Clashing Sides: "I Fought the Law" VS. "Police On My Back"

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Law-baiting cover `choons from the only band that matters. "I Fought the Law" seems to get more attention, but I'll always favor "Police On My Back," if not only for it's incessantly chiming police siren guitars.

What say you?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 30 October 2004 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Police on My Back, no contest.

― dave225 (Dave225), Saturday, 30 October 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

.. for its

line/ chorus
line/ chorus
etc ..

by chorus, I mean voice, not verse... eh - hard to explain...

Well I'm RUNNING Police on my back
I've been HIDING police on my back
There was a SHOOTING police on my back

― dave225 (Dave225), Saturday, 30 October 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Good man.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 30 October 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

yep Police on my Back hands down

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 30 October 2004 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Did the Clash write "Police..."? I thought I read somewhere that it was an Eddy Grant song.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Saturday, 30 October 2004 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Police on my back, for sure. One of their underappreciated classics...whereas "I fought..." seems...overappreciated.

― paulhw (paulhw), Saturday, 30 October 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

"Police On My Back" is a cover of a song Eddy Grant wrote in the '60s, when he was in the Equals. Who were fantastic--there's an anthology of basically everything by them called "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys" that's really worth hearing.

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 30 October 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Stand Up and Be Counted by The Equals is amazing. It's better than everything by The Clash put together.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Saturday, 30 October 2004 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Did the Clash write "Police..."? I thought I read somewhere that it was an Eddy Grant song.

Read the initial thread question and you'll see that I cite it as a cover (thought I've never heard the original).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 31 October 2004 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Stand Up and Be Counted by The Equals is amazing.

Yes.

It's better than everything by The Clash put together.

I wouldn't go that far.

But this is an odd question in that (a) the Clash's cover of "I Fought The Law" is better than the Bobby Fuller Four's, but their cover of "Police On My Back" isn't as good as the Equals'... yet (b) their version of "Police" > their version of "I Fought the Law".

― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 04:47 (twenty-one years ago)

That's because, since the Clash were an excellent band, the quality of their covers inevitably had to do with the quality of the cover songs (that is, they made everything sound good, but the best stuff was still gonna sound best). So, since "Police" is a better song than "Law" (not by a lot, they're both great) Clash doing "Police" > Clash doing "Law."

The winner is still "Police and Thieves," though.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 31 October 2004 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

(and personally, I'd rank their "Pressure Drop" cover above at least "I Fought the Law")

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 31 October 2004 05:55 (twenty-one years ago)

just another reason to throw on a random side from the more abstract Sandanista! "Police.." is terrific, but ".. law .." was always the radio-friendly political point made.

The listener is not put in position of ambiguous/ contradictory sympathies, less invited to empathise for the alleged perpetrator as in "police" which for that reason alone is obv. radio-inadmissable cf: cautionary tales like "fought the law" and "daddy was", where the listener is mere observer.
Plus, in those two cautionary tales the law wins cf: the ambiguous non-sappy ending of "police".

all reasons to like "police" more and to see those other two songs as part of the clash's "nursery rhymes" sub-oevre.

― george gosset (gegoss), Sunday, 31 October 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I also like (in both the orig. and cover) the ambiguity of the line "What have I done?" -- it simultaneously suggests "I don't know why they're after me" and "I have perpetrated something so unspeakable that I can't come to terms with it".

― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"Police On My Back" is vastly superior to "I Faught The Law." No contest.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Sunday, 31 October 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

MC & gypsy otm. Still, I listen to the Equals way more than than the Clash these days.

― J (Jay), Sunday, 31 October 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

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