Some observations about "I'm Not Down" by the Clash

I've always been a big fan of the band The Clash. I think Joe Strummer and Mic Jones wrote some of the best lyrics in pop punk / rock music history. Below, I've copied and pasted the lyrics to a song, "I'm Not Down," that the two wrote together.


"If it's true a rich man leads a sad life
That's what they say, from day to day
Then what do the poor do with their lives?
On judgment day, with nothin' to say?

I've been beat up, I've been thrown Out
But I'm not down, Oh I'm not down
I've been shown up, but I've grown up
And I'm not down, Oh I'm not down

On my own I faced a gang of jeering
In strange streets
When my nerves were pumping out
I fought my fear in, I didn't run
I was not done

I've been beat up, I've been thrown out
But I'm not down, No I'm not down
I've been shown up, but I've grown up
And I'm not down, No I'm not down

So I have lived, that kind of day
When none of your sorrows will go away
Go down and down and hit the floor
Down and down and down some more
Depression
But I know, there'll be some way
When I can swing everything back my way
Like skyscrapers, rising up
Floor by floor, I'm not giving up

So you rock around and think that
You're the toughest
In the world, the whole wide world
But you're streets away from where
It gets the roughest
You ain't been there."

True, the lyrics to this song could be given a Marxist reading, but I think the words apply to Disability Studies, as well. A part of Disability Studies is a situation called "the stare;" a sense that the public or others are staring at you simply because you are a person with a disability. In this song, the speaker feels not just stared at, but "jeered" at due to two circumstances; he is poor and depressed. It is inferred that his depression is brought about due to the poverty; the two go hand in hand. Even though this song came out off the London Calling album in UK in 1979, the ideas apply to contemporary America. The New York Times has been running a series of articles about class in the U.S. They had an article a few days ago about the link between life expectancy and income level (here's the url to the article: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/health/article-page.html?res=980DE3DC1F30F935A25756C0A9639C8B63 .) The implications in the article, as in the song, is that health is seen as something belonging to the rich; in essence, the poor deserve to be sick and / or depressed simply because they are poor. The song contains optimism: "I know, there'll be some way / When I can swing everything back my way," and "I've been beat up, I've been thrown out / But I'm not down, No I'm not down." But the optimism is self-reliant; he's not expecting anyone else to help him to overcome his struggles and sometimes depression. And the song ends on a cautionary note: "you're streets away from where / It gets the roughest / You ain't been there." I chose this song for this blog because I believe it warns that too often people who are are seen as an "other" are mistreated and cast aside, when anyone wants, whether rich or poor, is a simple thing, to be accepted.