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(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais

"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais"
HammersmithPalaisSingle.png
Single by The Clash
from the album The Clash (US ver.)
B-side "The Prisoner"
Released 16 June 1978 (1978-06-16)
Format 7-inch vinyl
Recorded March–April 1978, Basing Street Studios, London
Length 3:59
Label CBS S CBS 6383
Songwriter(s) Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
Producer(s) Sandy Pearlman and The Clash
The Clash singles chronology
"Clash City Rockers"
(1978)
"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais"
(1978)
"Tommy Gun"
(1978)
"Clash City Rockers"
(1978)
"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais"
(1978)
"Tommy Gun"
(1978)

"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash. It was originally released as a 7-inch single, with the b-side "The Prisoner", on 16 June 1978 through CBS Records.

Produced by The Clash and engineered by Simon Humphries, the song was recorded for (but not included on) the group's second studio album, Give 'Em Enough Rope and was later featured on the American version of the band's debut studio album The Clash between the single version of "White Riot" and "London's Burning".

The song showed considerable musical and lyrical maturity for the band at the time and is stylistically more in line with their version of Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" as the powerful guitar intro of "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" descends into a slower ska rhythm, and was disorienting to a lot of the fans who had grown used to their earlier work. "We were a big fat riff group," Joe Strummer noted in The Clash's film Westway to the World. "We weren't supposed to do something like that."

"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" starts by recounting an all-night reggae "showcase" night at the Hammersmith Palais in Shepherd's Bush Road, London, that was attended by Joe Strummer, Don Letts and roadie Rodent and was headlined by Dillinger, Leroy Smart and Delroy Wilson. Strummer was disappointed and disillusioned that these performances had been more "pop" and "lightweight" similar to Ken Boothe's brand of reggae with Four Tops-like dance routines, and that the acts had been "performances" rather than the "roots rock rebel[lion]" that he had been hoping for.


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