londoncalling

 

 

The Clash: London Calling 1979

 

Bright November evening

sweatbox of a venue

a sea of heads bobbing below a platform

The Clash and Joe Ely in cowboy hat and boots

 

Left later to drizzle and police sirens

and a ring of police vans lassooing us

Camden Town dirty and ugly

best of British fists and chains

and blood on bus seats

 

London calling to the faraway towns

from Bristol St Pauls to the Medway towns

London calling to misspent youths

in bus shelters and darkened rooms

 

No idea then of the decade to come

the buses smashed..the cordoned land

those officers smiling no visors in the rain

already training for Orgreave and Salisbury Plain

stamping out the rhythms with a cowboy boot…..