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"Tommy Gun" was London punk rock band The Clash's seventh single, and the first single taken from their second album Give 'Em Enough Rope'
Joe Strummer said that he got the idea for the song when he was thinking about terrorists, and how they probably enjoy reading about their killings as much as movie stars like seeing their films reviewed.[1] While Topper Headon mimics the sound of gangster movie shootings with quick snare hits and the guitars are full of distortion and feedback, Strummer's sarcastic lyrics (I'm cutting out your picture from page one/I'm gonna get a jacket just like yours/And give my false support to your cause/Whatever you want, you're gonna get it!) condemn rather than condone violence: at the end of the song he sings, If death comes so cheap/Then the same goes for life!
In the liner notes of the recently released Singles Box, Carl Barat (frontman of the Dirty Pretty Things and formerly of The Libertines), says that "Tommy Gun" was important for music at the time because it let people know what was going on in the world-it talked about real issues. He says, “It's "Tommy Gun" a product of the volatile climate of the late seventies - all those references to terrorist organizations like Baader-Meinhof and The Red Brigade. It's like a punk rock adaptation of The Beatles' "Revolution".”[2]
[edit] Charts
[edit] References
- Gilbert, Pat [2004] (2005). Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash, 4th edition, London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1845131134. OCLC 61177239.
- Gray, Marcus [1995] (2005). The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town, 5th revised edition, London: Helter Skelter. ISBN 1905139101. OCLC 60668626.
- Green, Johnny; Garry Barker [1997] (2003). A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day with The Clash, 3rd edition, London: Orion. ISBN 0752858432. OCLC 52990890.
- Gruen, Bob; Chris Salewicz [2001] (2004). The Clash, 3rd edition, London: Omnibus. ISBN 1903399343. OCLC 69241279.
- Needs, Kris (2005-01-25). Joe Strummer and the Legend of the Clash. London: Plexus. ISBN 085965348X. OCLC 53155325.
- Topping, Keith [2003] (2004). The Complete Clash, 2nd edition, Richmond: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 1903111706. OCLC 63129186.
