Ivan Meets G.I. Joe

This song is about what potentially could have happened during the cold war if America or the Soviet Union would have decided to strike against one another with nuclear weapons. Scary shit...

No way I always wondered who sang it I thought it was just Joe or Mick with an effect on their voice. It's a light hearted song kinda funny but about a really serious issue. Classic Clash.

The Clash truly were the soundtrack to the Cold War.

And more than relevant to the current geo-political state of the globe.

I'd like to add Topper wrote and sang it. Was it the only song he sang when he was with Clash?

I like this song a lot. As Cpt-Sensible said it is a light-hearted song about a serious issue. Sandinista! was a great album, I have to admit.

Topper Headon sings this song. He also wrote much of "rock the casbah" and plays bass, drums, and piano on that song... not many people know that.

the song is about an imaginary battle between 2 figures GI Joe (representing USA) and Ivan (representing USSR).

Ivans powers include radiation and chemicals (all big cold war fears). the end mentions everyone leaving to watch China, another communist country

Great song. Always wondered though why they used "Ivan" when The communists were pretty anti that. Guess it just sounded better than "Stalin meets G.I. Joe" haha, or its more recognizable, w/e.

of course it's about the US and the USSR finally facing off, however, the metaphor is that they are two guys at studio 54 in 70s NYC, using every trick in the book to win the big dance-off as the crowd observes. the spectators, ultimately bored with all the devastation, leave to watch china! (was this yet another example of the prescient, damn-near psychic foresight of the only band that still matters, predicting the inevitable rise of china, a fact the rest of us only began to observe in recent years?)

I only remember the tail end of the cold war, but this song brings to mind memories of the mood in Europe - that we were trapped, geographically and politically, between two dangerous lunatics. There was definitely a feeling that if Russia and America went to war, we'd be the ones getting the bulk of the fallout (pun intended).