Garageland

thats a good interpretation. the actual inspiration was some record company guy telling them (when they were unsigned) that they should go back to their garage, lock themselves in and leave a car motor running till they died from monoxide poisoning. i think its just them saying look we know we're a amature punk band and we naver tried or will try to rise above that but we still want to be heard.

In my humble opinion, it's basically about the garage band not selling out like the other bands out there. Other people trying to mutate the garage band into something more commercial, and the garage band refuses to conform. (God that word 'conform' - it's great!)

I can't help drawing a parallel between the first paragraph and death. It just gives me the impression that staying a garage band is like suicide (not the carbon monoxide reference). Perhaps the garage band knows that staying the way they are will never make them sucessful, but do they care?

No.

Just my thoughts. Any ideas?

Joe Strummer will always be the best friend I never knew because even after his death, he embodies and manifests the very existence of Rock as an art form hence the writing "Back in the garage with my detector/I just want to stay in the garage for life/Back in the garage!

I don't think they would have ever actually said they wouldn't try to rise above "amature punk" given where they went to, but in terms of not caring about who likes them, it's true. I'm also pretty sure that the guy who said the band should lock themselves in a garage did not sleep very much afterwards for the rest of his life.

I wanted to say something about the actual sound on the album, which is great: having Jones's guitar on the left playing more subdued staccato lines and solos while Strummer's guitar is on the right playing full heavy rhythm. It's brilliant and this is one of the tracks that really shows it the most.

Always gets me riled this song.

Someone should release this tune to a set of new lyrics about the recent rioting in Paris:-

After the rioting Their only concern Restoring the romantic image - Of the city

They think that matters most We say: what about the rest? When shall we all be: set free?

We're past angry oh-a-oh Shall we ever be: Haaapppppyyy And yet that's all I see on TV!

Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie

Lie after Lie

Joey, your almost right, it was an NME journalist who said they should stay in the garage preferrably with the gas left running.

I believe it was Charles Shar Murray who wrote that, so Joe wrote this in response. I just love the whole bullshit detector thing.

awesome, I didn't know that. Haha! Nice one, Joe.

the line "An' someone just asked me if the group would wear suits" is a dig at the jam. who joe thought were riding the punk wave but pussying out of being punks by wearing mod suits

Bullshit detector = his nose. He can smell the carbon monoxide. It is also Joe's way of saying that he can sniff out anybody without integrity for the punk ethos.