Talk:Give 'Em Enough Rope

Most obscure and harshly by critics?
Was it really the most obscure Clash album, and was it really treated so harshly by critics? It may have been treated harshly by UK critics, given as it represented a (failed) effort to crack the US market, but I remember it getting rave reviews from US critics. As for it being the most obscure Clash album, I'd say Cut The Crap is easily more obscure.
 * Agreed, Mr. Anonymous. Made appropriate changes.   Starry  Eyes  12:10, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, I myself take issue with the idea on this page that they were moving towards a more "diverse" sound... their self-titled album featured Lee Perry production and had all the eclectic reggae influence that you would find on their later stuff.
 * Yes, but that Lee Perry-produced material was only on the 1979 US edition of The Clash, much of which was recorded after Give 'Em Enough Rope, believe it or not. See that page for details.  Starry  Eyes  12:10, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Who Wrote The Songs
Can someone put who wrote the songs?KChuck27 19:19, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
 * All songs were performed and arranged by The Clash. The booklet atleast says that. 80.202.209.5 21:28, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
 * All songs were written by (J. Strummer - M. Jones), except "Guns on the Roof" that was credited to (J. Strummer - M. Jones - P. Simonon - N. T. Headon). Sandinista! is their first studio album with songs credited to The Clash Pjoef 09:54, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad
I thought the song was called "Julie's in the Drug Squad", not "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad", on my copy of the album, it says "Julie's in the Dug Squad", can someone verify this? --Chickenguy13 (talk) 04:37, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, on my cassette of the album (I only have this one on cassette too), it says "Julie's in the Drug Squad". I'll try to incorprate this into the article. --BLAguyMONKEY! (talk) 03:02, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Clash artwork for Give 'Em Enough Rope
Hugh Brown did the front and back cover art for Give 'Em Enough Rope altering a postcard by Adrian Atwater. Gene Grief, a staff designer at CBS did the package design. (He also removed the hammer and sickle from the vulture, the shadow from under the horse, and the Chinese style type that was used for "The Clash" substituting a block type.) After the producer, Sandy Pearlman complained, the second edition of the album says Cover concept: Hugh Brown.


 * The Art of Punk by Russ Bestley & Alex Ogg, p.94-95, Omnibus Press
 * Los Angeles Times, "Pop Eye" column by Patrick Goldstein, July 22, 1979
 * Soho Weekly News, "Rocks Off" column by Ira Kaplan, July 26, 1979
 * Creem Magazine, column, April, 1979

Sawmeister (talk) 23:32, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Tommy Gun speculation on song meaning
I don't think the article accurately describes the subject of "Tommy Gun": "Tommy Gun deals (with) Middle Eastern terrorism, specifically the hi-jacking of aircraft." There is no reference to support this.

The song refers to "lighting the fuse" in Palestine, and a line about exchanging a jet plane for prisoners. However the song has a broader context and is not just about these two examples. "Middle Eastern terrorism" does not describe the songs reference to (presumably western) "Kings an' Queens an' generals" paying mercenaries to do their dirty work of inciting conflict and killing civilians in far off lands.

On the Wikipedia "Tommy Gun" page there is only a reference to someones personal review of the song.

http://www.allmusic.com/song/tommy-gun-mt0001341160

If anyone has an interview or other source from the songwriters themselves that would be an improvement.

Obviously the lyrics are open to interpretation, but it seems that the bulk of the song is about mercenaries, western foreign policy and politically motivated terrorism - not only the Middle Eastern kind. RussHawk (talk) 00:11, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Give 'Em Enough Rope
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Give 'Em Enough Rope's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Christgau": From Combat Rock:  From From Here to Eternity: Live:  From Get the Knack:  From Sandinista!:  From The Clash (album):  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 11:30, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 16:21, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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