The Guns of Brixton

Unlike most Clash songs, which were written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, "The Guns Of Brixton" was written by bass player Paul Simonon, who decided to get in on the songwriting himself. It became one of the band's best-known songs and a staple of their live set until their demise in the mid-'80s. Simonon takes lead vocal duties on the song, which is about gangsters in his hometown of Brixton in South London. Interestingly, he was reticent about singing lead vocals initially, but Strummer noted that "they're your lyrics, you sing them" and the rest of the band agreed. Simonon notes: "The vocal mike was right up against the glass panel of the control room and sitting two feet behind the glass was some American CBS bloke. That's probably why the vocals came out the way they did."

Brixton was the site of race riots in 1981 and again in 1985. This song captures the alienation many citizens of Brixton felt leading up to the riots. The central plot has Ivan, the anti-hero character from the popular film The Harder They Come (the soundtrack of which contained many of The Clash's favorite reggae songs, including the title track) in urban South London ("You see, he feels like Ivan, born under the Brixton sun, his game is called survivin', at the end of the harder they come") and on the wrong side of the law ("When the law break in, how you gonna go? Shot down on the pavement, or waiting on death row").

In 1990 the bassline to "The Guns of Brixton" was sampled in the Beats International (AKA Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim) hit single "Dub Be Good To Me," and became a UK hit single, meaning Simonon received a credit of the royalties for his bassline. Interviewed by Scott Rowley on October 1999 for Bassist magazine, Simonon said that he "was surprised that it became number one, that was quite shocking. And the fact that it was my performance that they had lifted. The smart thing would've been to copy it and change it slightly, but they just lifted it straight off. So, really, I have done Top of the Pops! I met up with Norman [Cook] and we came to an arrangement which was much needed at the time. But I thought it was a really good idea and it was quite reassuring for that to happen to my first song."