Song #36: The Clash - "I Fought the Law"

 

 Song #36: The Clash - "I Fought the Law" (1979)

The Cost of Living (EP)

"I lost my girl and I lost my fun; I fought the law and the law won, I fought the law and the law won."

 

The Clash's cover of The Cickets' (and Bobby Fuller Four's) "I Fought the Law" has become my anthem for whenever I make an appearance on live radio or record a live radio show. It all started back in 2011, when I made my radio debut on WDGC 88.3FM, the radio station run by my high school. It was the beginning of August; I remember getting driven to the school, nervous as all hell, making a guest appearance on the radio show run by my good friends Shane and Jordan Gustafson, both of whom immensely talented in their fields. I had never been within ten feet of a radio studio, and my first time would actually be sitting in a formal radio booth, before loads of expensive sound-mixing equipment and such, talking about film, my writing, and with the possibility of taking phone calls. It was all happening too fast and I had never had this kind of opportunity to network.

Yet I arrived there and, in my opinion, did a damn fine job, and enjoyed the company of two incredibly talented people. However, not before waiting for them to arrive to the station and listening to the music and eyeing all the equipment before me. I arrived fashionably early - like fifteen minutes before I was scheduled. The brothers Gustafson weren't there yet, so the station manager (also the assistant teacher), whom I'm good friends with, told me to just wait in the booth and just look at the equipment.

This brings me to today's song - The Clash's "I Fought the Law." "I Fought the Law" was playing when I first walked in the radio booth. From the first guitar riff, I was hooked on the song and its addicting energy. The song has much more life and energy than Fuller Four's song, which captured more of a regretful, ballady essence. The Clash bring a wonderful sound to a song that once possessed an entirely different aura and, similar to how "Winchester Cathedral" (number forty-four on "The One-Hundred Songs of Steve Pulaski") took me out of a stressful, hectic moment, for a brief two minutes, all that existed was me and that song.

Give "I Fought the Law" a listen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsS0cvTxU-8