The Clash “London Calling” released December 14th 1979, and today December 15th is Clash bassist Paul Simonon’s 60th birthday (b. 1955).  I fell in love with The Clash’s music and then developed a serious crush on Paul Simonon after one of my parents’ friends gave me this book The Clash Before and After by Pennie Smith, who photographed the band while they toured the US in ‘79 and is responsible for the most iconic rock-n-roll photo of all time: the Paul Simonon guitar smasher (which also appears in this book). I would spend hours pouring over the photos, carefully reading the captions written by the band members, falling even more in love because of their wit and aura of supreme coolness. The caption for the photo of Paul in front of the car is by Joe Strummer “Paul finds out they won’t hire him another Hertz in Austin. It only took Paul 15 minutes to learn to drive, but it was quite a 15 minutes.”

I’m not going to go much into London Calling since music critics have dissected it about a million times – it is considered to be one of the best rock albums ever; Rolling Stone ranked it #8 in their 500 greatest albums of all-time. And because it is Simonon’s birthday today, I will highlight my favorite song on the album, which he wrote and sang, “Guns of Brixton.” The track was not released as a single until 1990 after the remastering of London Calling and it then reached #57 in the UK.

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
Oh, the guns of Brixton

The money feels good
And your life you like it well
But surely your time will come
As in heaven, as in hell

You see, he feels like Ivan
Born under the Brixton sun
His game is called survivin’
At the end of the harder they come

You know it means no mercy
They caught him with a gun
No need for the Black Maria
Goodbye to the Brixton sun

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
But oh-the guns of Brixton

When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

You can crush us
You can bruise us
Yes, even shoot us
But oh-the guns of Brixton

Shot down on the pavement
Waiting in death row
His game is called survivin’
As in heaven as in hell

You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
Oh, the guns of Brixton
Oh, the guns of Brixton
Oh, the guns of Brixton
Oh, the guns of Brixton