Know Your Rights

Infobox Single
Name = Know Your Rights


Artist = The Clash
from Album = Combat Rock
B-side = "First Night Back in London"
Released = Start date|1982|4|23
Format = 7" vinyl
Recorded = 1982
Genre = Punk rock
Length = 3:51
Label = CBS A2309
Writer = Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
Producer = The Clash
Reviews =
Last single = "This Is Radio Clash"
(1981)
This single = "Know Your Rights"
(1982)
Next single = "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
(1982)
Misc = "Know Your Rights" is a song by The Clash released as a single that was eventually released on their penultimate album, "Combat Rock". The song was the first single off the album that was released, and it was a modest success, but it was not as successful as the album's major successes, "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?".

The song begins with the words “"This is a public service announcement...with guitars!"” The structure of the song revolves around the rights held by the poor and disenfranchised, in which the speaker of the song, presumably a villainous civil servant (whose identity is assumed in the song by vocalist Joe Strummer), is only able to name three rights, which are all provisional anyway. At the end, the notion that more rights should be granted is rebuffed by the speaker.

The three are:
* The right not to be killed, unless it is done by a policeman or an aristocrat.

* The right to food money, providing of course, you don't mind a little investigation, humiliation, and, if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation.

* The right to free speech (as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it).

This is one of the most overtly political songs by The Clash, and it remains reasonably popular.

Charts

References

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