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Inoculated City Lyrics

The soldier boy for his soliders pay
Obeys theeargent at arms whatever he says

The seargent will for his seargent's pay
Obeythe general order of the battle play

The generals bow to the government
Obey the charge you must not relent

What of the neighbors and the prophets in bars?
What are they saying in the publiz bazaar?
We are tired of the tune
You must not relent

At every stroke of the bell in the tower there goes
Another boy from another side

The bulletins that steady come in say those
Familiar words at the top of the hour

The jamming city increases its hum
And those terrible words continue to come

Through bras music of government hear those
Guns tattoo a roll on the drums

No-one mentions the neighboring war
No one knows what they're fighting for
We are tired of the tune
You must not relent
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Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

The Clash's songs are all so timeless.

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

There were two versions of this song, as someone mentions above. The early releases featured the audio from a 2000 Flushes (toilet cleaner) commercial. At some point the Clash were threatened with legal action, so later releases did away with the commercial. I had Rock The Casbah on 45 rpm...if I recall rightly, this song was the "B" side

Correction...it was the "B" side of Should I Stay or Should I Go...

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

this song is so true even now

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

"The soldier boy for his soliders pay Obeys the seargent at arms whatever he says

The seargent will for his seargent's pay Obey his captain till his dying day

The captain will for his captains pay Obey the general order of the battle play

The generals bow to the government Obey the charge you must not relent" -i think

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

Seems to be two versions: one has a little outro before the end talking about toilets or something flushing and brushing, the other seems to be straightforward and go staight to the end. odd

Yeah, the 2000 Flushes section was removed after the original album pressing because of copyright infringement. I love that sample though, it ties into "The bulletins that steady come in say those Familiar words at the top of the hour".

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

no one knows what their fighting is for*

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

i think the toilet part makes it even better. inaculated means implant with ideas, so theyre spreading ignorance everywhere-about war, problems, and stuff. so instead of caring about war, they care about their clean toilets.

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

In my opinion, I think the toilet commercial is kinda like a metaphor for the faith we put in our gummint. Like in the commercial, it said you don't have to brush for like 4 months, just flush. So it;s like chossing what we're gonna do with the world and then trusting our gummint to do it for us. We don't bother to check on it or see if we're "flushing". Make sense kinda?

Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

I assumed the toilet cleaning advert was a metaphor for the use of agent orange in Vietnam. Flushing (with chemicals - agent orange) sure beats brushing (soldiers going in to do the dirty work).

My Interpretation
Cover art for Inoculated City lyrics by Clash, The

For what it's worth, the original version with the 2000 Flushes commercial audio included is on the 2013 remastered version of Combat Rock. Personally, I've never heard the version without it. But I imagine it wouldn't be quite as good.

 
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