The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope
NME.COM feature on The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.
Release date: 30 November 1977
Tracklisting click track to read more
- Safe European Home
- English Civil War
- Tommy Gun
- Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad
- Last Gang In Town
- Guns On The Roof
- Drug-Stabbing Time
- Stay Free
- Cheapskates
- All The Young Punks (New Boots And Contracts)
More The Clash Reviews
The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope Videos
More The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope Videos
The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope YouTube Videos
More The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope YouTube Videos
The Clash News
The Clash's Mick Jones named an 'honorary Scouser'
The guitarist was given the Liverpool nod because of his work with the Justice Collective
The Clash's Joe Strummer has square in Spanish city named after him
Plaza Joe Strummer to be opened in Granada following online petition
The Clash 'never reformed because of the Sex Pistols'
Former manager says Joe Strummer wouldn't reform The Clash in the tail of the Sex Pistols
The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope: Wikipedia Album Entry
Give 'Em Enough Rope is the second music album by The Clash, released in 1978. In the US it was their official debut, preceding the U.S. version of The Clash. The album was well received by critics and fans, peaking at number 2 in the UK chart, and number 128 in the U.S.
The album's title was inspired by the expression "give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves". It was voted album of the year for 1978 by Rolling Stone and Timemagazines, as well as the popular UK music weekly, Sounds.
The cover was designed by Gene Greif, using a postcard, "End of the Trail", photographed by Adrian Atwater, featuring Wallace Irving Robertson.
The cover of the first US pressings showed the band's name written in block capital letters. Subsequent US pressings used a faux-oriental style font, which was then replaced with the more ornate faux-oriental style font used on the UK release.
The original American issue of the album also retitled "All the Young Punks" as "That's No Way to Spend Your Youth". This was revised on later editions.
Tommy Gun and English Civil War were released as the album's singles, either side of Christmas 1978. They entered the UK charts at #19 and #25 respectively.
Though the opening track of the album's B-side, Guns On The Roof is ostensibly a rant about global terrorism, war and corruption, it was partly inspired by an incident that resulted in the Metropolitan Police's armed anti-terrorist squad raiding The Clash's Camden Market base. Paul Simonon and Topper Headon were arrested and charged with criminal damage for shooting racing pigeons with an air-gun from the roof of their rehearsal building. The main riff of the song is similar to I Can't Explain by The Who.
The band's style of including contemporary subjects in their lyrics was continued on the album; Tommy Gun dealt with the middle east terrorist situation and the hi-jacking of aircraft while "Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad" was a commentary on the infamous "Operation Julie" drug bust that saw the largest LSD production ring in the world, based in Wales dismantled by an undercover police operation. Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad also makes a reference to the popular The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.
During recording of the album Joe Strummer's trademark Telecaster guitar needed to be taken in for repairs, so for the bulk of the sessions he played a hired semi-acoustic Gibson ES-345.
Sandy Pearlman, who produced the original album was not a big fan of Joe Strummer's voice, so much so that he ensured the drums were mixed louder than the lead singer's vocals on the entire album.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
Like The Clash? You might also like...
Artist/Album artwork images hosted by Last.fm. For copyright enquiries please see here.
The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope Lyrics
The Clash - Safe European Home Lyrics
Well, I just got back anâ I wish I never leave now
(Whereâd you go?)
Who that Martian arrival at the airport, yeah?
(Whereâd you go?)
The Clash - English Civil War Lyrics
When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah, tala
He's coming by bus or underground, hurrah, tala
A woman's eye will shed a tear
To see his face so beaten in fear
The Clash - Tommy Gun Lyrics
Tommy gun
You ain't happy unless you got one
Tommy gun
Ain't gonna shoot the place up just for fun
The Clash - Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad Lyrics
It's Lucy in the sky and all kinds of apple pie
She giggle at the screen 'cos it looks so green
There's carpets on the pavement and feathers in her eye
But sooner or later, her new friends will realize
More The Clash - Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad Lyrics
The Clash - Last Gang in Town Lyrics
Everybody's looking for
Last gang in town
You better watch out for
They're all comin' around
The Clash - Guns on the Roof Lyrics
I swear by Almighty God
To tell the whole truth
And nothing but the truth
The Clash - Stay Free Lyrics
We met when we were at school
Never took no shit from no one, we weren't fools
The teacher says we're dumb, we're only having fun
You know we piss on everyone in the classroom
The Clash - Cheapskates Lyrics
I have been a washer up
An' he has been a scrubber up
An' I seen him a picking up
Dog ends in the rain
The Clash - All the Young Punks Lyrics
I'm hanging about down the market street
I spent a lot of time on my feet
When I saw some passing yabbos
And we did chance to speak
