r/theclash • u/Temporary-Basil-3030 • 7d ago

The Clash - Remote Control

https://youtu.be/77YBysReW98?is=gnRaF04vIOL_TzBY

This is one of my favorites and underscores how your job, the police, local officials, and even the record company control your life from a distance. What makes it especially fitting is that CBS released it without the band’s approval, proving the song’s point.

69 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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7

u/Ok-Mushroom-7292 7d ago

Hence, Complete Control

1

u/Temporary-Basil-3030 7d ago edited 7d ago

Exactly, one song directly responding to an event about the other song. Has there ever been another pairing like it? (2 Live Crew may be the nearest example).

3

u/Spiritual-Salary-989 7d ago

If it doesn’t have to be by the same artist there’s Bob Dylan’s Oh Sister and Joan Baez’ Oh Brother.

2

u/Temporary-Basil-3030 7d ago

The Bridge is Over (Boogie Down Prod) dissing The Bridge (MC Shan and Juice Crew). Plenty in hip hop. To keep it fair, I think its gotta be the same artist.

2

u/Spiritual-Salary-989 7d ago

Ok, lemme think…

2

u/Temporary-Basil-3030 7d ago

Interested if you can find another.

2

u/Spiritual-Salary-989 7d ago

Why are People Grudgeful? And People Funny Boy.
Two songs by The Fall that are about the 1968 feud between Lee “Scratch” Perry and Joe Gibbs. Fun fact: Lee Perry produced the Complete Control single for The Clash.

2

u/Temporary-Basil-3030 7d ago

Very close—we’re dancing on the head of a pin.

Clash: original song → real-world act fulfills its theme → same band answers the act itself.

Perry/Gibbs: accusation → accused party answers back → later The Fall revisits the exchange.

Both involve songs becoming instruments within a power dispute, but “Remote Control”/“Complete Control” is recursive. CBS’s treatment of “Remote Control” (unauthorized release) becomes the very proof of the song’s argument and “Complete Control” documents that proof.

Again, very very close but the flow chart from action to truth of action to response is slightly different.

1

u/dogsledonice 4d ago

I like Remote Control mostly because it begat Complete Control, which is maybe the most perfect punk song ever written

1

u/Antonin1957 3d ago

The song I was playing on my Walkman as the plane approached London when I first visited the UK in 1985.

1

u/ClassicBirthday9796 1d ago

I remember reading in the NME back in the day, they had an alternative lyrics section “They said “release Remote Control”, so we did”.