Shuffle of the Day : Gates of the West - The Clash

Originally off the Cost of Living E.P. but more commonly found on the odds and ends collection Super Black Market Clash. Gates of the West is a fitting first song for shuffle of the day as it is a love song to the city of St. Louis. Co-Writer Mick Jones was dating actress/singer and St. Louis native Ellen Foley and his adventures with her in the city along with the Clash's first coast to coast U.S . Tour are said to have inspired the song.

Recorded in early 1979 Gates of the West is an important artifact in The Clash cannon as it shows a transition from the Luddite punk of Give Em Enough Rope to the cultural explosion of London Calling that would detonate at the end of the Year.


Below is A Fan Made Video For The Song




(Strummer/Jones)

I would love to be the lucky one on chillavenue
Who could keep your heart warm when ice has turned it blue
But with the beggin' sleeping losers as they turn in for the night
I'm looking back for home and I can see the lights

I should be jumpin' shoutin' that I made it all this way
From Camden town station to 44th and 8th
Not many make it this far and many say we're great
But just like them we walk on an' we can't escape our fate

Can't you hear the sighing
Eastside Jimmy and Southside Sue
Both say they needed something new

So I'm standing at the gates of the west
I burn money at the lights of the sign
The city casts a shadow of the perfect crime
I'm standing at the gates of the east
I take my pulse and the pulse of my friend
The city casts a shadow, will I see you again?

The immigrants an' remnants of all the glory years
Are clustered around the bar again for another round of beers
Little Richard's in the kitchen playing spoons and plates
He's telling the waitress he's great

Ah say i know somewhere back'n'forth in time
Out on the dustbowls, deep in the roulette mine
Or in a ghetto cellar only yesterday
There's a move into the future for the USA.

I hear them crying
Eastside Jimmy and Southside Sue
Both said they needed something new

Standing at the gates of the west
In the shadow again
I'm standing at the gates of the west
In the shadow again