Chris Charlesworth = 25 Albums that Rocked the World by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780857120441
Published: 2009-12-27T21:00:00+00:00

Janie Jones

The opening song on The Clash features almost all the album’s familiar ingredients: staccato guitars, lo-fi drums and bass, a chorus half-sung and half-shouted in three-person unison, and largely indiscernible lyrics. (On closer examination, the words glorify “rock’n’roll” and “getting stoned” from the perspective of a frustrated office employee, whose sexual relief is to be found with the title character.) Mick Jones’ phonetic harmony towards the end of the two-minute anthem is the first appearance of a particularly popular and enduring Clash trademark.

Jones had originally written ‘Janie Jones’ in the first person, on the number 31 bus from his Westbourne Grove home to the band’s Camden Town rehearsals, but Strummer balked at singing “I’m in love” with anyone. The perspective was switched to the third person — “He’s in love with Janie Jones” — and the song’s prominent placement as opening track suggests that the group recognised its atypical approach.

The real-life Janie Jones was a madam who had been British front-page newspaper fodder back in 1973. But by the time of the song’s release, The Clash were attracting such a young audience that many didn’t understand the reference. In that sense, too, ‘Janie Jones’ is something of an anomaly on an album that is otherwise very much rooted in the social maelstrom of urban Britain, 1976-77.

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