The Clash “Clash City Rockers” b/w “Jail Guitar Doors” 1978. 45 rpm single. “Clash City Rockers” appears as the opening track on The Clash’s US version of The Clash, which was released two years after the UK version. I wondered why Joe Strummer sounded vaguely chipmunkish on this single version (vs the album version) and found out why: apparently while Strummer and Mick Jones were in Jamaica in December 1977, after recording the single in studio sessions during October and November, their manager Bernie Rhodes felt the song needed some fixing. Producer Mickey Foote then employed varispeeding, the technique that, in this case, made the song sound a semitone higher in pitch. (Foote was subsequently fired.) The b-side, “Jail Guitar Doors” is a revamped track from Strummer’s 101′ers, “Lonely Mother’s Son.” (“Jail Guitar Doors” would later inspire the name of Billy Bragg’s charitable group in the UK which provides prisoners with musical equipment.)

An’ I want to move the town to the Clash city rockers
You need a little jump of electrical shockers
You better leave town if you only want to knock us
Nothing stands the pressure of the Clash city rockers

You see the rate they come down the escalator
Now listen to the tube train accelerator
Then you realize that you got to have a purpose
Or this place is gonna knock you out sooner or later

So don’t complain about your useless employment
Jack it in forever tonight
Or shut your mouth and pretend you enjoy it
Think of all the money you’ve got

An’ I want to liquefy everybody gone dry
Or plug into the aerials that poke up in the sky
Or burn down the suburbs with the half-closed eyes
You won’t succeed unless you try

You owe me a move say the bells of St. Groove
Come on and show me say the bells of Old Bowie
When I am fitter say the bells of Gary Glitter
No one but you and I say the bells of Prince Far-I
No one but you and I say the bells of Prince Far-I

An’ I want to move the town to the Clash city rockers
You need a little jump of electrical shockers
You better leave town if you only want to knock us
Nothing stands the pressure of the Clash city rockers
Rock rock Clash city rockers