Saturday, January 19, 2008

Culture Clash

It was with some incredulity and a modicum of delight that I found myself reading that Rudi Giuliani's theme song (it seems American politicos have such things) for his campaign for the Republican nomination for the presidency had been (he's now changed it) Rudi Can't Fail by The Clash. The incongruity made life seem suddenly brighter. The number in question, for those who don't know, is great mid-period Clash, a product of their prolonged (flirtation I was going to say but really it was a genuine full-throttle) love affair with reggae/ska. Joyfully funky, streetwise and funny. Pretty much everything the noble Republican Party isn't.

And an odd synchronicity for you: prior to reading the article containing the information above, on the way back from a morning spent at work, I switched on the car's CD player to bounce around to the strains of I Fought The Law from the live compilation From Here To Eternity - The Clash in their full radiant, ragged, majesty. That certainly cleared the cobwebs and reconfigured more than a few brain cells. Spooky, eh?

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