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"
Everybody's looking for last gang in town
You better watch out for they're all comin' around
The sport of today is exciting
The in crowd are into infighting
When some punk sees some rock-olla
It's rock and roll all over
In every street and every station
Kids fight like different nations
And it's brawn against brain
And it's knife against chain
But it's all young blood
Flowing down the drain
The Crops hit the Stiffs
An' the Spikes whipped the Quiffs
They're all looking 'round
For the last gang in town
Meanwhile down in black town
Those old soul rebels are haingin' around
An' when some punk come a looking for sound
Rastafari goes to ground
The white heart flipped his pocket dipped
'cause a black sharp knife never slips
And they never say to one another
That tomorrow we might kill our brothers
Down from the edge of London
The rockabilly rebels came
From another edge of London
Skinhead gangs call out their name
But not the Zydeco kids
From the high rise
Though they can't be recognized
When you hear a Cajun fiddle
Then you're nearly in the middle
Of the last gang in town
You better watch out for they're all comin' around
The sport of today is exciting
The in crowd are into infighting
When some punk sees some rock-olla
It's rock and roll all over
In every street and every station
Kids fight like different nations
And it's brawn against brain
And it's knife against chain
But it's all young blood
Flowing down the drain
The Crops hit the Stiffs
An' the Spikes whipped the Quiffs
They're all looking 'round
For the last gang in town
Meanwhile down in black town
Those old soul rebels are haingin' around
An' when some punk come a looking for sound
Rastafari goes to ground
The white heart flipped his pocket dipped
'cause a black sharp knife never slips
And they never say to one another
That tomorrow we might kill our brothers
Down from the edge of London
The rockabilly rebels came
From another edge of London
Skinhead gangs call out their name
But not the Zydeco kids
From the high rise
Though they can't be recognized
When you hear a Cajun fiddle
Then you're nearly in the middle
Of the last gang in town
Lyrics submitted by aebassist, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Last Gang in Town Lyrics as written by Mick Jones Joe Strummer
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is about various subcultures fighting in london. in the chorus Crops are the skinheads, spikes are the punks, and quiffs are the teddy boys. I'm not quite sure who the stiffs are though.
stiffs are normies "working stiffs"
@Punker_Ken I always thought they were the nuevo Mods
great song for a great album
@hipdude I reckon they were just looking for a cool but old and unlikely style of music to finish with as the "last gang in town"
More interestingly the song suggests that black subcultures don't fight each other. This was probably true as an oppressed minority in London at time, but I am not sure it always is. Gangs are gangs I suppose, and people just into different music styles might argue, but fighting would be ridiculous. Still it was probably worth saying as most western media culture is fairly racist.
While who are the Zydeco kids, There's not even a Zydeco gang in N Orleans (wiped out by the creoles). and should it be a Cajun fidle?