Si bien The Clash es considerada una banda de punk rock, supo incursionar en otros géneros como el reggae y … ¡el hip hop!.
El track «The Magnificent Seven» está inspirado en pioneros del hip hop como The Sugarhill Gang y Grandmastar Flash. La canción fue grabada en abril de 1980 en los Electric Lady Studios de Nueva York, y es el primer intento de una banda de rock de registrar un tema de hip hop, incluyendo además un fuerte contenido político y social (como gran parte del hip hop de la primera época, y como la mayoría de los temas de The Clash).
«Cuando llegamos a Estados Unidos, Mick (Jones) se detuvo en una disquería de Brookly que tenía música de Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, the Sugar Hill Gang… esos grupos cambiaron radicalmente la música y cambiaron todo para nosotros», reconoció tiempo después Joe Strummer.
«The Magnificent Seven» aparece en el cuarto álbum de The Clash, «Sandinista!» (1980), mencionado por Charly García en «No bombardeen Buenos Aires» y parte de la excelente trilogía que completan los discos «London Calling» y «Combat Rock».
«The Magnificent Seven»
Don’t you ever stop
Long enough to start
Take your car out of that gear
Don’t you ever stop
Long enough to start
Get your car out of that gear
Ring! Ring! It’s 7:00 A.M.!
Move y’self to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and you bankers, too
Must get up an’ learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too
Churning out that boogaloo
Gets you up and gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?
Gimme Honda, Gimme Sony
So cheap and real phony
Hong Kong dollars and Indian cents
English pounds and Eskimo pence
You lot! What?
Don’t stop! Give it all you got!
You lot! What?
Don’t stop! Yeah!
Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
She’s seen the ads, she thinks it’s nice
Better work hard – I seen the price
Never mind that it’s time for the bus
We got to work – an’ you’re one of us
Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk
«When can I tell ‘em wot I do?
In a second, maaan…oright Chuck!»
Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss
It’s our profit, it’s his loss
But anyway lunch bells ring
Take one hour and do your thanng!
Cheeesboiger!
What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin’ Gypsies on the pavement
Now the news – snap to attention!
The lunar landing of the dentist convention
Italian mobster shoots a lobster
Seafood restaurant gets out of hand
A car in the fridge
Or a fridge in the car?
Like cowboys do – in T.V. land
You lot! What? Don’t stop. Huh?
So get back to work an’ sweat some more
The sun will sink an’ we’ll get out the door
It’s no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages
You’re frettin’, you’re sweatin’
But did you notice you ain’t gettin’?
Don’t you ever stop long enough to start?
To take your car outta that gear
Don’t you ever stop long enough to start?
To get your car outta that gear
Karlo Marx and Fredrich Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint – but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence
What have we got? Yeh-o, magnificence!!
Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
Went to the park to check on the game
But they was murdered by the other team
Who went on to win 50-nil
You can be true, you can be false
You be given the same reward
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way – through the kitchen
Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin
Who’s more famous to the billion millions?
News Flash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie
Oooohh…bub-bye.