Career Opportunities | The Clash, 1977

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Joe Strummer of The Clash, practices by lamp-light at a squat in a disused ice cream factory in

 Foscote Mews, London, W9, 1976. It was here that Strummer), Mick Jones and Paul Simonon
wrote the Clash song ‘Career Opportunities’. Photo: Julian Yewdall
The Clash – Career Opportunities, 1977
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They offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I’d better take anything they got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunity, the ones that never knock
I hate the army and I hate the R.A.F.
I don’t wanna go fighting in the tropical heat
I hate the civil service rules
I won’t open a letter bomb for you
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunity, the ones that never knock
Bus driver, ambulance man
Ticket inspector, I don’t understand
They’re gonna have to introduce conscription
They’re gonna have to take away my prescription
If they wanna get me making toys
If they wanna get me, well, I got no choice
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock
Career opportunity, the ones that never knock
Career, career, career
And I’m never gonna knock
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The line “I won’t open letter bombs for you” is a reference to a former job of Clash guitarist
Mick Jones, opening letters for a British government department to make sure they weren’t
rigged with mailbombs. The song was named by bassist Paul Simonon.

1 thought on “Career Opportunities | The Clash, 1977

  1. Career Opportunities. It makes me nostalgic for music of old, nothing compares to it today.

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