As I watched the recent TV footage of the looting and rioting in London, I started thinking of some of the many songs that use civil disobedience as their subject matter. The first ones that came to mind were by The Clash and I’ve included four below. The band’s 1977 debut included their impressive take on Junior Murvin’s reggae hit from the previous year, Police & Thieves. I’ve also included two covers from that LP that were both released in 1999. Californian band Cracker’s version of White Riot appears on Burning London: The Clash Tribute and Silverchair from Australia offer their take on London’s Burning, which is taken from their Anthem For the Year 2000. From France, Nouvelle Vague’s lounge interpretations of punk and new wave numbers includes Guns of Brixton on their 2004 self-titled debut. Also in 1977, The Clash’s fellow London punks, The Sex Pistols, delivered musical Anarchy in the UK on their Never Mind the Bollocks debut. A year later, Manchester’s Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias came along with their heads down, no nonsense, mindless boogie version on their album, Skite. The final cover version in this selection is taken from London band Chelsea’s Rocks Off album from 1986. It’s Street Fighting Man by The Rolling Stones and it originally appeared on Beggars Banquet in 1968. Echoing Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Jagger sings that “summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy” before highlighting the apathy that existed in London at the time. I wonder what he thinks now
