Released 14 December 1979 Length 3:47 | Genre Post-punk Label CBS | |
Recorded August–September 1979, November 1979 at Wessex Studios Writer(s) Joe Strummer, Mick Jones | ||
"Lost in the Supermarket" is a 1979 song by the Clash. Written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones and produced by Guy Stevens, it is credited to the Strummer/Jones songwriting partnership. It was released on their third studio album London Calling. It is the eighth song on the track listing. Although it features Mick Jones on lead vocals, the song was written by Joe Strummer. The supermarket in question was the International, located at 471-473 Kings Road, beneath the World's End Estate. 31 Whistler Walk was where Strummer lived at the time with his girlfriend Gaby Salter, her two younger brothers and her mother.
Contents
Personnel
Music and lyrics
The song's lyrics describe someone struggling to deal with an increasingly commercialised world and rampant consumerism. The song opens with Strummer's autobiographical memories of his parents' home in suburban Warlingham, with a hedge "over which I never could see." With lines such as "I came in here for that special offer - guaranteed personality", the protagonist bemoans the depersonalisation of the world around him. The song speaks of numbers about suburban alienation and the feelings of disillusionment that come through youth in modern society.
In the Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament DVD, released with the 25th anniversary edition of London Calling in 2004, Strummer said he wrote the lyrics imagining Jones' life growing up in a basement with his mother and grandmother.