Tonight they're closing up the world
N'sweeping smoke from cigarettes
And what is that
Funky multi-national anthem rocking from a thousand
King Kong cassette decks
And then a shyboy from Missouri
Boots blown off in a sixties war
Riding aluminium crutches
Now he knows the welfare kindness
Agent Orange color-blindness
As we works from door to door
The violence in the carpets
The arrow of his wife (in a car jam)
Drives the slum-bum dweller
To grind his hunting knife (in a car jam)
In homesteads of cigar box
The radios hive like bees
The body in the icebox
Has no date for freeze (in a car jam)

(In a car jam)

Selling is what selling sells
But only saints on the seven avenues
Can sell the seven hells
Fanning the drug afflicted leperizing sword
Once inisde, the executive
He never leaves his home
Now, gorillas drag their victims
Hyenas try to sue (in a car jam)
Snakes find grass in concrete
There is no city zoo (in a car jam)
By ventilation units
Where towers meet the streets (in a car jam)
The ragged stand in bags soaking heat up through their feet (in the car jam

This was the only kindness, and it was accidental too

(In a car jam)

(In a car jam)

Now shaking single-engined planes trafficking stereos from Cuba
Buzzed the holy zealot mass and drowned out Missa Luba
And drowned out Missa Luba
And drowned out Missa Luba
And drowned out Missa Luba
I thought I saw Lauren Bacall, I thought I saw Lauren Bacall (in a car jam)

Hey fellas, hey fellas
Lauren Bacall (in a car jam)
In a car jam
Yeah, I don't believe it
In a car jam
Ah, yeah, positively-absolutely

(In a car jam)
(In a car jam)
(In a car jam)
(In a car jam)
(In a car jam)
(In a car jam)


Lyrics submitted by aebassist

Car Jamming Lyrics as written by Mick Jones Joe Strummer

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Car Jamming song meanings
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11 Comments

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    General Comment

    feels a little like what he was talking about in the Magnificent Seven - the drudgery of the rat race and buying into the system of moneymaking. With the added bit about the Vietnam vet there's the question of "this is all we're fighting for?"

    Definitely among the stranger lyrics Joe ever wrote, he was heavily influenced by Ginsburg and the Beat poets while working on Combat Rock

    chowfun18on November 27, 2007   Link

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