Lyrics for Clampdown as interpreted by aebassist

Clampdown Lyrics
What are we gonna do now?
Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
'Cause they're working for the clampdown
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we're working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers

The judge said five to ten-but I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown
Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?

The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don't owe nothing, so boy get runnin'
It's the best years of your life they want to steal

You grow up and you calm down
You're working for the clampdown
You start wearing the blue and brown
You're working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
It makes you feel big now
You drift until you brutalize
You made your first kill now

In these days of evil presidentes
Working for the clampdown
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For working for the clampdown
But ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!

And I've given away no secrets
Who's barmy now?

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  • 52 Comments
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punkintended
09-08-2002

Rated 0 
Someone please explain the meaning behind this song.

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Aneurysm1985
03-07-2003

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Yeah, please.

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Aneurysm1985
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
I'll just say that it's got a great beat.

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posterwithnoname
03-26-2003

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I think this song's about people who lose their idealism as they get older, and try to conform.

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CubanPunk
04-22-2003

Rated 0 
I don't know if i am the only person that sees this, but the first few lines of the song have pretty strong references to nazis and Hitler's regime.

"Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?"
"We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers "

Adolf Hitler brainwashed the blue eyed/blonde haired German youth to be "young believers".

CP

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UnderTheBridge123
04-27-2003

Rated 0 
Its about the government taking over. Like CubanPunk said about Hitler, and I think its also about many other horrible people like hitler.

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nyrangerfan123
04-29-2003

Rated 0 
i love this song... as a business major, it's something that i've always kept in my head... that i'll never turn into one of them... i absolutely love this line "No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown"... and yet i've seen the effect money has on people who are generally good and the destruction it causes... don't be a corporate slave!

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colabottle
07-06-2003

Rated 0 
Well basically the 'Clampdown' is the imposing of restrictions or control over people... and 'no man born with a living soul can be working for the clampdown' is criticising the imposing of these controls over people.

The Government, The Bosses of various companies... they are all trying to impose restrictions on people and our lives.

The worst of it is, although people initially refuse to succumb to this, as they get older (as posterwithnoname said) they do conform. I agree with CubanPunk about the Nazi references.

One of the songs that relights my determination to stick to my guns and avoid conforming to other people's restrictions.

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fraeulein
05-17-2004

Rated 0 
i think this is my favorite song on london calling... 'clampdown' is a pretty great word to describe the wonders of politics.

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ArmMarteins
05-24-2004

Rated 0 
"They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!" - probably meaning all the movie and pop stars on the covers of magazines

"Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall" - a reference to Berlin 1986?

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myfriendoak
05-24-2004

Rated 0 
This song does have several references to the Nazi Government and thier ideals, such as the references to the Jews earning less than the "blue-eyed young believers".

I also found the lyrics: "You start wearing blue and brown/working for the clampdown." could be used as references to Hitler's private armies, the SA and the SS, who's uniforms were blue and brown.

This is one of my favorate songs by The Clash. Period.

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ManicPanicSurprise
09-21-2004

Rated 0 
alright. firstly the clampdown is the english government.
"you start wearing the blue and brown"
the english government in the 70s wore blue and brown. its about how the english tried to keep them from being themselves, and were trying to make them conform to their twisted corrupt standard ways, and they didnt want to...thats the reference to "jew" ...they question if he is, because they believe everyone should be like everyone else...the reference to "blue-eyed believers"...just like hitler.

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felixCostello
10-13-2004

Rated 0 
Here is the REAL definition of this song. Those Hitler-esque statements were only metaphorical...look deeper people.

"Yeah" [Joe] Strummer begins, "this song and our overall message was to wake-up, pay attention to what really is going on around you, politically, socially all of it...before you know it you have become what you despise."

The song is a pointed and stark account of work in Darwinian capitalist society. At its core, the song presents the contradictions that force us to believe that if only we work hard, don't complain, and don't rock the boat, we can get ahead. Step on whomever you wish, it doesn't matter, just look our for number one.

