Lyrics for Lost In The Supermarket as interpreted by aebassist

Lost In The Supermarket Lyrics
CHORUS
I'm all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in her for that special offer
A guaranteed personality

I wasn't born so much as I fell out
Nobody seemed to notice me
We had a hedge back home in the suburbs
Over which I never could see

I heard the people who lived on the ceiling
Scream and fight most scarily
Hearing that noise was my first ever feeling
That's how it's been all around me

CHORUS

I'm all tuned in, I see all the programmes
I save coupons from packets of tea
I've got my giant hit discoteque album
I empty a bottle and I feel a bit free

The kids in the halls and the pipes in the walls
Make me noises for company
Long distance callers make long distance calls
And the silence makes me lonely

CHORUS

And it's not hear
It disappear
I'm all lost

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  • 66 Comments
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stardroplet
05-15-2002

Rated 0 
does anyone else find this song depressing? maybe i'm just being weird, hmm. the supermarket is obviously some sort of metaphor for something, but I can't think of what.

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aebassist
05-15-2002

Rated 0 
It's a metaphor for suburban life. He's saying that growing up in the suburbs can lead to a kind of identity crisis because basically when you live there you have no identity(according to him, that is). So it is kind of depressing.

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susiehighschool
05-30-2002

Rated 0 
maybe he really got lost in a supermarket. i did, and i couldnt find my parents, and it scared the crap outta me. but i dont think he did. maybe you guys are onto something. this was pretty pointless, then, huh?

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lunatic96
07-04-2002

Rated 0 
I think this song was commenting on commercialism. with the lines "I've got my giant hit discoteque album" and "I can no longer shop happily" he seems to be unhappy with how commercial everything seems. but then it also has a strong theme of loneliness. great song no matter how you look at it!

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mrclean
07-19-2002

Rated 0 
ive gotten lost in the supermarket before

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PlasticVictim
08-24-2002

Rated 0 
I've never been lost in the supermarket. That would be sad if i did.

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enjoicocacola
08-26-2002

Rated +2 
yes i find this song depressing cause my uncle loved this song and hes no longer with me.

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Cherub Rock
09-23-2002

Rated +2 
I think this song's about how disenchanted people become with modern society and the way its strips us of our identity.
"I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality"
He lived his life like the commercials told him to, as in he followed all the trends thinking they had the answers ("I save coupons from packets of tea / I've got my giant hit discoteque album"). But when he wanted something substantial, personality, although modern culture promised it, it isn't there, hence is lost in the supermarket of modern culture.

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Aneurysm1985
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
This is my favourite Clash song, it gets better every time I listen to it and the lyrics are really well written.

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intoodeep
04-10-2003

Rated 0 
the supermarket is his happy place, like where he use to go get high or somthing, his life led him there, but its lost his effect, and he doesnt know what to do anymore

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ubermax
04-18-2003

Rated 0 
Mick Jones wrote this song while living when he was broke and had to live with his grandmother. I believe in a recent Rolling Stone he talks about this. Anyway, here he is, this hipster punk musician in a popular band, and he has to share a flat in the suburbs and just wallow in the lameness.

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Iwannabetheminority
06-22-2003

Rated 0 
I think this song is about being lonely or trying to find sumone to be with or sumthing along those lines. You can c it in such lines as...
"I wasn't born so much as I fell out, Nobody seemed to notice me"
and
"The kids in the halls and the pipes in the walls, Make me noises for company"
and
"Long distance callers make long distance calls,
And the silence makes me lonely" as well as other lines.

The whole part with the getting lost in a supermarket is kinda a metaphor for the writers life. if your lost in a supermarket, your trying to find someone you kno the person u came in with, in this song, the writer kind of is saying how he's lost in the world and he's just trying to find someone he can relate to or sumone who will give him attention.

I dont kno how much sense that just made but i hope u got what i was trying to say. anyway, The Clash rule!
R.I.P. Joe Strummer and Topper Headon

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LiquifiedCat
06-25-2003

Rated 0 
a word from the easily amused... i always found this song humorous. it's just kind of funny to hear him singing about being lost in a grocery store... hahah. okay, i'll shut up now.

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Aerion
04-07-2004

Rated 0 
Essentially to all of the meanings that previous posters have gotten from this song, I think that this song is about insecurity and confusion of who you really are. It's really well-written and one of my favorites from The Clash. Very well done.

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arfarf
06-05-2004

Rated 0 
It's all about consumerism being empty. We live for it, we got our giant hit Britney(tm) albums, and we all love Bacardi(tm)!! Yeah! Whoops where's our culture.

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dormouse
09-21-2004

Rated 0 
I've been lost in the supermarket before, but also when i was in europe and i was shopping with my uncle at this german supermarket, i was just wandering around looking at everything, and when your doing that its hard not to drift off, so i was basically contemplating life and stupid stuff like that for some apparent reason, and at the time i had spent 6 weeks in england and i was sort of depresed and home sick, and i had this emotional breakdown in my mind where i lost myself and didnt know who i was, i mean i knew who i was, i just had like an identity crisis right there in the supermarket, and i had realized that i basically just gotten lost in the supermarket, and that song popped into my head. so thats what i think its about, or what it means to me, i agree wth iwannabetheminority tho.

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queenjane
09-27-2004

Rated 0 
Topper Headon's dead?!

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queenjane
09-28-2004

Rated 0 
P.S. - I also love this song, it really struck a cord with the theme of lonliness, and again, Mick's voice suits it perfectly.

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MikeytheC
10-11-2004

Rated 0 
Actually, if you have seen the DVD "The Last Testament" that came with the Legacy edition 25th anniversary of London calling, Joe Strummer is quoted as saying he wrote it as an immagined lyric for mick, about mick's life growing up in a basement with his mum and grandmum. I suggest you all pick up the legacy edition if not for the newly remastered London Calling, but also for the Vanilla Tapes and The Last Testament.

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MikeytheC
10-11-2004

Rated 0 
and PS, Topper isnt dead, he's actually a chiropracter (sp?) now.

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Chinup
12-02-2004

Rated 0 
Mick Jones' phrasing is just masterful here. Interesting that so many comments took the title literally, because the voice does have a very childlike perspective.
Oh, and interesting typo:
I came in her for that special offer
*if you know what I mean*

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JoE][BoXeR
12-29-2004

Rated 0 
I heard the song for the first time today,loving The Clash as much as I do I thought it would be good..I was RIGHT..I love this song, somewhat depressing but it's just wonderful.

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clashfan
01-24-2005

Rated 0 
Well, I'm backing up MikeytheC in saying that Joe supposedly did write this as though writing as Mick. I personally think that's really cool, particularly given their struggles. This is one of my favorite songs of all time. Like many Clash songs, it's allegorical. That is to say, there is a literal and metaphorical story operating simultaneously.

To me, the song creates the feeling of a kid who feels unnoticed (even if they get all the attention in the world) for who they truly are. The kid, misled by society, thinks that he can find himself through consumerism, and has suddenly realized that he's become lost.

By the way, I've always wondered if the lines "I went to the market to realize my soul / Cause what I need I just don't have" from Rudie Can't Fail tie into Lost in the Supermarket. I think they do, but who knows. It's just the same kind of idea...people think they can realize themselves through the purchasing of goods.

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River Wolf
03-16-2005

Rated 0 
An amazing song by a classic group. I think this song is about people who are disconnected with life and are having an identity crisis. Aspect suchs as growing up in the suburbs and commercialism influence that.

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xsandinistax
04-16-2005

Rated 0 
this song was actually written by joe strummer, he was writing for mick jones' perspective, imagining what it was like to live his childhood and all that.

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