There’s been a few lengthy pieces these past few days…this series allows a bit of breathing space.
A great all-time song under two minutes in length has to be Career Opportunities, one of the many classics to be found on the debut album by The Clash. For a wee change, I thought I’d offer up the demo version, as included on the box set The Clash on Broadway
mp3: The Clash – Career Opportunities (demo)
Back in the late 70s, there were far fewer places available to enable school-leavers to go into further or higher education. The offer of the office or the shop or factory was what came the way of most….the luckier ones may have got an apprenticeship. No wonder so many ‘kids’ of a certain age listened to this and came to the conclusion that The Clash ‘got it’.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I always liked the idea of making tea at the BBC
TV series pitch. An older, rueful Mick Jones tries out some of those openings the band rejected so casually half a century ago. Laugh and gasp as he steers the 19 bus through Chelsea and Knightsbridge to the strains of Rudie Can’t Fail, empathise as he tries to brew a decent Lapsang Souchong for Naga and Charlie . . .
The version from Shea Stadium is good too, the band powering through a song a million miles away from where they wrote it- and changing the lyric to ‘I don’t wanna go fighting on Falklands stree- eeet’
Just one of those perfect songs!