Remote Control (The Clash song)

"Remote Control" is a song by The Clash, featured on their debut album, and is written against oppression and conformity.

"Remote Control"
Single by The Clash
from the album The Clash
B-side"London's Burning" (live)
Released13 May 1977(U.K.)
Recorded1977
GenrePunk rock
Length3:00
LabelCBS S CBS 5293
Songwriter(s)Joe Strummer, Mick Jones
Producer(s)Mickey Foote, The Clash and Bill Price
The Clash singles chronology
"White Riot"
(1977)		 "Remote Control"
(1977)		 "Complete Control"
(1977)

Background

The song was written by Mick Jones after the disastrous Anarchy Tour[1] and contains pointed observations about the civic hall bureaucrats who had cancelled concerts, the police, big business and especially record companies. The song mentions a 'meeting in Mayfair' which is thought to refer to the EMI shareholders' meeting held on 7 December 1976, which effectively withdrew all support for the Anarchy Tour.[2] Also alluded to in the song are the 'old-boy' peerage networks and hapless politicians.

Writing for the A.V. Club, Jason Heller said that the song "imagines a deliberately, dramatically exaggerated England circa 1977, one where urban claustrophobia, totalitarian authority, and a robotic kind of daily routine".[3]

Single release

The band virtually disowned the song, following their record label CBS's decision to release the song as a single without consulting the band. The band had already told Melody Maker magazine that their next single would be "Janie Jones", and were irate that CBS had undermined them and made a decision to release "Remote Control" instead without the band's permission. To the band, the song became a symbol of everything they were fighting against.[4] The incident was referred to in the first lines of a later song, "Complete Control", which is on the 1979 US release of the album:

They said, 'Release "Remote Control", but we didn't want it on the label...[5]

The B-side is a mono live version of "London's Burning".[6]

The band re-recorded the song in early summer 1979 during rehearsals for London Calling, at Vanilla Studios in Vauxhall. This version was eventually released in 2004, on the second disc of the London Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition, known as The Vanilla Tapes. In the liner notes, Mick Jones is quoted as saying:

I think Joe [Strummer] disliked it on a symbolic level, because of what happened with the release. But we always liked the tune.[7]

Personnel

References
  1. Wawzenek, Bryan (7 April 2017). "40 Years Ago: The Clash Unleash a Punk Classic With Their Self-Titled Debut". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  2. Pithers, Malcolm (8 December 1976). "EMI may drop the Sex Pistols". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  3. Heller, Jason (27 January 2016). "David Bowie gave the punk movement both fuel and fire". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  4. Lucas, John (4 January 2019). "Five Songs About: the music industry". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  5. "Readers' Poll: The Best Clash Songs". Rolling Stone. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  6. The Clash - Remote Control (single sleeve). CBS Records International. 1977. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  7. London Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition (album sleeve). Epic Records. 2004. Retrieved 6 May 2019.


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