The Clash

[nattydread]

The Prisoner

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

[nattydread]

Armagideon Time

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
a lot of people won't get no justice tonight
the battle is gettin hotter
in this iration, armagideon time

a lot of people runnin and a hiding tonight
a lot of people won't get no justice tonight
remember to kick it over
no one will guide you - armagideon time

[nattydread]

The Magnificent Seven

Ring! Ring! It's 7:00 A.M.!
Move y'self to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and you bankers, too
Must get up an' learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too
Churning out that boogaloo
Gets you up and gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?
Gimme Honda, Gimme Sony
So cheap and real phony
Hong Kong dollars and Indian cents
English pounds and Eskimo pence

You lot! What?
Don't stop! Give it all you got!
You lot! What?
Don't stop! Yeah!

Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
She's seen the ads, she thinks it's nice
Better work hard - I seen the price
Never mind that it's time for the bus
We got to work - an' you're one of us
Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk

"When can I tell 'em wot I do?
In a second, maaan...oright Chuck!"

Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss
It's our profit, it's his loss
But anyway lunch bells ring
Take one hour and do your thanng!
Cheeesboiger!

What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin' Gypsies on the pavement
Now the news - snap to attention!
The lunar landing of the dentist convention
Italian mobster shoots a lobster
Seafood restaurant gets out of hand
A car in the fridge
Or a fridge in the car?
Like cowboys do - in T.V. land

You lot! What? Don't stop. Huh?

So get back to work an' sweat some more
The sun will sink an' we'll get out the door
It's no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages
You're frettin', you're sweatin'
But did you notice you ain't gettin'?
Don't you ever stop long enough to start?
To take your car outta that gear
Don't you ever stop long enough to start?
To get your car outta that gear
Karlo Marx and Fredrich Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint - but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence

What have we got? Yeh-o, magnificence!!

Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
Went to the park to check on the game
But they was murdered by the other team
Who went on to win 50-nil
You can be true, you can be false
You be given the same reward
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way - through the kitchen
Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin
Who's more famous to the billion millions?
News Flash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie
Oooohh...bub-bye

Magnificence!!

[nattydread]

Junco Partner

Down the road came a Junco Partner
For he was loaded as can be
He was knocked out, knocked out loaded
He was a'wobblin' all over the street

Singing 6 months ain't no sentence
And one year ain't no time
I was born in Angola
Serving 14 to 99

Well I wish I had me $1 million dollars
Oh one million to call my own
I would raise meat and say, "grow for me baby"
I would raise me a tobacco farm

Well I wish I would have me a great deal of money
Yeah and mighty good things all over town
Now I ain't got no more money
All of my good friends are putting me down

So now I gotta pawn my rifle and pistol
Yeah I'm gonna pawn my watch and chain
I would have pawned my seat Gabriella
But the smart girl she wouldn't sign her name

Give me headstone when I die

[nattydread]

The Leader

Atom secrets, secret leaflet
Have the boys found the leak yet?
The molehill sets the wheel in motion
His downfall picks up locomotion

The people must have something good to read on a Sunday

The leader's wife takes a government car
In the dark to meet her minister
But the leader never leaves his door ajar
As he swings his whip from the Boer War

He wore a leather mask for his dinner guests
Totally nude and with deep respect
Proposed a toast to the votes he gets
The feeling of power and the thought of sex!

Now the girl let the fat man touch her
Vodka fumes and the feel of a vulture
The driver waited in the embassy car
The fat man's trap was set for capture
So the girl let the thin man touch her
Mixing questions, drunken laughter
The ministry car was waiting there
A minister knows his own affair

The people must have something good to read on a Sunday

[nattydread]

Something About England

They say immigrants steal the hubcaps
Of the respected gentlemen
They say it would be wine an' roses
If England were for Englishmen again

Well I saw a dirty overcoat
At the foot of the pillar of the road
Propped inside was an old man
Whom time would not erode
When the night was snapped by sirens
Those blue lights circled fast
The dancehall called for an' ambulance
The bars all closed up fast

My silence gazing at the ceiling
While roaming the single room
I thought the old man could help me
If he could explain the gloom
You really think it's all new
You really think about it too
The old man scoffed as he spoke to me
I'll tell you a thing or two

I missed the fourteen-eighteen war
But not the sorrow afterwards
With my father dead and my mother ran off
My brothers took the pay of hoods
The twenties turned the north was dead
The hunger strike came marching south
At the garden party not a word was said
The ladies lifted cake to their mouths

The next war began and my ship sailed
With battle orders writ in bed
In five long years of bullets and shells
We left ten million dead
The few returned to old Piccadily
We limped around Leicester Square
The world was busy rebuilding itself
The architects could not care

But how could we know when I was young
All the canges that were to come?
All the photos in the wallets on the battlefield
And now the terror of the scientific sun
There was masters an' servants an' servants an' dogs
They taught you how to touch your cap
But through strikes an' famine an' war an' peace
England never closed this gap

So leave me now the moon is up
But remember all the tales I tell
The memories that you have dredged up
Are on letters forwarded from hell

The streets were by now deserted
The gangs had trudged off home
The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone

[nattydread]

The Crooked Beat

Start the car lets make a midnight run
Across the river to South London
To dance to the latest hi-fi sound
Of bass, guitar and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure off
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

Take a piece of cloth, a coin for thirst
For the sweat will start to run
With a cymbal splash, a word of truth
And a rocking bass and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure on
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

So one by one they come on down
From the tower blocks of my home town
Stepping with the rhythm of the rockers beat
Drowning out the pressure of the crooked beat
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the tension on
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat

It has crooked past this crooked street
Where cars patrol this crooked beat
Badges flsh and sirens wail
They'll be taking one and all to jail

Prance! Prance! You want a law to dance?

[nattydread]

Somebody Got Murdered

Someone lights a cigarette
While riding in a car
Some ol' guy takes a swig
And passes back the jar
But where they were last night
No-one can remember
Somebody got murdered
Goodbye, for keeps, forever

Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever

And you're minding your own business
Carrying spare change
You wouldn't cosh a barber
You're hungry all the same
I been very tempted
To grab it from the till
I been very hungry
But not enough to kill

Somebody got murdered
His name cannot be found
A small stain on the pavement
They'll scrub it off the ground
As the daily crown disperses
No-one says that much
Somebody got murdered
And it' left me with a touch

Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever
Sounds like murder!
Those shouts!
Are they drunk down below?

It's late, and my watch stopped
Some time ago
Sounds like murder!
Those screams!
Are they drunk down below?

[nattydread]

One More Time

Must I get a witness? for all this misery
There's no need to, brothers everybody can see
That its one more time in the ghetto you know
One more time if you please now
One more time to the dying man
They say one more time if you please

The old lady kicks karate
For just a little walk down the street
The little baby he knows kung fu
He tries it on those he meets
Cos its a one more time!

You don't need no silicone to calculate poverty
Watch when Watts town burns again
The bus goes to Montgomery

Cos it's a one more time in the ghetto
One more time if you please
One more time for the dying man
One more time to be free