Tonight let’s explore a history of the Clash’s “The Guns of Brixton”.
"The Guns of Brixton" was partially inspired by Jimmy Cliff's movie The Harder they Come.
"The Guns of Brixton" was the first Clash song that Paul Simonon wrote by himself. He grew up in the South London neighborhood of South Brixton, where the song imagines Jimmy Cliff's Ivan character from his 1972 film The Harder They Come residing. "The mystery of writing songs had become a bit clearer," said Simonon. "That was a big moment for me. The thing I realized was songwriters get all the money. You don't get paid for designing record sleeves and clothes.'" — Rolling Stone
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The Clash :: The Guns of Brixton [1979]
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Collage in pop is often an exercise in surprise – finding things which shouldn't work together, but do. Throw too much into the mix and you can end up with a novel mess. But even then if you get the final element right it can salvage the whole creation. So let's imagine the recipe here. Norman Cook is by this point already a well-known DJ with plenty of mix-and-match pedigree – he's recently done some remixes of the Osmonds back catalogue, which the band are very wary of – and he's got a B-Side called "Invasion Of The Estate Agents", built round the skanking bassline from "Guns Of Brixton", with snippets of Ennio Morricone and the occasional scratch. He throws in a kind of kazoo solo-ey thing for good measure.
It's pretty good. It's five or six years too early, to be honest – what Cook's made, as he'll often make, is a fine example of the goofball, beer-friendly dance music nobody in 1990 knows as "big beat". Fun, lightweight, stuff. The track needs something else. So he puts vocals over the top – a singer called Lindy Layton singing an old SOS Band tune.
And it works. Oh how it works. The whole track flips over – now all the wacky bricolage stuff is supporting Layton's stoic ache: the Morricone highlighting her weary hurt, the bassline strong but unforgiving. And Cook adds one last thing, a sample of a radio DJ – "Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty...". The slick chatter frames Layton's song, turning the track into a cartoon cityscape for her to wander through and giving "Dub Be Good To Me" the solid-gold earworm it needed.
And the latent cheekiness of the track – its lifts so flagrant, its components so random – gives it a warmth, a sense of reassurance that despite Layton's desperation everything in Beats International's world is going to be alright. So "Dub Be Good" ends up rather less polished or poised than some of its obvious models – Soul II Soul, for instance. Norman Cook has never made dark music – sadness in his pop is something the rest of the track is there to cure. Later on that will work against him, but for now it's fine: there's room for comfort in pop as well as intensity, and what's also on offer here is the delight of seeing diverse elements alchemised into a confident, magnificent modern hit. Jam hot indeed. — Freaky Trigger UK
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Beats International :: Dub Be Good to Me [1990]
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We’ve hosted Santi White (aka Santogold) earlier this year: Insomniacs' Vent Hole: L.E.S. Artistes
Santi and Diplo with a straightforward cover of Brixton, er, Brooklyn in this case.
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Santogold :: Guns of Brooklyn [2008]
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The four Swiss space cowboys offer us a rocky, dark one Dubification of well-known Clash hits. Hand-played, a sound with rough edges, classic and with a lot of care and attention to detail. The whole thing sounds almost like a live production, unpolished, rocky and yet full of reggae vibes. When I first listened to it, I didn't even realize the brilliant quality of the album, which makes it clear that we are not dealing with ostensible, catchy beats, but on the contrary with thoroughly complex and subtle instrumentals, completely composed and full of tension dramaturgy determined. Add to that this gloomy, almost psychedelic atmosphere - that spark of madness in the music that makes it a little inaccessible, but at the same time so seductive. With the Clash has this dubified reinterpretation to be done only marginally. Joe Strummer's songs only seem to have been a starting point for the extensive musical excursions of the Space Cowboys, excursions into the vast prairie of psychedelic transcendence, until their silhouettes disappear in the distance before the shimmering fireball of the setting sun. — dubblog.de
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Dub Spencer & Trance Hill :: Guns of Brixton [2011]
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Ryan Reynolds, Kaitlin Olson, Tones and I, guest host Rob McElhenney (R 8/9/22)
Jimmy Fallon: Michael Strahan, Jamie Campbell Bower, King Princess (R 8/2/22)
Stephen Colbert: Ice-T, Michael Pollan (R 7/20/22)
Seth Meyers: Daniel Kaluuya, Jordan Peele, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Andrew Marshall (R 7/21/22)
James Corden: Terry Crews, Ken Jeong, Amanda Shires
The Daily Show: Pre-empted
SPOILER WARNING
A late night gathering for non serious palaver that does not speak of that night’s show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don’t want that to happen to you. It's a fate worse than a fate worse than death.
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A Diplo production which borrows the Clash’s Straight to Hell for the backing track.
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M.I.A. :: Paper Planes [2007]
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LAST WEEK'S POLL: HOW DO YOU SAVE YOUR PLACE IN A BOOK?
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