The Clash’s 1981 punk rock take on the cycle of consumption and work
The song The Magnificent Seven is a brilliant reflection on labour time and the endless reproduction of ourselves as a commodity, writes Nigel Gibson
The 1981 punk-rock song The Magnificent Seven isn’t about Yul Brynner and the 1960 all-star Western of the same name, but something even more mundane and also more threatening: the endless cycle of work, consumption and work. On the cover of The Magnificent Seven (the record) is a clock showing seven. The song’s title is about time, that unpaid labour time of getting up and getting to work day after day. "Ring, ring, it’s 7am move yourself to go again." Everyone has to reconstitute themselves everyday for work. "What have we got?" asks Joe Strummer, the songwriter and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band, The Clash, founded in 1976. Not much, he answers. Bombarded by ads, we work hard to buy more stuff. And the fetishism of commodities holds us in check: "Gimme Honda, gimme Sony/ So cheap and real phoney/Hong Kong dollar, Indian cents/English pounds and Eskimo pence." The song is a brilliant reflection on labour time and the endless reproduction of ourselves as a commodity, l...
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