My Top 1000 Songs #880: Somebody Got Murdered

February 05, 2025

My Top 1000 Songs #880: Somebody Got Murdered

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Been on a Clash kick lately, especially 1981's Sandinista--the sprawling hit-or-miss triple-LP set which, not for the first (or last?) time, I sat down and tried distilling into a more manageable 80-minute CDR length. And while, despite (or because of?) its self-indulgent sprawl, there's a lot to love on the album, my favorite track has always been "Somebody Got Murdered." It feels like a bit of a cheat, a relatively straightforward pop-tinged rock song amidst a sea of sonic exploration. But I've always been a sucker for the Mick Jones numbers, and this was a particularly welcome break from everything else going on with Sandinista. It's probably the closest thing to a London Calling throwback, just good ol' rock & roll (well, that and "Police On My Back" (also sung by Mick), but that one's a cover and even more of a cheat)...

Besides being absurdly catchy, it's loaded with lyrical couplets that have lingered in my head for more than 40 years. "I've been very hungry, but not enough to kill"; and, especially, "Somebody got murdered, and left me with the touch." That one's open to interpretation, and it's never left my imagination.