The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Well, I just got back and I wish I'd never leave now (where'd ya go?)
Who dat Martian arrival at the airport, yeah? (where'd ya go?)
How many local dollars for a local anesthetic? (where'd ya go?)
The Johnny on the corner wasn't very sympathetic (where'd ya go?)
I went to the place where every white face
Is an invitation to robbery
And sitting here in my safe European home
Don't want to go back there again
Wasn't I lucky, wouldn't it be loverly? (where'd ya go?)
Send us all cards, have a laying-in on Sunday (where'd ya go?)
I was there for two weeks, so how come I never tell, now? (where'd ya go?)
That natty dread drink at the Sheraton hotel, yeah (where'd ya go?)
I went to the place where every white face
Is an invitation to robbery
And sitting here in my safe European home
Don't want to go back there again
They got the sun, and they got the palm trees (where'd ya go?)
They got the weed, and they got the taxis (where'd ya go?)
Whoa, the harder they come, the home of ol' bluebeat (where'd ya go?)
I'd stay and be a tourist but I can't take the gunplay (where'd ya go?)
I went to the place where every white face
Is an invitation to robbery
And sitting here in my safe European home
Don't want to go back there again
What?
Rudie come from Jamaica, Rudie can't fail
Rudie come from Jamaica, Rudie can't fail
Rudie come from Jamaica, 'cause Rudie can't fail
Rudie come From Jamaica, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie come From Jamaica, Rudie can't fail (explosive European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (twenty-four track European home)
Elder come and a-Rudie go, no one knows where the policeman's go
Who dat Martian arrival at the airport, yeah? (where'd ya go?)
How many local dollars for a local anesthetic? (where'd ya go?)
The Johnny on the corner wasn't very sympathetic (where'd ya go?)
I went to the place where every white face
Is an invitation to robbery
And sitting here in my safe European home
Don't want to go back there again
Wasn't I lucky, wouldn't it be loverly? (where'd ya go?)
Send us all cards, have a laying-in on Sunday (where'd ya go?)
I was there for two weeks, so how come I never tell, now? (where'd ya go?)
That natty dread drink at the Sheraton hotel, yeah (where'd ya go?)
I went to the place where every white face
Is an invitation to robbery
And sitting here in my safe European home
Don't want to go back there again
They got the sun, and they got the palm trees (where'd ya go?)
They got the weed, and they got the taxis (where'd ya go?)
Whoa, the harder they come, the home of ol' bluebeat (where'd ya go?)
I'd stay and be a tourist but I can't take the gunplay (where'd ya go?)
I went to the place where every white face
Is an invitation to robbery
And sitting here in my safe European home
Don't want to go back there again
What?
Rudie come from Jamaica, Rudie can't fail
Rudie come from Jamaica, Rudie can't fail
Rudie come from Jamaica, 'cause Rudie can't fail
Rudie come From Jamaica, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (European home)
Rudie come From Jamaica, Rudie can't fail (explosive European home)
Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie, Rudie can't fail (twenty-four track European home)
Elder come and a-Rudie go, no one knows where the policeman's go
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
either -they had a bad experience and the song is to be taken at face value
or all of the above!!
they are poking fun at brits tendency to be insular and 'whine' when they are on holiday in some sunny paradise"<br /> <br /> Yeah because every place in British is lovely (sarcasm) <br /> <br /> edkashi.com/ESSAYS/UsAgainstThem/full/NOR90136_66015f17x.jpg
@boozm
This song is about the harsh reception that Strummer and Jones had on their song writing trip to Jamacia, and they wrote this song also to talk about the painful reality that white people get to go on vaction in the poor global south while non-whites in the global south can only go north in search of work. " why i never tell that natty dread drinks at the sheraton hotel" is talking about the segregation of tourist areas in jamacia-no locals allowed in unless they are working. (plus they could never afford to drink there anyway)
yeah it IS about when strummer and jones went to jamaica expecting it to be all chillin out smokin weed in the sun and they found that everyone wanted to rob them and didnt want them there. they were doing a radio show with mickey dread i think, or maybe that was later...anyway its definatly about their bad experiences in jamaica.
This is a great song — besides the fact that I can't hear the first ten seconds and not wish for a mosh pit, I love it because it's sarcastic and cynical and enraging and inspiring . Yes, it's definitely about racism and boorish closed-minded tourism — an "insular" mindset, if you want to call it that, like @philtheanarchist did. I think he and @boozm are the only ones who got it right, and the comments saying it's about how [they had a bad time because everyone wanted to take their money] not only miss the point, but reflect a blind-by-choice attitude at best, or flat-out racism at worst. I was reminded of this song when I was thinking about donald trump's fucking Muslim ban — another move to enforce his racist rhetoric, calculated to capitalize on the fury he's been selling to the half of a country who was already scared, and now he's got them whipped into a frenzy of finger-pointing and bullshit that pretty much translates to "keep 'em down where they belong!" And anyone who says he's just "trying to keep us safe" is just covering their ears and stabbing their own fingers into their eyes and refusing to see that this is the road to fascism.
And the only way to fight the man who would be king is to keep your eyes open so you can SEE injustice and DO something against it — not just walk by and say it's ok, or snap your fingers and say it's "a good song" about a bad trip.
The whole point of The Clash was political — they wrote songs about what made them angry — they called out injustice where they saw injustice — and to say that this song is about how "Joe an Mick dint have no fun in Jamaica" is just demonstrating ignorance as to what the whole movement was about and it misses the whole point of a powerful song from a band that inspired musicians and fans on every continent, changed rock & roll, blew up protest songs completely, and whose sounds and ideas formed a legacy that continues to influence generations of rockers in their time and to this day.
wheeeeeeeeeeeere'd you go?
I love the drum hit in the beginning and from there it's just pure fucking RAWK
aww paul and topper weren't too pleased that they didnt get to go =[
What a song to open an album with!
They recycled the "Rudy Can't Fail" line for one of the songs on London Calling
'London Calling' is the third album of the Clash, while this song is in their second album... you can say they used 'Rudy Can't Fail' again on 'London Calling', not the other way round.
Yeah thats wat e fuggin said asianriot... learn to read proper like, k?
@willc93 Get yr ass kicked startin bar-room brawls much? Yah, I thought so — you're a tough fucker on the kb but in real life you no doubt fall down when someone looks at you sideways. Relax, Super Reading Force Kid, asianriot simply mistook "for" and thought it said "from".
Nice
I think this song is about Strummer/The Clash's visit to Jamaica...well, from the lyrics it sounds like that EX: "natty dread", "every white face is an invitation to robbery" meaning whites are robbed because they think they're rich, "they got the weed" everyone knows they like to smoke the reefer over there, "rudy rudy rudy can't fail" rudy means rude boys...rude boys are in Jamaica
so I'm assuming Strummer/The Clash had a bad experience over there