"London Calling"
Single by The Clash from the album London Calling
Released	7 December 1979 (U.K.)
Format	7" single
Recorded	1979 at Wessex Studios
Genre	Punk/Rock
Length	3:19
Label	CBS Records
Producer	Guy Stevens
Chart positions
#11 (UK) #27 (U.S.A.)
Professional reviews
All Music Guide
The Clash singles chronology
"The Cost Of Living" (1979)	"London Calling" (1979)	"Bankrobber" (1980)

"London Calling" is the hit song off the album of the same name (London Calling, 1979) by the U.K. punk/rock band The Clash; it is also the album's first track. This apocalyptic, politically-charged rant features the band's famous combination of reggae basslines and punk electric guitar and vocals. This image is the cover of an album or single. ... In music, a single is a short (usually ten minutes or less*) record, usually featuring one or two tracks as A-side, often accompanied by several B-sides, usually remixes or other songs. ... The Clash was a British rock group that existed from 1976 to 1986. ... London Calling, a double album released by The Clash in December, 1979, marked the bands critical and commercial breakthrough. ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... Motto: Dieu et mon droit (Royal motto; French for God and my right) 3 Anthem: God Save the Queen4 Capital London Most populous conurbation London Official language(s) English de facto 5 Government Queen Prime Minister Constitutional monarchy HM Queen Elizabeth II The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP Establishment January... In music, a single is a short (usually ten minutes or less*) record, usually featuring one or two tracks as A-side, often accompanied by several B-sides, usually remixes or other songs. ... Musical genres are categories which contain music which share a certain style or which have certain elements in common. ... Punk Rock is an anti-establishment music movement that began about 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified by The Ramones,the Misfits, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Rock is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone are common in some styles, however, horns have been omitted from newer subgenres of rock music since... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Columbia Records is the oldest continually used brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Guy Stevens was born in East Dulwich, London, on April 13, 1943. ... Top 40 is a radio format based on frequent repetition of songs from a constantly-updated list of the forty best-selling singles. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... London Calling, a double album released by The Clash in December, 1979, marked the bands critical and commercial breakthrough. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... Motto: Dieu et mon droit (Royal motto; French for God and my right) 3 Anthem: God Save the Queen4 Capital London Most populous conurbation London Official language(s) English de facto 5 Government Queen Prime Minister Constitutional monarchy HM Queen Elizabeth II The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP Establishment January... Punk Rock is an anti-establishment music movement that began about 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified by The Ramones,the Misfits, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Rock is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, trumpet, and trombone are common in some styles, however, horns have been omitted from newer subgenres of rock music since... The Clash was a British rock group that existed from 1976 to 1986. ... For other uses, see Apocalypse (disambiguation). ... Reggae is a music genre developed in Jamaica. ... In popular music a bassline, also bass line, is an instrumental part, or line, which is in the bass or lowest range and thus lower than the other parts and part of the rhythm section. ... The acoustic archtop guitar, used in Jazz music, features steel strings. ...

• "London Calling" by The Clash, from London Calling, 1979. 30 seconds, 616 KB.

The Clash was a British rock group that existed from 1976 to 1986. ... London Calling, a double album released by The Clash in December, 1979, marked the bands critical and commercial breakthrough. ...

Writing and recording

The song was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The title alludes to the BBC World Service's station identification: "This is London calling...", that was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries. John Graham Mellor (August 21, 1952 – December 22, 2002) better known as Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist and lead singer of British punk rock band The Clash, and later The Mescaleros. ... Mick Jones on stage with the Clash Micheal Geoffrey Jones (born June 26, 1955), better known as Mick Jones, is an English guitarist and singer, best known for his work with The Clash. ... World Service logo The BBC World Service is one of the most widely recognised international broadcasters of radio programming, transmitting in 33 languages to around 150 million people throughout the world. ... Station identification is the practice of any type of radio station identifying itself, typically with a callsign. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II...

The lyrics reflect the concern felt by Strummer about world events with the reference to "a nuclear error" to the incident at Three Mile Island, which occurred earlier in 1979. Joe Strummer has said: '"We felt that we were struggling about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with our fingernails. And there was no one there to help us.'" Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station consists of two nuclear reactors, each with its own containment building and cooling towers. ...

