10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 6)

Continued from last post

10) It's hard to pick the last lines to put on this list. I know I'm forgetting some, and to keep the list down to 10 I'm having to leave off a lot of my favorite lines. The only method I used to narrow it down at the end was right now I feel like writing about this one.


"Every gimmick hungry yob, digging gold from rock 'n roll,
Grabs the mike to tell us he'll die before he's sold,
But I believe in this and it's been tested by research,
He who fucks nuns, will later join the church."- Joe Strummer, "Death or Glory"

What raises The Clash from Ok to great are Joe Strummer's lyrics. His voice might be a close second, and a bunch of their records have a great sound to them, but in the end those things are secondary. The Clash are one of the very few bands where the song can be bad but still get you to listen because the lyrics are good. A lot of good bands can get away with mediocre or bad lyrics if the music playing underneath is good. But The Clash stand out as the direct opposite. Joe Strummer had an ability to come across like good rappers do, alive and in the cut, not composing for posterity, forget books and poetry, the cops are at the fucking door.


At their best there's an urgency and immediacy that is absent in ninety of percent of rock music. So when a band is able to hit you like that it's a) something special and b) liable to make you feel like they truly are "The Only Band That Matters". Of course they're not, but to make you think that, even for a moment, is a hell of an acomplishment.

Sometimes you have to listen hard though, Joe has a mumbly sounding voice and I wouldn't know half of what it is he's saying if I didn't find his lyrics online. I remember when I read what the actual words to "Janie Jones" were, a song I had never liked before, and was stunned to find out how great a song it was. That's happened a lot of times with them, a lot of their melodies are annoying to me, like "Spanish Bombs", and a lot of their songs sound like they were barely written, like "Garageland". "Garageland" has great lyrics though (besides the "We're a garageband. We come from garageland" part in thr chorus), and one of the worst songs off their first album, "Cheat", starts with one of the best opening lines ever. ("I get violent, when I'm fucked up. I get silent, when I'm drugged up" I don't mean that ironically either, listen to it if you haven't heard it.)

"Death or Glory" is off "London Calling", their third album and the one that everyone calls their masterpiece. I like their first two better, but "London Calling" does have some great songs on it and "Death or Glory's" one of them. It's a band that hasn't sold out looking out at all the bands that have. Joe finds them all, walks up to them, and leans in close against their ears. "Here's how we stayed stayed strong my friends, long since when you'd left and gone. Listen closely..."