Somebody Got Murdered

strummer lived in a block of council flats for a while, and when walkin back from a night out, he noticed that the car park attendant was missing out of the booth where he usually stood. going to check if he was ok, joe found the attendant shot dead on the floor of the booth having been murdered over a few pence. joe looked for the name of the attendant to put in the song, to no avail, 'Somebody got murdered His name cannot be found', so it was written for all the nameless people who get murdered in the streets.

i have seen this song performed live a few times by tributes and it has such power, always brings a tear to my eye.

Joe Strummer: "We got a phone call from Jack Nitzsche and he said 'We need a heavy rock number for this movie with Al Pacino' so I said OK. I went home and there was this guy in a pool of blood out by the car parking kiosk. That night I wrote the lyric. I gave it to Mick and he wrote the tune. We recorded it and Jack Nitzsche never called back."

Excellent song. Top favorite, for sure. There's two live performances, both of which are great, on YouTube and I hope more will be uploaded or somehow shared in the future.

In all honesty, I would personally put this song right up there with their best, I think its that powerful.

I thought about that too, but I think its more a reference to how casual an anonymous murder is. Someone's killed, dead forever, culprit never found, the blood is cleaned up, end of story.

Dead forever, such a strong phrase. jesus christ

that's interesting. i always pictured the observer looking down on a dimly lit street, seeing the dead body at night and then the police arriving, and then the crowd watching, and the silence after. like in "rear window", merely observing, thinking to himself "man, i've been hungry myself, but i will never do that"

I think it is about an anonymous murder and this guys getting blamed you know I been very hungry but not enough to kill and where they where last night no one can remember, anyway that's what I thought when I first heard it.

I'd say it's making the point of the magnitude of murder. Firstly that somebody lost their life yet everyone goes on oblivious, which is fairly obvious. But then he's saying I've been hungry and tempted, but not enough to kill. How can you take someone's life forever just for a bit of money? A question muggers need to ask themselves, but also politicians about oil.

What a great song!!!

I been very tempted To grab it from the till I been very hungry But not enough to kill

I think this is about a guy who gets blamed for murder he almost certainly didn't commit but, he doesen't remember where he was the previous night.

Actually it was Mick Jones who lived in the council flats and it was Mick who wrote this song- one of my favorites on Sandanista.

Croation9Deuce, agreed.