Or, in words your parents will understand: Lily Allen did a cover of the Clash’s “Straight To Hell” with the original’s co-writer Mick Jones, no less. Originally released in 1982 as the third single from Combat Rock, “Straight To Hell” returned to the spotlight last year after its familiar opening riff was sampled on M.I.A.’s ubiquitous “Paper Planes” (which was itself sampled by … everyone). Lily’s take on the original comes from Warchild’s Heroes comp, which also has the Hold Steady taking on Springsteen, Beck doing Dylan, Scissor Sisters as Roxy Music, etc. This version premiered when Lily took over Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show yesterday (she also played TLC, MGMT, SL2, and some bands with vowels in their names).
Heroes is out in the UK via Parlophone and the rest of the world via EMI on 2/16. You can get more info at warchild.org.uk.
As for Ms. Allen, her It’s Not Me It’s You is out next month on Capitol. You can hear a couple of new remixes of “The Fear” here.
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Not going to lie..it’s pretty cool. It’s just a little too peppy for the lyrical content.
Not too shabby Ms. Allen.
Is it me or can you still hear Joe’s voice in the background?
i tried clicking on the “heroes” link and got 404′d. ouch.
She was about to show that third nipple of hers.
Painful to hear. The original is so fantastic, and this is so… “Target commercial”.
I had my doubts, but it really is good. The Clash made the right choice.
Is it just me, or did lily allen get a lot hotter since her last album?
It is literally a digrace that you referred to “Straight To Hell” as the song that “Paper Planes” sampled. Seriously.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
Ahh,I don’t think he’s serious with that,sunshine.
Marry me already,Lily Rose Beatrice Allen.
is your avatar that psycho chick from youtube? what’s her name? laggy, haggy, raggy, loxxy, boxxy?
“Is it me or can you still hear Joe’s voice in the background?”
No what you can hear is Mick harmonizing with Lily.
On first hearing I thought it was shit but I tried listening to it again. It grows on you I have played it about five times now and it’s quite good. Not great but quite good.
I wanted to hate… but I cannot bring myself to do so.
shocked at how much i enjoyed that. my favourite clash song covered by lily allen sounds like a recipe for disaster but she pulls it off.
Raise your standards, people. One of the most politically charged tunes of all time reduced to mall rock by a girl who has no idea what she’s singing about.
Strummer would never let this shit go down if he were still alive.
joe strummer was her godfather, so i’m pretty sure he would.
i think Joe would since Lily Allen is Joe’s goddaughter
actually Joe Strummer was her actual godfather, you silly, so I’m pretty sure he’d let it happen.
Don’t worry about our “standards” — how about YOU raise your awareness. Just because a woman is pretty and popular doesn’t mean she’s stupid or vapid.
I admire where your heart is at, but I have much to teach you about the internet.
Ever met or seen The Clash live – read on…?
Are you a Clash fan? Did you ever meet the band? Did you ever play in a band who supported The Clash? Have you got an interesting story to tell? I am a researcher working with best-selling author John Niven (Kill Your Friends) and we’d like to hear from you for a forthcoming book to be published by Random House…
‘A Good Place Under the Lighting: an Oral History of The Clash’
No band made more of an effort to meet their public than The Clash. As band biographer Pat Gilbert noted, out of the hundreds of thousands of people who saw them live, it sometimes seemed like The Clash met every single one. Shortly before his death Joe Strummer said, ?We changed lives. Made people go to university. Stopped them from jumping off bridges. People come up and tell me every day.?
This book will try, in some small way, to gauge the depth of this statement. We’re looking to speak to who saw and met the group at every stage of their career – from the pub dates of ‘76 to the stadiums and arenas of ‘82. If you have an interesting story about an encounter with the band – it can be small or big, funny or serious – please drop me a line at the email address here…
We’re especially interested in anyone who might have a photograph of themselves with the band.
John Niven is the best selling author of Kill Your Friends, which has been described as ‘the best novel ever written about the music industry’ (The Times) and ‘the most exciting British novel since Trainspotting’. (Word). ‘A Good Place…’ is his first non-fiction book.
email us at music@6sensemedia.com