The Last Great Clash Song?

It's Queen Victoria's birthday, still a holiday here in post-colonial Canada, so it's time to lie back and think of England.


In the past, I've relayed an actual dream I had to defend the obscure virtues of the much maligned work of the Clash Mark II (please see here, comments still welcome), the short-lived, post-Mick Jones version of the band. A song that featured prominently in that dream was, "This is England", which Joe Strummer referred to as his "last great Clash song" and "the only part of the whole record (Cut the Crap) with any bollocks to it”


The Clash - this is England (Dub version) from On Broadway Volume Four (bootleg)


Wikipedia calls the song "a more focused variant of "Straight to Hell"" (see here for much, much more on that song). Lyrically, it is tightly focused. Instead of enumerating the ills of the world, here Strummer zeroes in on the excesses of Thatcher's* reign circa 1985; the immigrant-bashing, the union-busting and the war-mongering. The line "a voice spoke so cold it matched the weapon in her palm" is a particularly stinging indictment of the deeds of a woman once called "Margret Thatcher, milk snatcher" for her cuts to school milk programs. The song's words are wistful, as if Strummer is surveying an England on which, after almost ten years of rabble-rousing, he and his shifting band-mates seemed to have had no real political impact whatsoever. Then, by touching on powerful British symbols, such as Sheffield steel and Triumph motorcycles Strummer evokes that nostalgia for the era of empire that often seems to cut across English (and maybe even their former colonies') political and class lines. It all makes for an odd but affecting critique.


Joe Strummer and Latino Rockabilly War - This is England (live at the Electric Ballroom,1988)

* Do check out the brilliantly belligerent "Thatcher Fucked the Kids" by Frank Turner here.


Musically, his foil here (to a degree unknown, since the initial credits are to "Strummer & Co.") is manager Bernie Rhodes, who lacked all of Mick Jones' skills as an producer, arranger and co-writer. As Rhodes wrestled more control, his ham-handed, third-rate ideas quickly sucked any remaining life out of the Clash. It's often sneered that a Clash without Mick Jones is a complete musical impossibility, as if Strummer hadn't proved with "Keys to Your Heart" that he was capable of greatness (in a lesser degree) without Jones. Of course, Strummer did do his best with a strong co-conspirator. So perhaps upon realizing that he had summarily exiled his greatest ally, he wrote this last Clash song, one meant to be played just before the credits roll, as we watch a diminished man walking away down a rainy street.


Joe Strummer - This is England (live, source currently unknown)



End Note: While neither of the B-sides, "Sex Mad Roar" or "Do It Now" approach greatness, nor do they suffer from quite as many of wretched production blips and bleeps of the Cut the Crap. The single, in its entirety, does show that with more of the control in the hands of Joe Strummer, rather than the musically clueless Rhodes, Cut the Crap could have been a very different album. But that's grist for the next post...


The Clash - This is England (demo version) From Out of Control (bootleg)




{MRML Readers: please leave a comment about the Clash Mark II and the place of "This is England" in the Clash canon.}


Download This is England 7" (with artwork)*

* will send you to Punk Friction the original ripper/scanner


The This is England 12" is available inside of a massive box-set of the Clash's singles or of course you can just swallow your cool and buy Cut the Crap. Whichever way; Buy more Clash!

This is England
(Strummer & co.)

I hear a gang cry 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

Hey British boots go kick
Bengali in the head
Police sit watchin'
A newspapers been read
All deaf to protest
And after the attacker fled
Out come the batons and
The biggest one then said

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*

P.S. This is a (mostly) accurate transcription of the lyrics of the 12" mix of this song (which is not on the 12" but rather on a Clash compilation called 12" mixes, which is coming very soon.

Unlike "Straight to Hell", few cover version of "This is England' exist, but here's one from Italian ska-wonders, the Easy Skankers.


Like "Straight to Hell", "This is England" also became the title of a movie, a better one I'm presuming, based on the reviews and the trailers anyhow.