"Garageland" is a song by English punk rock band The Clash featured as the final track for their 1977 debut album The Clash.
The song was written by Joe Strummer as a response to music journalist Charles Shaar Murray, who, after a gig in 1976, wrote a review saying that they were "the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately". It also served as a declaration to their fans – and their new record company, with which they had signed a contract for £100,000 on 25 January 1977, – that they would still remain the same as they were before the signing.
Writing and recording
Upon The Clash's early appearance at the Sex Pistols Screen on the Green concert, Charles Shaar Murray, an NME critic, produced a damning review of the band:
The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running, which would undoubtedly be more of a loss to their friends and families than to either rock or roll.
Followed by:
Their guitarist on the extreme left, allegedly known as Joe Strummer, has good moves but he and the band are a little shaky on ground that involves starting, stopping and changing chords at approximately the same time.
The Clash reacted immediately by writing the song "Garageland", whose opening verses are: "Back in the garage with my bullshit detector / Carbon monoxide making sure it's effective", followed by the chorus: "We're a garage band / We come from garageland", and concluding with "Back in the garage".
Another theme in the song is about the band signing to CBS Records on 25 January 1977 for £100,000. The music press and fans criticized The Clash for having "sold out" to the establishment. Mark Perry, founder of the leading London punk periodical, Sniffin' Glue, let loose with what he would later call his "big quote": "Punk died the day The Clash signed to CBS." This was evidenced in the verses: "Meanwhile things are hotting up in the West End alright / Contracts in the offices and groups in the night / My bumming slumming friends have all got new boots / And someone just asked me if the group would wear suits", and, after the chorus, with the following lines: "I don't want to hear about what the rich are doing / I don't want to go to where the rich are going / They think they're so clever, they think they're so right / But the truth is only known by gutter snipes".
"Garageland", as well as the majority of the band's debut studio album, was conceived on the 18th floor of a council high rise on London's Harrow Road, in a flat that was rented by Jones' grandmother, who frequently went to see the band rehearsing. The song was recorded at CBS Whitfield Street Studio No. 3 on 27 February 1977. The tapes for the entire album were delivered to CBS at the start of March and the recording was released in the United Kingdom through CBS Records on 8 April 1977. The album was engineered by CBS staff engineer Simon Humphrey and produced by Clash live soundman Mickey Foote.
Personnel
Joe Strummer – lead vocal, lead guitar
Mick Jones – backing vocal, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Paul Simonon – backing vocal, bass guitar
Terry Chimes – drums
Appearances
The song made its live debut on 10–11 March 1977, on the first and second night of an early gig at The Coliseum in Harlesden, London, where the band was supported by Subway Sect, Buzzcocks, and The Slits. From that moment to 1985, the song has become a stable part of the setlists of their future tours and concerts, and has graced stages all over the world. Among the most important venues, concert halls and arenas there were: De Montfort Hall in Leicester (1977), the Lyceum Theatre, London (1978), the Agora in Cleveland (1979), the New York Palladium (1979), the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey (1980), the Orpheum Theatre in Boston (1980), the Hammersmith Palais in London (1980), the Théâtre Mogador in Paris (1981), the Brixton Academy in London (1982 & 1985), the Saint Paul Civic Center Arena in St Paul, Minnesota (1982), the Johanneshovs Isstadion in Stockholm (1984), the Éspace Ballard in Paris (1984), the Orange arena at the Roskilde Festival of 1985 in Denmark.