Speaking King's English in quotation, as railhead towns feel the steel mills rust
Water froze, in the generation
Clear as winter ice, this is your paradise
There ain't no need for ya, there ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boy, go straight to hell boy
Wanna join in a chorus, of the Amerasian blues?
When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say "Papa-Papa-Papa-Papa-san, take me home?"
"See me got photo-photo-photograph of you and Mamma-Mamma-Mamma-san?"
"Of you and Mamma-Mamma-Mamma-san"
Lemme tell ya about your blood, bamboo kid, it ain't Coca-Cola, it's rice
Straight to hell boy, go straight hell boy
Go straight hell boy, go straight hell boy
Oh Papa-san, please take me home
Oh Papa-san, everybody they wanna go home
So Mamma-san says
You wanna play mind-crazed banjo, on the druggy-drag Ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International Hah! Junkiedom U.S.A.?
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove and rat poison
The volatile Molatov says "Pssst, Hey chico we got a message for ya, see, vamos vamos muchacho"
From Alphabet City, all the way A to Zed, dead, head
Go straight to hell boy, go straight to hell boy
Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san, please take me home
There ain't no need for ya, there ain't need for ya
Go straight to hell boy, go straight to hell boy
Can you cough it up, loud and strong
The immigrants, they wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere, most likely could be any frontier, any hemisphere, in no man's land
There ain't no asylum here, King Solomon he never lived round here
Straight to hell boy, go straight to hell boy
Go straight to hell boy, go straight to hell boy
Oh Papa-san, please take me home
Oh Papa-san, everybody they wanna go home now
Rickshaw rides, ten mile a penny, ten mile a penny, do you want?
The Clash were an English rock band that formed in London in 1976 and were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they used elements of reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly, and they contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that followed punk. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon.
The Clash achieved critical and commercial success in the United Kingdom with the release of their debut album The Clash (1977) and their second album Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978). Their experimental third album London Calling, which was released in the UK in December 1979, earned them popularity in the United States, where it was released the following month. A decade later, Rolling Stone named London Calling the best album of the 1980s. Following continued musical experimentation on their fourth album Sandinista! (1980), the band were more successful with the release of Combat Rock (1982), which includes the US top-10 hit "Rock the Casbah", helping the album to achieve a 2× platinum certification there.
In 1982, Headon left the band due to internal friction surrounding his increasing heroin addiction, and Jones departed the following year. With a new lineup, the band released their final album Cut the Crap in 1985 before disbanding a few weeks later.
In January 2003, shortly after the death of Joe Strummer, the band, including original drummer Terry Chimes, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Clash number 28 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
17 years or so ago I was in LA visiting my architect friend, and we took a long stoned drive to Mineral King, where we were to park and start a trek that would take us several days off-trail way up into The Kaweah Peaks, and when it was my turn to choose the tunes, I put Combat Rock in. When this song came along, he couldn't stop raving about it, and made me rewind and play it multiple times. He loved it so much that he convinced me to let him borrow the tape for awhile. After our week-long camping and climbing trip, I went down to visit a friend in San Diego for a few days. When I came back, I asked if I could have my tape back. He told me that he'd been playing it, right after I'd left, and during this song, his wife had gotten furious, screamed at him, got up, took the tape out, and had either hid it somewhere or threw it out. WTF?! War? Politics? Nah... Music, Women, and Emotions are the real True Mysteries in Life.
For the record, I'm a laydee (I've had independent checks done an' everything) and I'd have been impressed as all hell if someone had played this to me in their car. But then, I've been told that I'm not 'normal'. Whatever that is...
So back in 1982, this song made me cringe with it's Asian racism. (FYI, papa-san? That's Japanese...) But I told myself that the point of the song was to condemn U.S. Imperialism, so it was ok. I can now say unequivocally that it's not. I was right to cringe, and I knew it in 1982.
--And yes, I understand that it's depicting the hatred directed at Amer-Asian children in their Vietnamese homeland.
Go straight to Hell
Bill and 'Becca, I see what you did there. From Johnny Cash — The Man Comes Around to this? That's why RP is better than any internet radio station with computer-generated playlists, even if they had the same music collection.
Is it wrong that I really wanted this to be MIA?
yes
I've always loved this mad, twisted ditty... It sure has differing effects on listeners, though! Sometime in '89 or so, while based in Shizuoka, after a dinner-date with a French Canadian gal I'd just met, I was driving my Honda City up a winding road full of hair-pin turns through terraces of caterpillar-like rows of tea trees on the slopes of Chiba-san to a spooky old temple built in 776 called Chiman-ji that she wanted me to show her, with my cassette of Combat Rock in the deck. As we got near the temple, as tendrils of fog wafted among the towering hinoki trees and the smell of mugwort drifted in through the open windows, this song came on. It didn't take long for her to try to put a stop to it... "Just what IS THIS we're listening to here?" she said, noticeably angry all out of proportion. "The Clash," I said, adding, "—What's wrong? Seems perfect, to me..." She pushed the Eject button and demanded, "Take me back to town. Now!" WTF?! All the way down, she kept fuming, "I can't believe that terrible, bizarre music that you played for me!"
17 years or so ago I was in LA visiting my architect friend, and we took a long stoned drive to Mineral King, where we were to park and start a trek that would take us several days off-trail way up into The Kaweah Peaks, and when it was my turn to choose the tunes, I put Combat Rock in. When this song came along, he couldn't stop raving about it, and made me rewind and play it multiple times. He loved it so much that he convinced me to let him borrow the tape for awhile. After our week-long camping and climbing trip, I went down to visit a friend in San Diego for a few days. When I came back, I asked if I could have my tape back. He told me that he'd been playing it, right after I'd left, and during this song, his wife had gotten furious, screamed at him, got up, took the tape out, and had either hid it somewhere or threw it out. WTF?! War? Politics? Nah... Music, Women, and Emotions are the real True Mysteries in Life.
What a get story! Thanks!
I found the music uninteresting. Don't hurt me.
I've heard of them, but don't know anything about The Clash. So question: is the guy looking like a character from Grease trying to be ironic, or was that a legit look back then?
It was a legit British look back in the day