Lyrics for (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais as interpreted by aebassist

(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais Lyrics
Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator

Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands, sound systems
And if they've got anything to say
There's many black ears here to listen

But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble
But onstage they ain't got no roots, rock rebel
Onstage they ain't got no roots, rock rebel

Dress back, jump back, this is a bluebeat attack
Because it won't get you anywhere
Fooling with your guns
The British Army is waiting out there
And it weighs fifteen hundred tons

White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

Punk rockers in the UK
They won't notice anyway
They're all too busy fighting
For a good place under the lighting

The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha, you think it's funny
Turning rebellion into money

All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway

I'm the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
I'm the white man in the Palais
Just looking for fun

I'm only
Looking for fun

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  • 51 Comments
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Rich_M
05-27-2002

Rated 0 
Brilliant, brilliant song. The Clash are just having a moan at everyone who isn't as sincere as they are - the sell-out ex-punks, stupid violence junkies, idealistic socialists, Conservative voters and of course people who aren't *really* into reggae.

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Die_Soon_Hopefully
07-26-2002

Rated 0 
rocks and the clash are the best punk band to grace the planet!!!!

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rahtwinkle
08-24-2002

Rated 0 
absolutely great song...

xxxxx

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Fred39
03-05-2003

Rated 0 
phenomenal, fucking phenomenal

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ubermax
04-18-2003

Rated -1 
The last half of the song seems to be quite a nice little dig at the Sex Pistols, in particular. The Clash had very little respect for them. I seem to recall an interview where one of them (Joe, I think) said "I wish we had our own boutique too," referring to the proto-Hot Topic run by the Sex Pistols' manager.

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Morbadum
04-19-2004

Rated 0 
I have to say that your statement of the relationship between The Clash and the Sex pistols is untrue. Joe Strummer decided to break up his pub-rock band, The 101'ers, and persue a different path in music. I think we can agree that The Clash would be nothing without Strummer. So The Sex Pistols basically started The Clash' coureer.


Go Sex Pistols!

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Morbadum
04-20-2004

Rated 0 
Broke up the 101'ers because of the sex pistols. somehow i forgot to put in the that little part.

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shadowwiththeeyes
09-17-2004

Rated 0 
Yeah, the Clash had a pretty good relationship with the 'Pistols.

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Fat Ted
10-18-2004

Rated 0 
This song was about them going along to see some reggae bands at Hammersmith and being dissappointed by their apparant selling out.

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kaisersteev
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
woah, ubermax, yu are fucking dumb, hot topic is owned by the gap and is not punk at all, also the sex pistols' manager was a fuckass, and him owning a store is as far away from the band owning it as you can be. and how the hell do you figure it has to do with the sex pistols? also, morbadum, the band would be without any one of its members, and after topper and mick left, the band went to shit. the next thing ya know strummers dead. gah, just like him.

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kaisersteev
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
sorry, its supposed to say "the band would be nothing without any of its members..."

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AlmightyTim
11-19-2004

Rated 0 
kaisersteev, I feel that the connection with the Sex Pistols' manager's store and the Pistols themselves is pretty easy to see when you look at the band's beginnings.

1) Malcolm McClaren has a store named Sex.
2) "I want to have a band to play at my store," says McClaren.
3) Sex Pistols

Back to the subject at hand, I think there's a concern addressed toward Britain's growing conservatism (verse 8). This of course, is directly connected to their concerns with sellouts and false-punks, but I thought it was important enough to be noted.

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JoE][BoXeR
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
My personal favorite song. I interpret it as a call out for cultural acceptance, I think it's just about some random guy hanging out in the ideally "Wrong" place for him to be, aka a white guy in a reggae club. This song reminds me so much of today how mixed up the United States music and pop culture is, we need to learn acceptance of other genres and musical styles, and cultures for that matter.

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JoE][BoXeR
11-30-2004

Rated -2 
Also, by the way, Kaisersteev, the Sex Pistols suck major ass.

