Underground: The Clash’s Know Your Rights

Today on underground we are going to talk about a song that is almost 40 years old and during these times it is relevant now as it was back then and it’s The Clash’s Know Your Rights.

Know Your Rights was released as a single for the band’s fifth album Combat Rock in April of 1982. The song itself is stricture in terms of “Here are your rights, But…” and here are the three main rights The Clash was singing about:

Number one you have the right not to be killed, murder is a crime.

Number two you have the right to food money.

Number three you have the right to free speech.

Now, these are very sound rights. Everyone in the world should have them regardless of race, sex, age, sexual preferences, and identities. However, there always exist exceptions, of course, and The Clash stated these exceptions as:

Number one you have the right not to be killed, murder is a crime. Unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat.

Number two you have the right to food money. Providing of course, you don’t mind a little investigation, humiliation and if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation.

Number three you have the right to free speech. As long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.

After listing to this song it is obvious that there is a double standard in terms of who is the exception to the rights of others. Now would be a perfect time to know your rights and protect yourselves.