The line "London is drowning/And I live by the river" comes from concerns that if the River Thames flooded, most of central London would drown, something that led to the construction of the Thames Barrier. The Thames (pronounced //) is a river flowing through southern England and connecting London with the sea. ... Central London is a much-used but unofficial and vaguely defined term for the most inner part of London, the capital of the United Kingdom. ... The Thames Barrier is a flood control structure on the River Thames at Woolwich Reach in London. ...

The lyrics also reflect desperation of the band's situation in 1979 struggling with high debt, without management and arguing with their record label over whether the London Calling album should be a single or double album. The lines referring to "now don't look to us/All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust" reflects the concerns of the band over its situation after the punk rock boom in England in 1977 had ended. Beatlemania is a term that was used during the 1960s to describe fan frenzy (particularly by young teenaged girls) towards The Beatles. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ...

Musically, the song is far removed from their earlier style of frenzied punk rock I-IV-V-I chord progressions, as best exemplified on songs like "Career Opportunities" and "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.". The song is in a minor key — something The Clash had rarely used before — and the inherent dirge-like, apocalyptic feel is intensified by Topper Headon's martial drumming without backbeat, in perfect synchrony with staccato guitar chords; the group's deliberate, mid-tempo pace; and Strummer's icy lyrics and baleful delivery. Strummer's wolf-like howls or perhaps Rooster-like crows, during the instrumental break, further fuel the atmosphere of desolation and paranoia implied throughout the song. Like many of the tracks on London Calling — including "The Card Cheat", "Revolution Rock", and "Jimmy Jazz" — the song doesn't end by resolving strongly to the tonic or fading out, as most rock and roll songs do. Instead, it breaks down eerily, with Joe Strummer's cryptic last words "I never felt so much a-like..." echoing over Pete Townshend-inspired Morse code feedback. A chord progression, as its name implies, is a series of chords played in an order. ... Topper Headon Nicholas Bowen Headon (born May 30, 1955), better known as Topper Headon, was the drummer for the British punk rock band The Clash. ... Wolf Wolf Man Mount Wolf Wolf Prizes Wolf Spider Wolf 424 Wolf 359 Wolf Point Wolf-herring Frank Wolf Friedrich Wolf Friedrich August Wolf Hugo Wolf Johannes Wolf Julius Wolf Max Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf Maximilian Wolf Rudolf Wolf Thomas Wolf As Name Wolf Breidenbach Wolf Hirshorn Other The call... Rooster in grass, demonstrating the alert stance before sounding an alarm A cock or rooster is a male chicken, the female being a hen. ... Desolation is the first full-length studio album by progressive rock band Amphoteric. ... For other uses, see Paranoia (disambiguation). ... London Calling, a double album released by The Clash in December, 1979, marked the bands critical and commercial breakthrough. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (born May 19, 1945 in Chiswick, London) is an influential British rock guitarist and songwriter who is best known for his work with The Who. ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting information, using standardized sequences of short and long marks or pulses — commonly known as dots and dashes — for the letters, numerals and special characters of a message. ...

"London Calling" was recorded at Wessex Studios located in a former church in Highbury in North London. This studio had already proved to a popular location with The Sex Pistols, the Pretenders and the Tom Robinson band. The single was produced by Guy Stevens and engineered by Bill Price. Highbury Clock is located just north of Highbury Fields, near the junction of Highbury Barn and Highbury Hill. ... The Sex Pistols in 1977. ... Pretenders album cover, 1980. ... Tom Robinson (born June 1, 1950) is a British musician and DJ. Robinson was the founding member of the Tom Robinson Band, an overtly political band with several hits in the 1970s. ... Guy Stevens was born in East Dulwich, London, on April 13, 1943. ...

Chart success and critical response

"London Calling" was released as the only single in the UK from the album and reached #11 in the charts in December 1979. The song did not make the US charts as "Train in Vain" was released in a single and broke the band in the US reaching #23 on the pop charts. Train in Vain (Stand by Me) is a song off the album London Calling, (1979) by the U.K. punk/rock band The Clash. ...

