Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1978


Tommy Gun (song)

Buy Tommy Gun (song) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




{{Infobox song

| name = Tommy Gun

| cover = The Clash - Tommy Gun.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = The Clash

| album = Give 'Em Enough Rope

| B-side = 12 Crush on You

| released = 24 November 1978

| recorded = 1978

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Punk rock

| length = 3:13

| label = CBS S CBS 6788

| writer = Joe Strummer and Mick Jones

| producer = Sandy Pearlman

| prev_title = (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais

| prev_year = 1978

| next_title = English Civil War

| next_year = 1979

| misc =

}}

"'Tommy Gun'" is a song by the British punk rock band The Clash, released as the first single from their second album 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' (1978).

Background



Joe Strummer said that he got the idea for the song when he was thinking about terrorists, and how they probably enjoy reading about their killings as much as movie stars like seeing their films reviewed. While Topper Headon mimics the sound of gangster movie shootings with quick snare hits and the guitars are full of distortion and feedback, Strummer's sarcastic lyrics ('I'm cutting out your picture from page one/I'm gonna get a jacket just like yours/And give my false support to your cause/Whatever you want, you're gonna get it!') condemn rather than condone violence: at the end of the song he sings, 'If death comes so cheap/Then the same goes for life!'

In the liner notes of the 'Singles Box', Carl Barat (former frontman of Dirty Pretty Things and The Libertines), says that "Tommy Gun" was important for music at the time because it let people know what was going on in the worldit talked about real issues. He says,

Personnel



"Tommy Gun"

* Joe Strummer lead vocals, rhythm guitar

* Mick Jones lead guitar, backing vocals

* Paul Simonon bass guitar

* Topper Headon drums

"12 Crush on You"

* Mick Jones lead guitar, lead and backing vocals

* Joe Strummer rhythm guitar, backing and lead (outro) vocals, piano

* Paul Simonon bass guitar, backing vocals

* Topper Headon drums

* Gary Barnacle saxophone

Charts



Notes



*

*

*

*

*

*

References



Category:1978 singles

Category:The Clash songs

Category:Songs written by Mick Jones (The Clash)

Category:Songs written by Joe Strummer

Category:Song recordings produced by Sandy Pearlman

Category:1978 songs


Buy Tommy Gun (song) now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1978



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1038646125.