Lyrics for Straight to Hell as interpreted by aebassist

Straight to Hell Lyrics
If you can play on the fiddle
How's about a British jig and reel?
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
Go straight to hell boys

Why' want to 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
Mamma Mamma Mamma-San
Of you and Mamma Mamma Mamma-San
Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood bamboo kid.
It ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.

Straight to hell
Oh Papa-San
Please take me home
Oh Papa-San
Everybody they want to go home
So Mamma-San says

You want to 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...
Vamos vamos muchacho
From alphabet city all the way a to z, dead, head

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They want to sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here

Go straight to hell boys
---
"Straight to Hell" as written by Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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sirpizza00
05-06-2003

 Rated  0 
oh!! you number one gi, five dolla, me love you long time!!
i think hes using the amersian kids as examples of the prevailing western culture permeating the world.

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punkintended
06-21-2003

 Rated  -2 
This song is about the Vietnam war, it's affect on the Vietnamese populace, and it questions America's involvement in the war.

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arfarf
06-05-2004

 Rated  +3 
Wrong-o boyo... It's about Amerasian kids orphaned by the war, or rejected by their culture, because mom banged a GI. Empty promises of GIs to take women home, and leaving a legacy of neglect.

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1 Reply  · 
dormouse
10-05-2004

 Rated  0 
'it ain't coca cola, its rice' -awwweeesooooommmmeeeee!

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Fat Ted
10-18-2004

 Rated  0 
This is a brilliant song, it's one of my favourites. Anyway i think it's about the Americans trying to encroach their western beliefs on other peoples whenever they dont really care about them.

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maggotbrain
11-13-2004

 Rated  0 
addicting song.

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eric_m
12-08-2004

 Rated  0 
this song sends chills down my spine, especially the live version. not really sure what it tells but i guess all your suggestions seems to be on the right track.
Lastly,the following line:
"Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home " makes me utterly sad.

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punkrawkrebel
03-06-2005

 Rated  0 
this song is bloody haunting.

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subterranean_summer
06-18-2005

 Rated  0 
i love the beginning. the rest is pretty good too.

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J_R
07-06-2005

 Rated  +1 
Combat Rock is an angry, brilliant album.
The very beginning of this song hints at British Imperialism, specifically how Britain was still regarded as some great power while it’s ‘steel mills’ were rusting under Thatcher. I agree that this song is mainly about kids fathered by GIs during the Vietnam war wanting to go ‘home’ to the states. The US is the hell that the song talks about, not a kingdom nor a republic, but a ‘junkiedom’. It’s also about the difficulty finding asylum in the US.
Alphabet City is in New York, it was a pretty rough area in the 80s, there was a lot of drug dealing. The refernce to the volatile Molotov seems to suggest some of the racial tensions in NY back then.
The song makes a lot more sense when you listen to the rest of the songs on the album, a lot of stuff about cultural imperialism, war and drugs.

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JeffKaos71
07-08-2005

 Rated  0 
Alphabet City isn't too nice these days either. Its a small neighborhood in the East Village of Manhattan so-called Alphabet City because it starts on Ave A. & ends on Ave D. Ave A. is cleaned up a little with some nice bars but the park there is full of homeless, squatters, & junkies & down on on Ave D. you have the 'projects' which is over run with Heroin & crack.


Procaine (for anyone who might not know) is commonly used to cut into cocaine by dealers (makes it less pure and adding it makes more product to sell therefore increasing profit) but for all you know they can cut it with anything (like rat poison)

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stang09
09-11-2005

 Rated  0 
its about the vietnam war when the american army had kids with the vietnamese women, and the kids grew up with them, then when the army was told that they could go home, they did. they left their 'families' behind and buggered off. it has a weird effect because the music is so different and chilling.

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eirikws
06-20-2006

 Rated  0 
Let me add that the take of this song that is on "From Here to Eternity" is awesome in every way.

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EndMurdoch
08-05-2006

 Rated  0 
Anybody else get he image of a GI smacking a little vietnamese kid during the whole Coca-Cola thing? "You're ain't American BOY!!!"

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Miscast
02-10-2007

 Rated  0 
What I find quite interesting, is the fact that they use the Japanese honorific "-san" in this song.

I would BELIEVE they are focusing on Vietnam as the specific Asian country, no?

As far as I know, the Vietnamese did adopt some Japanese food, but not the honorifics.

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MHHD2
04-16-2007

 Rated  0 
eirikws, thanks for recommending the live version on "From Here to Eternity." Genius.

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MHHD2
04-17-2007

 Rated  0 
The lyrics seen here are from the "unedited" version of this song heard on The Clash on Broadway. I don't know how long this link will work, but here it is on allmusic.com:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hifpxqe5ldhe

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Brixton89
05-20-2007

 Rated  0 
Hey MISCAST, my wrestling coach was in the vietnam war and he said the Americans used to call the natives 'papa-san', 'mama-san', baby-san' etc.

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Icheadle1990
06-17-2007

 Rated  +1 
after reading a lot about this song I think I finally get it. Okay, so it is simply about Amerasian kids fathered by US soldiers during the Vietnam war. The verses showcase the despair that these children go through, not being accepted by either side, american or vietnamese. The "There ain't no need for ya/Go straight to hell boys" part is to the soldiers who fathered the kids then neglected them, telling them that there is no need for them doing things like that , and that they should go "straight to hell" for their actions.

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feel me loud
08-08-2007

 Rated  +2 
M.I.A. is sampling this in "Paper Planes".

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lukewagoneer
05-18-2008

 Rated  0 
^ Loser

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alisterblack
06-24-2008

 Rated  0 
"PSSST...
HEY CHICO WE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YA...
VAMOS VAMOS MUCHACHO
FROM ALPHABET CITY ALL THE WAY A TO Z, DEAD, HEAD"

What the f*ck?

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benulitron
07-15-2008

 Rated  0 
feel me loud : i like to use the term "stealing" not "sampling"

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caitybates
09-28-2008

 Rated  +1 
i agree it's stealing not sampling. i had straight to hell and paper planes on a mix which made me first realize the similarities and they aren't EXACTLY the same, which is what a sample would be. mia tweaks the beat a la vanilla ice and "under pressure"

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Milkman82
12-30-2008

 Rated  0 
"Paper Plane" writing credits: Arulpragasam, Mathangi; Headon, Topper; Jones, Mick; Pentz, Thomas Wesley; Simonon, Paul; Strummer, Joe. I don't call that stealing.

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