Car Jamming

this seems to be similiar to Straight to Hell, with verses being about different topics, connected by the chorus and, here, the car jam scenario.

the gorilla-drag-their-victims must be about Italian mobsters (who sometimes shoot lobsters), never heard a brute referred to as 'gorilla'? and hyenas try to sue, Joe uses animal metaphors for unwanted fiends of the inner city social sphere, i'd say.

I think this song would be about being let down by the world. I don't know...

OK I don't know what I was high on when I wrote that. Anyways, I have no idea what the hell this song means. Anyone know? All I know is that it's a great song.

I think it has something to do with a solider who was crippled in Vietnam: Then a shyboy from Missouri Boots blown off in a '60s war Riding aluminium crutches Now he knows the welfare kindness n' Agent Orange color blindness Joe viewed inner city America as an urban Vietnam. However this sond does seem to jump around a bit I mean the bit about Gorillas WTF. Anyway thats me hopefully deciphering some of this song.

Interesting, that makes sense. I can't tell what the rest of the song is supposed to mean. WTF is a very valid description.

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

Where the heck does Lauren Bacall come into it? I don't remember her doing too much acting in the 70's... is it a reference to her earlier work?

Anyway, great catchy song but great crazy lyrics.

Typical clash song exploring more than one single idea

Verse 1 a retospective on the Vietmam War and the common every day life that vetrans returned to.

Verse 2 a side swipe at American commercialism - every things for sale and america can sell it "saints on the seven avenues" = american banks "can sell the seven hells" - reference to dantes vision of hell. This is the crime the criminals are the bully boys (Gorillas) bankers (hyenas) lawyers (snakes). These people don't care for the poor and any kindness is accidental.

Strummer then trips out into druggie-dom USA comparing it to religion with Laren Bacall cast as the high priestess.

Sounds like a very stream-of-consciousness approach to lyric writing...most of Combat Rock was written this way.

I see this song as Joe Strummer using a car jam (being stuck in a traffic jam) in NYC as a vehicle to observe society circa 1981. Imagine him sitting in the car, paused at a light, looking around the avenues and connecting some dots of modern day problems of American culture. And, yes, he seems kinda high too. These lyrics fall in line with the Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) worldview of a man-on-the-edge perspective-of-society...a la Red Angel Dragnet and Straight To Hell.

As Stoner_77 says above, Verse 1 reflects on the Vietnam War vets trying to adjust to "normal" life, yet is the urban jungle any different than the Vietnamese jungle? Verse 2 expounds on this notion of "society as a jungle" (un)equating the 'haves with the have-nots' with animals, bankers, homeless, etc. Exhaust heat coming from bankers' buildings to warm the homeless - indeed an "accidental kindness".

The 3rd verse, to me, seems like Joe began another stanza trying to incorporate themese religion, masses, culture worship, third world black markets, etc. In the spirit of a cool, edgy, drugged-out vibe (which Car Jamming really is musically) he shouts out from the back seat "Hey fellas, I thought I saw Lauren Bacall!" A look-a-like walking down the street? The other band members respond in disbelief, and the song sorta ends in a laugh.

Combat Rock was written as a tribute to Beat poetry, nothing on it more so than Car Jamming. Basically, they got stuck in a traffic jam in New York City and started writing beat poetry, in a jam session. This song is the result. They even went so far as to get Allen Ginsberg, the most famous beat poet of all, to add some vocals later in the album. I feel somewhat soiled after hearing Ginsberg growl the Heart Katra at the end of Ghetto Defendant. As far as the meaning of the lyrics of Car Jamming, it is about inequality and injustice in the everyday life they saw around them while stuck in the car.