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White Riot

"White Riot"
WhiteRiot.jpg
Single by The Clash
from the album The Clash
B-side "1977"
Released 18 March 1977
Format 7" vinyl
Recorded February 1977
Genre Punk rock
Length 1:58
Label CBS CBS 5058
Writer(s) Joe Strummer/Mick Jones
Producer(s) Micky Foote
The Clash singles chronology
"White Riot"
(1977)
"Remote Control"
(1977)

"White Riot" is a song by English punk rock band The Clash, released as the band's first single in 1977 and also featured on their debut album. There are two versions: the single version (also appearing on the US version of the album released in 1979), and a different version on the UK album. According to their respective label copy the single version is 1:58 in running time while the UK album version is 1:55.

The song is short and intense, in the typical punk style of three chords played very fast. Mick Jones counts off "1-2-3-4" at the start of the album version while the single version begins with the sound of a police siren instead.

Lyrically, the song is about class economics and race and thus proved controversial: some people thought it was advocating a kind of race war. Rather, lyricist Joe Strummer was trying to appeal to white youths to find a worthy cause to riot, as he felt black people in the UK already had. It contains a positive message in the lines "Are you taking over / Or are you taking orders? / Are you going backwards / Or are you going forwards?"

The song was written after Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon were involved in the riots at the Notting Hill Carnival of 1976.

The only person who played ‘White Riot’ on the radio was John Peel — and he's gone on holiday. You play our record against any of the other stuff and it just knocks spots off them left, right and centre. They must be cunts for not playing it.

"White Riot" is considered a classic in The Clash canon, although as the band matured, Mick Jones would at times refuse to play it, considering it crude and musically inept. Over two decades later, Joe Strummer would perform it with his band the Mescaleros. The B-side of the single was "1977", a non-album track. This song was along similar lines to "White Riot", suggesting that the music of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones was no longer relevant.


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