The Ice Age Is Coming

The Clash : London Calling

[Purchase]

On December 9, 1979 the new single by The Clash, "London Calling" b/w "Armagideon Time" entered the U.K. charts at #42. It would peak at U.K.#11 in January of 1980. 

"I read about ten news reports in one day calling down all variety of plagues on us," Joe Strummer told Melody Maker in 1988. ""There was a lot of Cold War nonsense going on, and we knew that London was susceptible to flooding. "

The title refers to the BBC's radio dispatches to allies during World War 2  "This is London calling..."

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
London calling, now don't look to us
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust

(Phony Beatlemania may be in reference to the end of the Punk rock era, precipitated by fake punk bands playing for London tourists)

London calling, see we ain't got no swing
Except for the ring of that truncheon thing

(Apparently a reference to police weapons used during riots)

The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growin' thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I, I live by the river

(Mick Jones says an article in the London Evening Standard warned that the North Sea might rise and push up the Thames, flooding the city. "We flipped. To us, the headline was just another example of how everything was coming undone.")

Of course it isn't an Ice Age that is coming but a warming up of the planet that could someday drown London and other cities.

London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out and draw another breath
London calling and I don't want to shout
But when we were talking I saw you nodding out
London calling, see we ain't got no high
Except for that one with the yellowy eye

(Thought these lines could be about zombiefied drug addicts, the "yellowy eyes" line could also be a reference to Strummer's own brush with hepatitus.

A nuclear era, but I have no fear

( A reference to Three Mile Island earlier in 1979 and also brought up in "Clampdown"--Yeah, I'm working hard in Harrisburg ...Beggin' to be melted down.)

'Cause London is drowning, and I,
I live by the river

The song ends with Mick Jones playing an S-O-S morse code signal on his guitar.

The single ranked #3 in the NME poll for 1979, despite Smash Hits critic David Hepworth's complaint that the band played too loudly in the studio: "Why won't Joe Strummer let us hear more than one word in every three? Until they face those elementary facts, sides like 'London Calling' will always fail to condense all that fury and grandeur into a truly great record."