 Genius Meanings
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The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go
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“Should I Stay or Should I Go” is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash, from their album Combat Rock. It was written in 1981 and featured Mick Jones on lead vocals.
It
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The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go (Live)
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[Intro] / Oh! Hola! / [Verse 1] / Darling, you got to let me know / Should I stay or should I go? / If you say that you are mine / I'll be here 'till the end of time / So you got
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The Clash – Death Is a Star
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And I was gripped by that deadly phantom / I followed him through hard jungles / As he stalked through the back lots / Strangling through the night shades / The thief of life
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The Clash – Something About England
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Historical and musical context:
“Something About England” is one of many crazy musical variations on the Sandinista! album, with The Clash experimenting with Music Hall, one of
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The Clash – Rock the Casbah
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“Rock The Casbah” was the second single from Combat Rock and the band’s most successful in the US, reaching #8 in January 1983. It also performed well in the UK, peaking at #30.
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The Clash – Safe European Home
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The meaning behind this song is made clear by a story The Clash have told about a writing trip to Jamaica gone wrong. Singer Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones were sent to
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The Clash – Straight to Hell
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“Straight to Hell” is a song about immigration, from a British and American perspective.
The first verse deals with the UK, which saw immigration from its former colonies in the
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The Clash – Stay Free
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Clash guitarist Mick Jones wrote “Stay Free” for Robin Crocker, a boyhood chum who fell in with the wrong crowd and wound up serving time for robbery. In a 2008 interview with The
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The Cure – Lovesong
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Frontman Robert Smith wrote “Lovesong” as a wedding present for his bride-to-be Mary Poole in 1988.
“Lovesong” was the second UK and third US single from Disintegration, The
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The Clash – Train in Vain
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Originally recorded as a promo single for NME, “Train in Vain” was added last minute to London Calling after the album artwork was finalised. As a result, it was not included in
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The Clash – Death or Glory
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This song is about Clash frontman, the late Joe Strummer, looking back at his life, acknowledging the complications and responsibilities of adulthood. He notes on the error of
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The Clash – London Calling
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The title “London Calling” alludes to the BBC World Service’s station identification: “This is London calling …”, which was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to
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The Clash – Red Angel Dragnet
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[Verse 1: Kosmo Vinyl] / I come from a long way away / And I know a fine thing when I see it / See it / For the same reason no one ever / Pointed a telescope at the sun / Talking
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The Cure – Boys Don't Cry
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“Boys Don’t Cry” was released on 15 June 1979 as a standalone single and not originally included on The Cure’s homeland UK debut album Three Imaginary Boys, but was included on its
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The Clash – Know Your Rights
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“Know Your Rights” was released as a single prior to the release of the album, Combat Rock, on which it appears. The song was the first single from the album.
The song begins
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Led Zeppelin – When the Levee Breaks
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This track is a rework of the 1929 song “When the Levee Breaks,” a blues tune by the couple Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie. It was written about the Great Mississippi Flood of
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The Clash – Inoculated City
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Continuing the sing-song playfulness of songs like “Career Opportunities”, this song also approaches the idea of living in the modern state as bureaucratic, sedate, privileged
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The Clash (Ft. Allen Ginsberg) – Ghetto Defendant
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Beat poet Allen Ginsberg sings lyrics he wrote on this song as “the voice of God”. His lines are in brackets here.
The lyrics included in the Combat Rock booklet are for the Rat
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The Clash – The Magnificent Seven
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From The Clash’s Sandinista! album, this rap follows the day of a minimum wage supermarket employee. Chronicling a day under the capitalist grind, it’s musically influenced by the
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The Clash – Career Opportunities
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[Verse 1] / They offered me the office, offered me the shop / They said I'd better take anything they'd got / Do you wanna make tea at the BBC? / Do you wanna be, do you really
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The Clash – Midnight Log
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Working for the devil, you'll have to pay his tax / That means going to see him down among the racks / You don't believe in him, but he can wait for you / You do his work so fine
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Ben E. King – Stand By Me
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Released in 1961, this song was inspired by the spiritual hymn “Lord Stand By Me”. It has since been recorded into more than 400 other versions.
It was ranked the 122nd out of
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The Clash – Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)
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This song is about the bleak living conditions in public housing in England. Lead vocals are sung by Mick Jones, who grew up in the working class areas of South London (although
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The Clash – The Guns of Brixton
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Classic song from UK punk band The Clash’s most successful and influential album, 1979’s London Calling. Written as a protest about the economic situation for UK youth at the time
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U2 – Bad
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“Bad” is a song about addiction. Though not stated explicitly in the song, Bono has made clear many times in interviews and at concerts that it was written about heroin addiction
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Billy Idol – Eyes Without a Face
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The second single from the Rebel Yell album, this song was Idol’s first Top Ten hit in the US, reaching number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Among the first three songs written for
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Bruce Springsteen – Atlantic City
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Atlantic City is perhaps one of Springsteen’s most dour songs. It depicts a young couple’s romantic escape to the New Jersey seaside resort of Atlantic City, where the man in the
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Eminem – Rap God
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“Rap God” is Eminem’s braggadocious ode to himself and his career. Over its six-minute run-time, he references comic books, throws back to his old songs, and raps crazily fast.
In
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The Last Shadow Puppets – Aviation
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On March 16th, The Last Shadow Puppets released “Aviation” along with a video created by Saam Farahmand with Black Sheep Studios.
“Aviation,” was originally meant to be a solo
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The Clash – Sean Flynn
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This song is about Actor turned Photojournalist Sean Flynn who was captured by communist guerillas in Cambodia along with Dana Stone while both were on journalism assignments for
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N.W.A – Fuck tha Police
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“Fuck tha Police” takes the form of a trial against the LAPD, with Dr. Dre, MC Ren, and Ice Cube as judge, court officer, and witness.
Dr. Dre explained the song was created after
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Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
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“Kashmir,” one of Led Zeppelin’s signature songs, was written after LZ’s 1973 tour, about a drive through an area of Morocco. As documented by Wikipedia, Robert Plant told music
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The Clash – Spanish Bombs
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This song deals with the Spanish Civil War, which devastated Spain from 1936 – 1939 and resulted in a dictatorship led by the Nationalist General Francisco Franco.
The song was
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