Shouting Street

Album: Earthquake Weather (1989)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Shouting Street" is of particular interest, as it is rumored to be the last song to be written while Joe Strummer's band The Clash were still together. There was a small period of time between Cut the Crap (the last Clash album) being released and the band officially disbanding in late 1985/early 1986. According to bassist Paul Simonon in a 1999 interview, Strummer told him during this time that he had written the song "Shouting Street" and suggested that the two of them get together and work on it. "I said 'Fine' but I didn't get another call," he recalls. By this stage the band were barely on speaking terms, with Strummer becoming very withdrawn after the deaths of his parents, the collapse of his band, and becoming a new father. So in the end the band split in early 1986 and the song was never worked on as a Clash song, but once Strummer returned to working on his own music in 1989, he resurrected "Shouting Street" for his first solo album, Earthquake Weather.

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