become regarded by many critics as the band's finest. In 2004, Rolling Stone rated the song as #15 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, the highest position for a song released in the 1980s. In 1989, the magazine also rated the album of the same name as the best album of the 1980s—although it was released in late 1979 in Britain, it came out in January, 1980 in the USA.
A supergroup consisting of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, Steven van Zandt, Pete Thomas, and Tony Kanal of No Doubt performed the song at the 2003 Grammy awards as a tribute after the death of Joe Strummer. Bruce Springsteen had earlier offered to join the band at the induction ceremony in 2002 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but the band had refused to play at the ceremony claiming that they did not want to play at a function where seats were upwards of $1,000, and would rather play for their fans. Although it appears Strummer favored a reunion, any hopes of a reunion died with Joe.
In 2002, the band incurred criticism from many of its hardcore fans when they sold the rights to Jaguar for a car advertisement. In an interview posted on his website, Strummer explained the reasons for the deal. "Yeah. I agreed to that. We get hundreds of requests for that and turn 'em all down. But I just thought Jaguar . . . yeah. If you're in a group and you make it together, then everybody deserves something. Especially twenty-odd years after the fact."
The single fell off the charts after 10 weeks, but later re-entered the chart twice, spending a total of fifteen non-consecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart.
[edit] Trivia
Joe Strummer later became a DJ for the BBC World Service, broadcasting in programmes entitled "Joe Strummer's London Calling" [1].
An earlier version of the song from The Vanilla Tapes, with noticeably different lyrics, was released with the London Calling Legacy Edition in 2004.
A live version of the song, recorded in Boston on September 7, 1982, was released on the 1999 album From Here to Eternity: Live.
The song achieved the accolade of two live performances by Bob Dylan during his November 2005 residency at London's Brixton Academy - a venue also linked with many classic Clash and Joe Strummer concerts.
The song was shortly featured in the films Bravo Two Zero (1999), Billy Elliot (2000), Ma femme est une actrice (2001) and Die Another Day (2002), as well as in an episode of Friends in the fourth season of the show.
On March 30, 2006, 23-year-old Harraj Mann, who is of Indian descent, was detained on terrorism suspicions at Durham Tees Valley Airport in Northern England as he tried to board a plane to London. The man had taken a cab to the airport and plugged his MP3 Player into the cab's stereo, where he played "London Calling" ("London calling to the faraway towns, now war is declared and battle come down") and Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". The lyrics aroused the driver's suspicions, and he alerted the authorities. The man was subsequently cleared, but he missed his flight. [2], [3]
The Red Hot Chili Peppers often use the intro to the song as an intro to "Right On Time", as heard on Live at Slane Castle and at Oxegen 2006
In the James Bond movie Die Another Day, when Bond is flying to London, London Calling is being played in the background.
