The Clash | Should I Stay Or Should I Go | (CBS) 1982

“Should I Stay Or Should I Go” / “Straight To Hell” (CBS A2646) September 1982

The Clash | Should I Stay Or Should I Go | (CBS) 1982 | THE CLASH: ‘Straight To Hell’ (CBS). As dawn breaks over the battlefield, GI Joe Strummer stumbles weary and punch-drunk through the desolation searching for a future.

Stabbing guitar, an insistent beat and a melody line half-inched from Hendrix’s ‘Waterfall’ underwrite this mellow, haunting chart cert, a poignant percussive beauty whose surreal feel is enhanced by Strummer’s half crazed battle dazed poetry.

At first hearing he sounds rambling, almost incoherent, but there’s real meaning to be uncovered. “The steel mills rust . . . this is your paradise,’ the volatile Molotov sings. ‘There ain’t no need for ya . . . Go straight to hell boy/There ain’t no asylum here/King Solomon, he never lived round here . . . Can you cough it up loud and strong?/The immigrants, they wanna sing all night long.”

In a Britain wrecked by Tory barbarians, industry is destroyed and generations left to rot, but Strummer‘s still fighting for Jerusalem. Still fighting, still thinking, still challenging, still flawed but vital. Like Lennon in his day, Strummer towers above the debris of shattered punk hopes like a Gulliver in Lilliput. (Sounds, 25/09/82)

The Clash | Should I Stay Or Should I Go | (CBS) 1982

OK, I’m bigoted, but The Clash can still churn out hefty slices of rawness and excitement, and ‘Straight To Hell’ deserves to be their biggest hit yet.

It’s atmospheric, original and grating – although not as hot as the album version. The Mick Jones on the other side is probably their worst number yet, so why it’s a double-A side is a mystery. (Record Mirror, 25/09/82)