"The Guns of Brixton" was the Clash's first song to be composed and sung by Paul Simonon. By the time of London Calling, Simonon had learned to play guitar and started contributing more to the songwriting. The band, separated from manager Bernard Rhodes, had to leave their rehearsal studio in Camden Town and find another location. They began work on London Calling during the summer of 1979 at the Vanilla Studios in Pimlico. The band quickly wrote and recorded demos, and in August 1979 entered Wessex Studios to begin recording the album. Produced by Guy Stevens, who at the time had alcohol and drug problems and whose production methods were unconventional, it was recorded within a matter of weeks, with many songs, including "The Guns of Brixton", recorded in one or two takes. It was also revealed that while recording the lead vocals for the song, Simonon sang while staring directly at a CBS executive who had visited the studio during the sessions, giving Simonon the desired amount of emotion in his voice. A section of the song is sung by a very young Maria Gallagher, accompanied by her father Mick Gallagher on the keyboard, as a reprise at the end of the song "Broadway" on the 1980 Clash album Sandinista!
"The Guns of Brixton" predates the riots that took place in the 1980s in Brixton, but the lyrics depict the feelings of discontent in the area because of the heavy-handedness of the police, the recession and other problems at the time. The lyrics refer to a Brixton-born son of Jamaican immigrants who "feel like Ivan...at the end of The Harder they Come", referring to Ivanhoe Martin's death in the 1972 filmThe Harder They Come. Simonon was originally doubtful about the song's lyrics, which discuss an individual's paranoid outlook on life, but was encouraged to continue working on it by Joe Strummer.
Return to Brixton
"The Guns of Brixton" was not initially released as a single, but a version of the song, taken from the remastered version of London Calling and remixed by Jeremy Healy, was released by CBS as a CD single, 7-inch vinyl and 12-inch vinyl entitled "Return to Brixton" in July 1990. It reached #57 on the UK Singles Chart. CD single track listing
"Return to Brixton" — 3:47
"Return to Brixton" — 6:55
"Return to Brixton" — 6:00
"The Guns of Brixton" — 3:09
Chart
Peak position
Live performances
"The Guns of Brixton" was a mainstay in the Clash's live set. When performing the song live, Simonon would switch instruments with Strummer because he was unable to play the bass line whilst singing lead vocals at the same time. A somewhat heavier, faster version than the one found on London Calling appeared on the 1999 live compilation .
Covers and samples
sampled the bass line for Beats International's 1990 song "Dub Be Good to Me", which became a #1 hit in the UK. Simonon, interviewed by Scott Rowley in October 1999 for Bassist Magazine, said that he "was surprised that it became number one that was quite shocking. And the fact that it was my performance that they had lifted. The smart thing would've been to copy it and change it slightly, but they just lifted it straight off. So, really, I have done Top of the Pops, but I met up with Norman and we came to an arrangement which was much needed at the time. But I thought it was a really good idea and it was quite reassuring for that to happen to my first song." Cypress Hill sampled the baseline on "What's Your Number?" from the 2004 albumTill Death Do Us Part. The song also features Tim Armstrong on guitar. Jimmy Cliff covered the song on his 2011 Sacred Fire EP, and 2012 album Rebirth, produced by Armstrong. Will Hermes has called the cover "the sound of history circling in wondrous ways" because the song references Cliff's character Ivan from The Harder They Come.
Other legacy
frontman Jon McClure stated that his band's song "Nostalgia" from the album ThirtyTwo was "my attempt at a modern 'Guns of Brixton'". Brix Smith Start, a former member of the Fall and the ex-wife of Mark E. Smith, derived her name from the title of the song.
