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5 Feet of Fury

Kathy Shaidle's blog. Est. 2000

Paul Simonon wrote ‘The Guns of Brixton’ to get a slice of those Clash songwriting royalties

June 11, 2014 By Kathy Shaidle

It worked. Everyone ignored his “Dietrich” vocals and was seduced by that insidious bass line.

“Brixton” has kept Paul in new hats and motorcycles ever since.

Anyhow, this was just uploaded by somebody:

More here, some of it pretty amusing.

Here, Marcus Grey covers the covers. (Grab a coffee…)

His exegesis of the original in Route 19 Revisited (begins on page 276, and yes, mentions the Velcro — and the “painful” “Jamaican Marlene Dietrich” vocals) is also worth reading in full. It ends:

Some find it strange — or even suspicious — that Paul’s first recorded “solo” Clash composition proved to be so musically arresting and lyrically coherent, bearing in mind he never again wrote anything else remotely as strong musically, and immediately gave up on writing lyrics altogether. Perhaps, though, it’s not quite so odd, after all: “The Guns of Brixton” is such a thorough exploration of the mythopoetics of Paul Simonon that, by the time he had completed it, he had not only written a song about his fantasy life, but also the song of a lifetime.

More from my site

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  • “’The Legend of Lylah Clare’ is terrible”“’The Legend of Lylah Clare’ is terrible”
  • Today in yesterday: 21-year-old Eddie Cochran diesToday in yesterday: 21-year-old Eddie Cochran dies

Filed Under: Kathy Shaidle

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