"London Calling" was the first Clash song to chart elsewhere in the world reaching the top 40 in Australia. The success of the single and album was greatly helped by a memorable video shot by Don Letts showing the band playing the song on a boat on the Thames in the pouring rain. Don Letts is a British film director and musician. ...

Over the years, "London Calling" has become regarded by many critics as the band's finest. Rolling Stone rated the song as #15 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time released in late 2004. That magazine also rated the album of the same name as the best album of the 1980s even though it was released in late 1979. The Rolling Stone logo, designed by Rick Griffin. ...

A supergroup consisting of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, Steven van Zandt and Tony Kanal of No Doubt performed the song at the 2003 Grammy awards as a tribute after the death of Joe Strummer . Bruce Springsteen had earlier offered to join the band at the induction ceremony in 2002 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but the band had refused to play at the ceremony claiming that they did not want to play at a function where seats were upwards of $1,000, and would rather play for their fans. Although it appears Strummer favored a reunion, any hopes of a reunion died with Joe. Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, aka Elvis Costello. ... David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969, in Warren, Ohio) is an American rock musician. ... Steven van Zandt (born November 22, 1950 as Steven Lento in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American musician, actor, and radio disc jockey. ... Tony Kanal Tony Ashwin Kanal (born August 27, 1970) is the bassist for the group No Doubt. ... No Doubt is an American alternative rock band whose music was initially influenced heavily by ska, punk and New Wave. ... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, showing Lake Erie in the foreground The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and institution in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated, as the name suggests, to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential...

In 2002, the band incurred criticism from many of its hardcore fans when they sold the rights to Jaguar for a car advertisement. In an interview posted on his website, Strummer explained the reasons for the deal. "Yeah. I agreed to that. We get hundreds of requests for that and turn 'em all down. But I just thought Jaguar ... yeah. If you're in a group and you make it together, then everybody deserves something. Especially twenty-odd years after the fact." Binomial name Panthera onca (Linnaeus, 1758) The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a large member of the cat family found primarily in the warm regions of the Americas. ...

Chart trajectories

The single fell off the charts after 10 weeks, but later re-entered the chart twice, spending a total of fifteen non-consecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart. The UK Singles Chart is currently compiled by The Official UK Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. ...

Trivia

Joe Strummer later became a DJ for the BBC World Service, broadcasting in programmes entitled "Joe Strummer's London Calling" [1]. DJ or dj may stand for Disc jockey, dinner jacket The DeadJournal website, or Djibouti. ...

An earlier version of the song from The Vanilla Tapes, with noticeably different lyrics, was released with the London Calling Legacy Edition in 2004. The Vanilla Tapes were demo tracks recorded by the English punk band The Clash. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A live version of the song, recorded in Boston on September 7, 1982, was released on the 1999 album From Here to Eternity: Live. Nickname: City on a Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Solar System), Athens of America Official website: www. ... September 7 is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years). ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... From Here to Eternity: Live is a compilation album of live material released by The Clash in 1999. ...

The song achieved the accolade of two live performances by Bob Dylan during his November 2005 residency at London's Brixton Academy - a venue also linked with many classic Clash and Joe Strummer concerts. Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and poet whose enduring contributions to American song are often compared, in fame and influence, to those of Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and Hank Williams. ... Brixton Academy The Brixton Academy is a large music venue in Brixton, South London with a capacity of 4,921. ...

The song was shortly featured in the films Billy Elliot (2000), Ma femme est une actrice (2001) and Die Another Day (2002). Billy Elliot is a 2000 movie written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Die Another Day is the twentieth James Bond film made by EON Productions and the fourth and final film to star Pierce Brosnan as Ian Flemings James Bond. ... For the Cusco album, see 2002 (album). ...

On March 30, 2006 an Indian man was arrested on terrorism suspicions in London after having this song on his iPod and singing it in a taxicab. The man also asked the driver to play "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin. [2] March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that Political terrorism be merged into this article or section. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Led Zeppelin was a British rock band that became one of the most successful and influential artists in popular music history. ...

References

• Rolling Stone article on London Calling
• All Music Guide article on London Calling
• BBC 2 Sold on Song article on London Calling
• Songfacts article on London Calling
• Art for a Change article on the use of London calling for a Jaguar advertisement