Skip to content

Cover of Give ’Em Enough Rope by The Clash — Cover: Give ’Em Enough Rope

Song · The Clash

“Tommy Gun” by The Clash

From the album Give ’Em Enough Rope (1978)

“Tommy Gun” by The Clash appears on 14 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1999 and 2013. It was first released in 1978 on the album Give ’Em Enough Rope. Its best result is #1365 on the Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,707 alternative song of all time.

14countdowns

2stations

#1365best position

0#1 finishes

0top 10 finishes

1999–2013years charted

Watch

The Clash - Tommy Gun (Official Video)

Video from YouTube (theclashVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"Tommy Gun" led the charge for the Clash's second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope, going out as its first single in November 1978, and it comes in firing: Topper Headon's snare rattles off rounds like the title weapon while Mick Jones and Joe Strummer's guitars crash in behind him and Paul Simonon's bass keeps the whole platoon marching. Sandy Pearlman produced, with Corky Stasiak recording and mixing.

Strummer and Jones wrote it and share the vocals. Strummer traced the idea to musing on terrorists: he figured they must devour the press coverage of their attacks the way film stars pore over their reviews. Years later, Carl Barât of the Libertines wrote in the Singles Box notes that it caught the jittery late-'70s climate, name-checking the Baader-Meinhof gang and the Red Brigades: a punk-rock answer to the Beatles' "Revolution".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

#2,707 of all time

All Rock Formats

#4,654 of all time

All-time and decade countdowns

Year	#	Station	Countdown	of
1999	1414	CD101	CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)	2000
2000	1414	CD101	CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)	2001
2001	1416	CD101	CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)	2002
2002	1414	CD101	CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)	2003
2003	1400	CD101	CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)	2004
2003	1365	Fred (XM 44)	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)	2044
2004	1400	CD101	CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)	2005
2005	1399	CD101	CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)	1994
2007	1832	CD101	CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007)	2008
2008	1784	CD101	CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008)	2009
2009	1814	CD101	CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009)	2010
2010	1860	CD101	CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010)	2011
2011	1940	CD101	CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011)	2011
2013	2002	CD101	CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013)	2012

Comments

Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Tommy Gun" by The Clash.

No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.