London calling lyrics

Someone thinks the Ice Age is coming, another person says the sun's zooming in, and "meltdown expected, the wheat's growing thin, engines stopped running" sound like things heard on the news, like a weather forecast and two breaking news updates, maybe. As for the "but I have no fear, 'cause London is drowning and I, I live by the river" line that everyone's so confused by, I really don't see what's so confusing about it.

Even though London's drowning, he has o fear because he lives by the river, so he most likely won't suffer as much because he will be one of the first to die when the river overflows. General Comment For people who care, this song means a lot. Go to the East End on Monday night, you'll find a pub somewhere full of somethings going mad to this one. Joycey on May 19, Link. General Comment Has this song been ruined by its inclusion in a Jaguar commercial, or has its meaning been expanded?

You decide! ButtOfMalmsey on July 30, Link. ButtOfMalmsey I love it! SamVargas on May 15, General Comment This song is one of my favourite songs of all time. The ice-age? Sun zooming in? This is all apocalpse imagery. Because we were right in the middle of the Cold War. The Clash were about current politics, about the present, not the past.

And about London drowning I don't know the exact meaning behind every line. Artists - C. London Calling is found on the album London Calling.

Rate These Lyrics. We do not have any tags for London Calling lyrics. Why not add your own? Lead RIFFs:. Bad selection. Save Cancel. Really delete this comment? Yes No. Armagideon Time. Armagideon Time Kick It Over version. Brand New Cadillac.

Death or Glory. Four Horsemen. I'm Not Down. Jimmy Jazz. Koka Kola. London Calling mix. London Calling video. London Calling - Remastered. Lonesome Me.

Lost in the Supermarket. Lover's Rock. Remote Control. Revolution Rock. Rudie Can't Fail. Spanish Bombs. The Call Up.

The Card Cheat. London Calling is apocalyptic, written right after Three Mile Island partial meltdown in In Clampdown, on the same album, they sing, 'Working hard in Harrisburg closest town to TMI , working hard in Petersburg site of a Russian nuclear institute Engines were theorized to stop running during a nuclear attack - don't know if people still believe that.

In London, anything close to the Thames would be underwater during a flood caused by sea level rise or nuclear meltdown or any other reason, thus, you'd be the first to go.

So no need to fear. Other apocalyptic images include the Sun becoming a red giant, an ice age taking place, and mass starvation. Not a pretty sight. London Calling itself is, of course, the call sign for the BBC. When Joe sings a "nuclear error" he is talking about a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania that went into meltdown. Two things to bear in mind with this song that people usually overlook.

Firstly, Joe Strummer had a scattergun approach to writing lyrics - sometimes a part of the lyrics might be only loosely connected to the rest of the song. Secondly, there's a fair bit of irony in the song that people miss. Strummer has said in an interview that the song was about the demise, as he saw it, of the punk scene in London. He is calling the "faraway towns" looking for someone else to take up the baton of producing something new - this was not long after Two-Tone had come out of Coventry, which he had noted.

I'm not sure about "war is declared" - perhaps a "war" for the future of music, or a response to Thatcher coming to power and the country moving to the right, something Strummer was concerned about - a fight was on. I would guess the "underworld" is the underground music scene and the culture that goes with it - Strummer believed that artists with something to say should aim for the mainstream.

I interpret the Beatlemania line as not a dig at the Beatles as such , but as saying that bands should not be put on pedestals , including the Clash "don't look to us". The last line of the verse compares the image of "swinging London" to the reality of police brutality. The chorus is actually about something different - Strummer ironically lists various threats to humanity that have been aired in the media - a new ice age, nuclear meltdown not long after Three Mile Island , crop failure, oil shortage - and concludes that he is more concerned about the fact the Thames Flood Barrier hasn't been completed as the Thames flooding is a direct threat to him.

Strummer himself said that this is what the chorus meant. The "imitation zone" in verse two refers to how the punk scene had gone from being something open minded to a rigid set of rules about how to dress and what type of music to play again Strummer's own explanation. I'm not sure about "zombies of death" but I suspect it's about the more negative, nihilistic elements of the punk scene.

The "yellowy eyes" as a reference to hepatitis in the drug scene - Strummer himself had caught hepatitis in from injecting speed with a dirty needle not from catching a mouthful of spit at a gig which was the "official" story. This is also not long after Sid Vicious , a friend of the band, had died from a heroin overdose. I'm not sure about the last verse, but there seems to be a lot of ironic humour here - "I was there too" is perhaps Strummer pointing out to critics within the punk scene that he had been one of it's original pioneers "you know what they said - well some of it was true" perhaps a defence of the original punk scene that was now being sneered at - but I'm guessing.

As I say , Strummer's approach was a bit chaotic, jumbling different ideas together, but here as in many other of their songs, it all seems to work and hang together in spite of this. In the War, we called out to the free