Stop Making Sense

Recentemente eu redescobri a minha obsessão pelo The Clash, a única banda que importa. Tenho me derramado de amores por eles no twitter, no tumblr, no plurk, no last.fm. Não consigo parar. Eis aqui um breve clipping da investigação sobre uma das músicas da minha vida – Stay Free.

This song was inspired by a classmate of Clash guitarist Mick Jones – a man named Robin Banks (formerly Robin Crocker). In an interview with The Guardian  in 2008, Banks explained: “Mick Jones and I sat together at Strand boys’ grammar school [in south London]. We had a fight over who was better – I thought Chuck Berry and he thought Bo Diddley. It was a hugely disciplinarian school. The headmaster used to have a wooden leg, so he got the nickname Hobbler. We were marched down to Hobbler’s office to explain ourselves and Mick said, ‘We were arguing about rock’n'roll, sir.’ Hobbler raged, ‘Rock’n'roll is not on the curriculum in this establishment!’ and was so furious that all this gob landed on his lapel. Me and Mick fell about laughing and that was it – firm friends and the end of any respect for authority for ever. Mick had the longest hair and tightest trousers in school. I was a hooligan, basically, because I was bored.
After school I was working as a journalist and got laid off. I fell in with a bunch of people and we decided to rob some banks. I ended up in the Old Bailey. It was like being back in Hobbler’s office. I ended up in a maximum security jail on the Isle of Wight. By the time I got out Mick had formed the Clash. One evening he came over with an acoustic and played me ‘Stay Free.’ Somebody once said to me it’s the most outstanding heterosexual male-on-male love song, and there is a lot of truth in that. It’s a memento of a glorious band, a glorious time and a glorious friendship. Unfortunately, I didn’t Stay Free. I did a wages snatch in Stockholm and got banged up again.” (copiado daqui)

As someone pointed out a bit further up, this song and Springsteen’s “Bobby Jean” extremely similar in many ways; I’d be willing to bet Springsteen took direct inspiration from this song, in fact, given his love for the Clash and all. Both songs are really impressive in their ability to convey this sort of poignant reality of growing up…that you may still care, and you may feel like you’re the same person you were, but you’re not, and that might be a good thing.

Springsteen’s ending lyric of “I’m just calling one last time, not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you babe, good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean” is such a near mirror of Jones’ “if you’re in the Crown tonight have a drink on me, but go easy, step lightly, stay free” that it’s pretty clear Bruce modeled his song after this.

Two great songs from two great songwriters. (na discussão sobre a letra da música, no SongMeanings)

Aqui está o Clash tocando Stay Free ao vivo, em Paris, 1980:

E aqui, o Mick Jones cantando Stay Free no filme Rude Boy (1980):