"Tommy Gun", by the Clash, for concert ukulele with singing; overdubs of Ashbory Ubass, secondary vocal, and whistling.
The only time I ever saw the Clash was on March 6, 1980 at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. We got tickets half an hour before the doors opened and I was literally front and center for the whole show.
The Philadelphia audience did not like Lee Dorsey’s act, singing over prerecorded music, and there was booing as only a Philly audience can boo (I was innocent of such boorish behavior myself). I vaguely recall that one of the members of the Clash came out and tried to tout Mr. Dorsey’s virtues, but he was doomed. Early girl punk band the B Girls fared a bit better. Being right on top of the stage I could read the paper the lead singer put on the floor; I remember the lead singer smirking down at me as I yelled the names of their songs out as though I knew them and was requesting them.
The Clash were super, my gosh so good (!) playing some old stuff and also stuff from the London Calling LP, released a few months before. Amazingly I was able to stay there, center of the stage, four feet from Joe Strummer, the whole show. I remember that Joe Strummer had really bad teeth. I also grabbed one of his picks that fell on the stage and bounced near me. It was light gauge grey nylon and said “Wales” on it. I carried it in my wallet for years and somehow lost it.
Anyway, it turns out a bootleg record was made of this show, which is known as “Capital Crisis”. The final song on the record, which I guess means it was an encore, is is “Tommy Gun”, so that’s how I chose my song for the Season. I didn’t know about the bootleg record until this Season got me to doing a little research, and now I’ve decided to try to find it. No luck so far.
Thanks for hosting, Threebird!
