A Song Analysis
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The song Washington Bullets was released on The
Clash album called Sandanista in the US and
Canada in January 1981.
The song is a protest against the political
interference on the part of the major powers of the
time in the politics of other nations and the
conflicts and abuses that result. Although the song
focusses on US policy in a number of foreign
countries it also targets the USSR, China, and the
UK and their actions.
Listen to the song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1LhlVtbW_U
Washington Bullets
(The Clash)
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could
he do?
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting
Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
The first verse refers to the use of drugs as a
method used by warlords in order to fund
their wars against their own and other
governments. At times the US government has
tolerated these activities on the part of those it
was believed would advance the cause of
democracy and work against communist
movements especially in Central and South
America.
Washington Bullets
(The Clash)
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could
he do?
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting
Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
Following the election of Victor Allende in 1970 and
his promise of socialist reforms in Chile, a military
coup resulted in the death of Allende and brought
General Augusto Pinochet to power. What followed
was years of disappearances, torture, and death
squads. A famous folk singer, Victor Jara, was one
of those imprisoned and tortured. He was executed
when after having been tortured he was asked if he
still wanted to play his song “Es Verdad”. When he
picked up a guitar and began playing, he was shot.
Es Verdad means “The Truth”.
The US government of Richard Nixon supported the
Pinochet government for years.
Washington Bullets
(The Clash)
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could
he do?
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting
Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
Fidel Castro led a movement which overthrew
the US backed government of Fulgencio
Batista who resigned on December 31, 1958.
He installed a communist regime in Cuba
which nationalized many US interest on the
island. After a number of assasination
attempts by the CIA, in 1961 John F Kennedy
authorized the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
which ended in the invasion force being
defeated and many expatriot Cubans being
killed or imprisoned. The animosity and
distrust on the part of both nations continues
to this day.
Washington Bullets
(The Clash)
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could
he do?
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting
Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America
Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could he do?
Anastazio Somoza Debayle was a dictator in
Nicaragua, whose reign ended in 1979 when he was
overthrown by a long running liberation movement
know as the FSLN (Sandanistas). The Carter
Government’s withdrawal of support for the Somoza
dictatorship, because of human rights abuses and the
embezzlement of aid money, led to the defeat of his
army. Somoza resigned in July 1979 and fled first to
the US where he was denied refuge, and then to
Paraguay. Somoza was assassinated in September
1980.
Washington Bullets
(The Clash)
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could
he do?
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting
Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
The song finishes by criticising some of the other
major powers of the day for their involvement in
foreign conflicts.
During most of the 80s the Soviet Union was
involved in a war supporting a communist regime in
Afghanistan which resulted in thousands of Afghan
rebels and Russian troops.
In 1955, China invaded and annexed Tibet claiming
it had a historical claim to the territory. There was
widespread killing of Tibetan monks during the
invasion.
Britain’s involvement in the arms trade is addressed
as, even to this day, the UK are among the top 5
countries for global arms sales. Many of these sales
are to warlords who use mercenary troops in their
rebel movements.
Washington Bullets
(The Clash)
Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again
As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again
And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead
There are significant fiesta rythms throughout the
song which, when combined with the use of steel
drums, transport the listener to these tropical
locations.
Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could
he do?
The upbeat nature of the music is ironic given the
message which explores the negative role of the
political influence which the major powers have
used in trying to control extend their control through
the years of the cold war.
'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting
Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!
In the second half of the song a choir singing
“Sandanista” is introduced and slowly with the
influence of an organ the rock and roll style returns
to the forefront.
For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

The main musical style is that of a traditional rock
and roll song but, in keeping with the original
subject of the song, the musical style is heavily
influenced by Caribbean and Central American
themes.