The song expressed the anxieties of working-class youth who were wanted only for menial jobs, to be part of the state's repressive apparatus, or to join racist right-wing movements.

The same song also advocates an alternative, a common Strummer theme, the need for working-class rebellion.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_2_55/ai_103383507/pg_2

Go there for some insightful Clash meaning...so what if I copied pasted...it's 3 am and i'm too tired to flip thru my NME's.

by the way...to the crud who wrote this; "Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall" - a reference to Berlin 1986?"...moron. London Calling was released in 1979. No wonder there are no posts for the Clash. No one knows anything about them. Sad.

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LolaBat
10-22-2004

Rated 0 
Some people discover music at different times in life and are not as lucky to be born at the same time as everyone else. I grew up with the Clash so can relate to the energy and experience to which the music and lyrics express, but others didn't have that. To denegrate an entire generation and call them CRUD because they get it wrong just isn't right. I consider myself a HUGE Kinks fan even though I was born during their biggest heyday and was a teen during their 2nd wave of success. When any fan ask about the music and wants to know more about it, that should be respected, not denegrated. You didn't learn everything about your favourite band overnight. How do you expect the next generation of fans to do the same if they don't ask questions?

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felixCostello
10-25-2004

Rated 0 
It's only common sense to LOOK AT THE RECORD to see when it was released. it doesn't require any difficult research to know that London Calling came out before the fall of the Berlin Wall. I hardly denegrated an entire generation. I am IN that "post-Clash" generation. I appreciate your argument.

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felixCostello
10-25-2004

Rated 0 
It's only common sense to LOOK AT THE RECORD to see when it was released. it doesn't require any difficult research to know that London Calling came out before the fall of the Berlin Wall. I hardly denegrated an entire generation. I am IN that "post-Clash" generation. I appreciate your argument.

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nvidia
11-14-2004

Rated 0 
Lyrics missed out the bit where it says "working hard in Harrisburg, working hard in Pittsburgh" That bit at least isn't about england.

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LolaBat
11-20-2004

Rated 0 
Hi felix. Alaas, since when do common sense and Rock-n-Roll go together? I give you Exhibit A: Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen ;-)

Cheers,
Lola Bat

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Chinup
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
Yeah, Felix is essentially right that "Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall" - a reference to Berlin 1986? question could have been solved fairly quickly. But hey, it is referring to said wall, and for that matter any like-wall: when the wall comes down, the government goes with it. And, yes, of course it's also metaphorical.

And Strummer proved that common sense and RNR can go together.

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geradeaus
12-12-2004

Rated 0 
I really don't see the connecetion between the end of the cold war (didn't the wall fall in 89, btw?) and the call for a working-class uprising. The wall here is the barrier between masters adn slaves, bosses and workers. I would reference Pink Floyd's The Wall, but that's a whole nother can of worms, and I'd rather not listen to a bunch of stoners talk about their theories regarding "the wall".

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alanna07
01-26-2005

Rated 0 
I love the cover of this song by The Strokes. Big fan of both bands, love both versions.

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nocturnal_alar
01-29-2005

Rated 0 
does anyone know what the lyrics are at the very beginning of the song right before "what are we gonna do now?"

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Random Boy
03-29-2005

Rated 0 
At the tender age of 18 this song inspired me to walk out of my factory job and, erm, go on the dole.

Live the dream.

NB:I am now back in full time employment and frequently wear blue OR brown. I don't really find they work well together. Punk's not dead..?

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joeytheboy
03-29-2005

Rated 0 
rage against the machine did an absolutely terrible version of this song that i found on the net one time.
yeah i wear blue for my clampdown job, im quitting soon though, it is true, you get treated badly working for big companies.
oh and the strokes are shit alanna07.

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Baller
08-04-2005

Rated 0 
Possibly the best song on London Calling. And if it is that might just make it the best Clash song ever. Still though, there are so many great ones on that album you could choose from without getting much argument. Anyway, clampdown is a much more interesting and accurate word for what's being described than all the hippies and 60s protestors who told everyone to "fight the MAN." And band was saying to youths to actually be aware of what's going on.

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