The Clash's "London Calling" with Fred Armisen

One Song

Hartbeat

Music Commentary, Music Interviews, Onesong, Comedy, Music

4.9 • 876 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who’s calling? It’s One Song calling all you listeners in faraway towns. This week, Diallo and LUXXURY are joined by award-winning comedian, actor, musician, and writer Fred Armisen to discuss what makes “London Calling” by The Clash an enduring punk classic. They debate their favorite Clash albums, break down the epic (and backwards) double guitar solos by Mick Jones, and hear what happens when “London Calling” gets a reggae beat. Songs Discussed: “London Calling” - The Clash “Lost in the Supermarket” - The Clash “Power To The Amplifier” - Trenchmouth “Pay to Cum” - Bad Brains “I Luv I Jah” - Bad Brains “Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)” - The Clash “Safe European Home” - The Clash “Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad” - The Clash “Queen of the Minstrel Dub (aka Natural Dub)” - King Tubby “Singing the Blues” - Guy Mitchell “Had To Hear” - Real Estate “Golly! Golly! Go Buddy!” - Bow Wow Wow “The Candy Man” - Sammy Davis Jr. “Girl U Want” - DEVO “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” - Prince Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On board, train leaving a station at one song, two, three, four.
0:07.0	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm This is one song. We're a music podcast, and today is one song. We're sung by The Clash.
0:34.8	This is one song, And we're not alone
0:37.8	Because joining us today
0:39.5	It's Fred on his own
0:41.4	The sound stage is ready
0:43.1	The cam's zooming in
0:44.8	The booth is recording
0:46.6	Kevin Hart, you can come in
0:48.3	A scheduling era
0:49.9	Oh hey, we're still friends
0:51.9	Because one song is starting
0:53.7	And we I'm talking Joe's drummer
0:57.2	Oh
0:58.0	Tapper and Paul and Mc Jones
1:02.4	Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Yeah, like that.
1:21.4	Luxury, today's song comes from a legendary British band that, for many of us coming up at the time,
1:25.0	defined punk and punk music, even as they expanded the genre.
1:29.1	That's right, Tiala. Today's song combines punk aesthetics and Jamaican rhythms to create an apocalyptic anthem that
1:31.3	Rolling Stone ranked the 15th created
1:33.1	song of all time. All right, all
1:35.2	you listeners in faraway towns and all you
	...

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