Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Complete Control” by The Clash:

“Complete Control” was recorded by Lee Perry, a fact you could easily overlook when listening to it, since compared to plenty other songs by The Clash, it doesn’t really bear much resemblance to reggae. It’s a swaggering and melodic anthem with a rock ‘n’ roll guitar solo, but gives way to a stop-start verse in which the echoing reverb might call your attention to the man behind the recording desk before it builds into a defiant yet very melodic–underpinned by those guitar triplets–finish. In the excellent book England’s Dreaming Jon Savage writes that “‘Complete Control’ becomes a hymn to Punk autonomy at its moment of eclipse.” Savage bases this assessment on a deliberate mishearing of the lyrics (read the book), but he’s right even if you hear the lyrics properly.  On the other hand, he’s only right about Punk as a particular moment in British (or English [or London]) history, which to be fair, is the subject of his study. If you view punk, like I do, as a development, a force, and/or an attitude, then “Complete Control” serves as  window into something that might just change your life.