| The Clash – Straight to Hell Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The song is about the ravages of capitalism in creating a world where "everybody they want to go home," but there is no "home" left. Combat Rock is the first (the only?) great record about globalization. This is the paradise of free trade, free market values. The songs all sing about global conflicts and the new values created by a pure market system ("the king [record co. exec.] told the boogeyman [Strummer], you gotta let that raga drop" -- since it won't sell). For Joe Strummer to sing in this song, "let me tell you 'bout your blood, bamboo kid: it ain't coca-cola, it's rice," is his way of pointing out that the restructuring of the global economy, so that someone in a place whose economy has been built on one thing (rice) has to make something else (coca-cola) also risks losing their sense of who they are. (This line is also troubling, since a white westerner is telling an Asian kid who he or she is, but that's another issue.) What's left is nowhere and everywhere, or as Joe sings it, "anywhere": It could be anywhere Most likely could be any frontier Any hemisphere No man's land and there ain't no asylum here Without the "borders" or regulations protecting weaker economies, non-aligned states from being destroyed by capital, there is no asylum, no where, no there there (Gertrude Stein). Who gets the brunt of it? Iimmigrants, children, the poor. Listen to this song while considering Palestinian refugee camps, or watching "Children of Men," and you'll see how prophecy is sometimes accompanied by guitars, bass, and drums. |
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| Soul Asylum – Black Gold Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Yes, this is an incredible song. And I had always thought about it as a gulf war song. I don't think the lyrics above are exactly correct. It seems to also be about racism, black soldiers fighting a racist war for oil. And there seems to be a wounded vet in a wheelchair who functions as the conscience of the song. | |
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