It worked. Everyone ignored his “Dietrich” vocals and was seduced by that insidious bass line.
“Brixton” has kept Paul in new hats and motorcycles ever since.
Anyhow, this was just uploaded by somebody:
More here, some of it pretty amusing.
Here, Marcus Grey covers the covers. (Grab a coffee…)
His exegesis of the original in Route 19 Revisited (begins on page 276, and yes, mentions the Velcro — and the “painful” “Jamaican Marlene Dietrich” vocals) is also worth reading in full. It ends:
Some find it strange — or even suspicious — that Paul’s first recorded “solo” Clash composition proved to be so musically arresting and lyrically coherent, bearing in mind he never again wrote anything else remotely as strong musically, and immediately gave up on writing lyrics altogether. Perhaps, though, it’s not quite so odd, after all: “The Guns of Brixton” is such a thorough exploration of the mythopoetics of Paul Simonon that, by the time he had completed it, he had not only written a song about his fantasy life, but also the song of a lifetime.
