Which brings us, at last, to the less-than-promising sounding “Julie’s Been Working For the Drug Squad.”
It’s ostensibly about a UK police investigation called “Operation Julie,” but what matters is the finished product rather than its now-forgotten inspiration.
Listen to that whorehouse piano.
Then take in the same wryly funny lyrics that distinguished the album’s other outstanding compositions — but, significantly, finally, the words to “Julie…” have nothing to do with the band’s juvenile misadventures or Joe’s half-digested politics.
“Julie…” is a short film made from music — a “jazzy rhythm and blues sound that would soon become a regular part of The Clash repertoire,” as one author put it.
Indeed.
Possibly chastened by the lashings they’d deservedly received from fans and critics alike, The Clash’s next album, its third, would make history.
But that was more than a year in the future.
Meantime, at the mid-November 1978 launch party for Give ‘Em Enough Rope, Topper and Robin stole all the free promotional copies they could get their hands on, and ran down the road to sell them at a second hand record shop.
***
TV appearance to promote the album:
