The Clash
The Clash, ‘Know Your Rights’, 1982. The band were on their last legs. They’d cracked the US but the day-to-day grind of touring had taken its toll. Tired, burnt out, Topper on heroin. The thrill had gone. The band’s contract was for 10 albums. They’d done two single albums, a double album and a triple album. Effectively 7 albums’ worth of material, which the record company counted as only 4 releases. They ‘owed’ another 6 albums. The band didn’t know: “I owe my soul to the company store”. The 16 Tons Tour was named after that song’s lyric. Back in the day, in the deep South of the USA, black workers weren’t paid in money. The companies that employed them provided housing and ‘credit’ at the Company Store, deducting wages at source to cover costs. Workers never earned enough to save money. Indeed, as late as 1965, Martin Luther King met black workers who’d never actually held a dollar bill in their hands.
This was a single from fifth album, ‘Combat Rock’. The cover nails it; ‘The Future is Unwritten’. A raw rockabilly guitar thrash with Uncle Joe snarling, laying down the law. I prefer this to ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ or ‘Rock the Casbah’ from the album – the ‘punk’ tunes you’re allowed to like. They don’t play ‘Know Your Rights’ at weddings…
The Clash
The Clash, ‘Know Your Rights’, 1982. The band were on their last legs. They’d cracked the US but the day-to-day grind of touring had taken its toll. Tired, burnt out, Topper on heroin. The thrill had gone. The band’s contract was for 10 albums. They’d done two single albums, a double album and a triple album. Effectively 7 albums’ worth of material, which the record company counted as only 4 releases. They ‘owed’ another 6 albums. The band didn’t know: “I owe my soul to the company store”. The 16 Tons Tour was named after that song’s lyric. Back in the day, in the deep South of the USA, black workers weren’t paid in money. The companies that employed them provided housing and ‘credit’ at the Company Store, deducting wages at source to cover costs. Workers never earned enough to save money. Indeed, as late as 1965, Martin Luther King met black workers who’d never actually held a dollar bill in their hands.
This was a single from fifth album, ‘Combat Rock’. The cover nails it; ‘The Future is Unwritten’. A raw rockabilly guitar thrash with Uncle Joe snarling, laying down the law. I prefer this to ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ or ‘Rock the Casbah’ from the album – the ‘punk’ tunes you’re allowed to like. They don’t play ‘Know Your Rights’ at weddings…