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Straight to Hell Lyrics

If you can play on the fiddle
How's about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King's English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise

There ain't no need for you
Go straight to hell, boys

You want to join in a chorus
Of the Amerasian blues?
When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say papa, papa, papa, papa-san take me home
See me got photo, photo
Photograph of you
Mamma, Mamma, Mamma-san
Of you and Mamma, Mamma, Mamma-san
Let me tell you about your blood bamboo, kid
It ain't Coca-Cola, it's rice

Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san
Please take me home
Oh Papa-san
Everybody they want to go home
So Mamma-san says

You want to play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International
Hah! Junkiedom, U.S.A.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
And rat poison
The volatile Molatov says

Pssst . . .
Hey chico, we got a message for you
Vamos, vamos muchacho
From Alphabet City all the way, A to Z, dead, head

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong?
The immigrants
They want to sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon, he never lived around here

Go straight to hell, boys
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41 Meanings

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Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

Folks who are focusing on the Amerasian verses are only getting part of the song. As a whole, it's about the underdog getting fucked by society.

Verse 1 is about the collapse of British industry, the callousness of the Thatcherite response, and the hopelessness of those coming of age at that time due to their lack of prospects.

Verse 2 is about the plight of mixed race offspring of US servicemen, post-Vietnam War. Outcasts in their mother's homeland, they're also abandoned by their father's.

Verse 3 is about falling into addiction - perhaps due to the horrors of Verses 1 and 2 -, and how once there, predatory pushers make life even harder, even deadlier, with violence and poisoned product.

Alphabet City is then used as a stand-in for all the violent, impoverished inner cities of America, and elsewhere, that were particularly nasty at the time this song was written.

The final verse talks of the hardships endured by immigrants struggling to make it, working soul-crushing hours, at back breaking jobs, without even a minimum of protection from exploitation.

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

Wrong-o boyo... It's about Amerasian kids orphaned by the war, or rejected by their culture, because mom banged a GI. Empty promises of GIs to take women home, and leaving a legacy of neglect.

This song is even great as sampled in the MIA song called "Paper Planes".

Not Valid

@arfarf "mom banged a GI" - no, it was more like, "mom was raped by a GI"

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

Hey all I just "discovered" this song fairly recently on Sirius, great haunting song. Came here trying to decipher meaning, found a misplaced comma that skews the meaning of the line: Let me tell you about your blood bamboo, kid

Should be Let me tell you about your blood, bamboo kid It (blood) aint Coca Cola, its Rice

Ok so its a small thing but changes the meaning significantly.

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

M.I.A. is sampling this in "Paper Planes".

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

I know I'm probably gonna get chewed out for even uttering this, but...

Lily Allen's cover is quite good.

(hides from flying objects and gun-fire)

Honestly Junkie, I absolutely hate Lily Allen, but I really enjoyed her cover. It doesn't have the emotion of the original when I listen to it, but I think it's her best song.

The original though is one of my favorite songs ever.

Not Valid

I didn't see this second page of comments...I really love her cover, the harmonies are really great and I like how her accent makes the song sound, especially on the "papa papa papa-san" parts

Not Valid
Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

My parents are saved in my phone as mama-san and papa-san cause of this song.

@pittsburghgirl92 tsk tsk (if you’re not Asian, that is. I kid...)

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

this song sends chills down my spine, especially the live version. not really sure what it tells but i guess all your suggestions seems to be on the right track.
Lastly,the following line: "Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home " makes me utterly sad.

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

Combat Rock is an angry, brilliant album. The very beginning of this song hints at British Imperialism, specifically how Britain was still regarded as some great power while it’s ‘steel mills’ were rusting under Thatcher. I agree that this song is mainly about kids fathered by GIs during the Vietnam war wanting to go ‘home’ to the states. The US is the hell that the song talks about, not a kingdom nor a republic, but a ‘junkiedom’. It’s also about the difficulty finding asylum in the US. Alphabet City is in New York, it was a pretty rough area in the 80s, there was a lot of drug dealing. The refernce to the volatile Molotov seems to suggest some of the racial tensions in NY back then. The song makes a lot more sense when you listen to the rest of the songs on the album, a lot of stuff about cultural imperialism, war and drugs.

@J_R You're right overall, but the U.S. is NOT the hell referenced in the song, not by a long shot. Strummer meant the biblical hell, but used in the common phrase of telling someone to go to hell. That's basically how the victims in the songs are thought of, as just some sad lot.

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

after reading a lot about this song I think I finally get it. Okay, so it is simply about Amerasian kids fathered by US soldiers during the Vietnam war. The verses showcase the despair that these children go through, not being accepted by either side, american or vietnamese. The "There ain't no need for ya/Go straight to hell boys" part is to the soldiers who fathered the kids then neglected them, telling them that there is no need for them doing things like that , and that they should go "straight to hell" for their actions.

@Icheadle1990

Yes you recognize the despair of the Amerasian kids feel when rejected by both sides of their families. Gentle writer, your interpretation lets them off with going to hell just for their actions. Three million children born out-of-wedlock between 1950-1970, in the USA were placed secretly in (closed) adoptions. DNA testing and social media has enabled many to find their first parents. Unfortunately rejection happens here too. One adoptee that contacted her father was literally told "we have no need of you". In the song ,"Go straight to hell" applies to a child who exists that isn't...

Cover art for Straight to Hell lyrics by Clash, The

i agree it's stealing not sampling. i had straight to hell and paper planes on a mix which made me first realize the similarities and they aren't EXACTLY the same, which is what a sample would be. mia tweaks the beat a la vanilla ice and "under pressure"