Crucial Track for 03 May 2026
"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" by The Clash
The prompt:
Share a song you love that has parentheses (in the title).
It's been a while since I wrote a Crucial Track entry, but when I saw John Philpin's post with this bracket-based prompt, how could I not write about one of my favourite Clash songs?
The strange thing about the title is, given the parenthetical structure, we should call it 'In Hammersmith Palais' for short — you can always drop the parenthetical, right? — but in fact everyone always calls it 'White Man' for short.
It famously tells the story of Joe Strummer going to a Reggae show at the eponymous venue, and realising he was the only white person there. And about punks and other groups and how they did or might behave. The near-closing couplet seems worryingly relevant again at the moment:
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway
Also I don't know how this will appear either on Crucial Tracks itself or on my blog, but what the hell is the image that's appearing alongside the track where I've selected it? Very strange. I've screengrabbed it and added it to the post, but I've no idea where it'll appear.
Anyway, one of my all time favourite songs, with or with the brackets/parentheses.
