"Straight to Hell" is a song by the Clash, from their album Combat Rock. It was released as a double A-side single with "Should I Stay or Should I Go" on 17 September 1982 in 12" and 7" vinyl format.
Writing and recording
"Straight to Hell" was written and recorded towards the very end of the Clash's New Yorkrecording sessions for the Combat Rock album. Mick Jones' guitar technician Digby Cleaver describes the sessions as "a mad, creative rush" that occurred on 30 December 1981, the day before the Clash was due to fly out of New York on New Year's Eve 1981. Joe Strummer reflected on this creative process in a 1991 piece about the track:
Lyrical themes
"Straight to Hell" has been described by writer Pat Gilbert as being saturated by a "colonial melancholia and sadness". Like many songs by the Clash, the lyrics of "Straight to Hell" decry injustice. The first verse refers to the shutting down of steel mills in Northern England and unemployment spanning generations, it also considers the alienation of non-English speaking immigrants in British society. The second verse concerns the abandonment of children in Vietnam who were fathered by American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The reference to "Amerasian Blues" describes the abandonment of children fathered by American soldiers stationed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War: an Amerasian child is portrayed as presenting an absent American father, "papa-san," with a photograph of his parents, pleading with his father to take him home to America. The child's plea is rejected. "-San" is a Japanese rather than Vietnamese honorific, but it was used by US troops in Vietnam who referred to Vietnamese men and women, especially older men and women, as "mama-san" or "papa-san". When Strummer sings of a "Volatile Molotov" thrown at Puerto Rican immigrants in Alphabet City as a message to encourage them to leave, he is referring to the arson that claimed buildings occupied by immigrant communities – notably Puerto Rican – before the area was subject to gentrification.
Musical style
The song has a distinctive drum beat. "You couldn't play rock 'n' roll to it. Basically it's a Bossa Nova." said Topper Headon. Joe Strummer has said "Just before the take, Topper said to me "I want you to play this" and he handed me an R Whites lemonade bottle in a towel. He said "I want you to beat the bass drum with it."
Alternative version
The Combat Rock version of the song had a duration of 5:30 minutes. This version was edited down from the original track, which lasted almost 7 minutes. The original track featured extra lyrics and a more prominent violin part. The decision to edit the song down from 7:00 down to 5:30 was part of the early 1982 mixing sessions whereby The Clash and Glyn Johns edited Combat Rock down from a 77-minute double album down to a 46-minute single album. The full, unedited version of "Straight to Hell" can be found on the Clash on Broadway and Sound System box sets.
NME reviewer Adrian Thrills in 1982 gave the double A-side single release "Straight to Hell"/"Should I Stay or Should I Go" four-and-a-half stars out of five. Despite "Should I Stay or Should I Go" having received more radio airplay, Thrills wrote that "Straight to Hell" "reaffirm that there is still life in The Clash."
Use in other media
This song was featured in the 2000 comedy film, Kevin & Perry Go Large and in Complicity from that same year.