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deathorglory
02-27-2005

Rated 0 
What an amount of mixed bullshit! Are you from another world? Such a shame...Thanks god Mr. Joe Strummer can't be aware of such an enlighted minds. Otherwise he'd give up spreading his message.
Pay him a little respect.
By the way, this song is, above all, an attack to Paul Weller of the Jam, monkey brains!

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JoE][BoXeR
03-03-2005

Rated 0 
No it isn't mixed bullshit...Nice name btw, good song. I don't think this song has anything to do wiht The Jam..Where in the hell did you get that point?

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Bleachisthebomb
06-02-2005

Rated -1 
i wouldnt say the sex pistols suck cuz anarchy in the uk is an awesome song, but they shouldnt be as legendary as they are cuz they only had one album.

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Dazbert
08-14-2005

Rated 0 
In light of the above comments, it is interesting to note that in the estimable John Peel Festive Fifty 2000 Alltime Greatest, this song and 'Anarchy in the UK' come in 5th and 4th place, respectively. A resounding endorsement of both bands, I'm sure you'll agree.

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Baller
08-14-2005

Rated 0 
I've always thought both of the bands were great. Their connection is that Strummer was inspired by the Pistols to join The Clash. The Sex Pistols didn't like them. Paul Cook thought they were just riding on their coat tails and John Lydon didn't like their music. But the supposed "rivalry" between the two bands just was an embellishment by the music press. They only met on a few occasions and from the pictures I've seen they seemed to be pretty friendly with each other. Both bands seemed to be pretty fed up with the stupid behavior by the punk followers, as shown in this song. First the fighting and other stupidity, the copied and unoriginal cliche punk outfits, and then came the mainstream co-opting of it all. By then very few people actually knew what the point was supposed to be.

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1 Reply
ShockTroops
08-21-2005

Rated 0 
I don't think this song is aiming at any band. It's was written more about feeling out of place at a reggae concert and more-so of what "JoE][BoXeR" said.

As Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers said in an interview

"I know exactly what he means because even though I never went to palais, I did go see Dennis Brown at the Rainbow And I felt like the only white guy in there. The whole thing was so obviously written from the heart, y'know?

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ntwjones
01-08-2006

Rated +2 
So Joe Strummer is in the Palais with the black kids to see some reggae, and he hopes it'll be like black punk, radical and political, really really good. But it turns out to be just pop music and the groups are more bothered about getting a good spot than actually saying anything. Which he thinks is a shame, because lots of black people who would be receptive to a political message and there, and the opportunity to radicalise them is lost, a chance to change the world has not been seized. Rather than rebellion, it's rebellion packaged for capitalist means, which ironically is pretty much the definition of mass market rock and roll. The song ends with Strummer, ironically, stating that he's just looking for fun, when actually he's been looking for an awful lot more. He attacks apolitical bands, conservatives, fascists and racists. What more can you want in four minutes of music?

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1 Reply
Ingido
01-08-2006

Rated 0 
This song was so mature when it came out, it was much more subtle and pensive than White Riot and London's Calling, two singles that it had been sandwiched between on the album. It really separated The Clash from the anarchism of The Sex Pistols and earned their nickname as "the thinking man's yobs". They played this at Joe's funeral, as it was one of his favourites.

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truthbealiar
01-16-2006

Rated 0 
Sex Pistols were craaaaaap. But they did have a weird relationship with the Sex Pisotls, the Clash both looked up to them and saw them as rivals.

I know what the official explination of this song is (review of a concert Joe went to, followed by various critiques of other things in British culture), but I've always taken this to be a statement on racism, and also how it has worked its way into music (Why exactly are there only "black ears" there to listen?).

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Punker_Ken
02-07-2006

Rated -1 
The Sex Pistols Were Nihilistic, can we all agree on that? the sex pistols broke up after like half a year, can we all agree on that? ok so its clear from these two facts and countless others that the pistols weren't true punks


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Cpt-Sensible
02-07-2006

Rated 0 
What sex pistols made punk and they broke up after 18 months. The line all over people changing the vote is about a punk band maybe Generation X that said they would vote Torry's next election this song is just about punks selling out and just doing stuff for sensation.

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