mick jones wrote should I stay or should I go about joe strummer (or at the very least took inspiration from their relationship):
the lyric "don't you know which clothes even fit me" is ambiguous but could apply to him bc they did in fact share clothes, but during live performances mick replaced the lyric to "don't you remember where you met me" which is less ambiguous and lines up with the fact that mick and joe had different recollections of when they first met !! mick always said they met on portobello road where he told joe "you're good but your band's no good", joe said he first saw mick in ladbrooke grove signing on the dole (1989 interview, 2:33)
joe thought it was about him lol
"But Joe certainly read [Should I Stay or Should I Go?] as a statement of Mick's potential longevity with the Clashβaccording to Paul Simonon, the Clash's principal songwriters were hardly speaking when the tune was recorded. In Joe's archive was found a satirical version of the song that he had typed out, apparently in the character of Mick: "I always whinge, whinge, whinge, when the crew go on a binge." When these alternative words to the song were mentioned to Mick in 2004, he was highly amused."
-Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer
mick saying the song wasn't about anyone in particular makes me even more convinced Tbh. a lot of songs that mick wrote himself were personal (stay free, im not down, train in vain, even protex blue), something that joe himself obviously noticed, he wrote lost in the supermarket specifically for mick. parts of the song definitely could've been taken from his relationship with ellen foley as well but. if it was about her why wouldn't he just say that
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