Rudie Can't Fail

Rudie (a.k.a. Rude boy) was generally a Jamaican "wide boy" that could equally be called a gangster, wastrel or ne'er do well. In the U.K., or more pertinently London, a rude boy would be a young up and coming sharp talking wise cracking black lad with attitude. Nowadays, with cross culturalisation, the kid may even be white. However back in the late 70's when Strummer and Jones came across such young lads, they were almost certainly first generation black West Indians.

The Rudie in the song is half cut from being on the polish for breakfast. He's got attitude and he's on the no. 19 which (correct me if I'm wrong) runs from Victoria to N19, which is Finsbury. So the "market" our young turk is going to is Camden probably. He appears to be going there to "realise his soul" which probably means he's after uppers or smoke of some kind.

The phrase "Rudioe can't fail" is repeated throughout the song....yet the moral is that he inevitably already has by not being able to break free of the stereotype.

Although "brew" can mean a cup of tea or indeed a pint of beer (i.e. "fancy a brew?), in this case it refers to "Carlsberg Special Brew", the original cheap, superstrength canned lager. It's the one with the "purple" crest and is/was often drunk at length by the male Anglo/Jamaican culture of West London.

The song ends sadly in that it doesn't matter how "sharp" Rudie looks, he still succumbs to the cheap sky juice (i.e. Special Brew again).

Certainly Joe/Mick/Paul were heavily influenced by ska having spent most of their latter youth around West London. Of the 3, Paul was most heavily influenced and penned "Guns of Brixton". He was livid when the other 2 went to the Indies and came back with "Safe European Home" amongst others as he more than the other 2 was influenced by ska and reggea. Joe was more influenced by hillbilly which comes across in other tunes. At the time it was dubbed "skank" or "skunk" but to me the song is a ska song.

Joe Strummer R.I.P.....love you man.