THE CLASH I FOUGHT THE LAW

MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

THE CLASH AND THE SONG

I Fought the Law was a song originally written by Sonny Curtis, and performed by The Crickets in 1966. The Clash
released a cover of the song in 1979. The Crickets were an American band, and the song was written in Texas while
Curtis was daydreaming. It was then recorded in New York.
The Clash were a British band who formed together in 1976. Their cover of this song became one of the most well-
performed covers known in the US; this song was their first US released song.
One of their live performances in the Lyceum Theatre, London, is used at the end of their documentary-styled film.
INTRODUCTION
The video opens with what could be said to be jon gows pseudo-reflexive performance
as we can see people moving an amp through the screen with the band the clash on in
preparation for performing the song.
 PERFORMANCE

For the intro in the song, The Clash have chosen to use fast cut editing of
performance shots. The effect of this shows the intensity of the rock
music and powerful equipment. In post-production editing, a blurring
effect has been used on some of the shots (as seen on the bottom right)
which further produces this powerful music.
Goodwin stated in his key music video conventions, that some genres
have specific qualities. Goodwins theory is apparent here as we have the
heavy performance shots of the rock band.
 THE NARRATIVE

Due to the title I Fought the Law,

we expect to see law and police
paraphernalia, which is confirmed
seconds in to the music video.
Lyrics: I needed money because I
had none this line acts as
someone trying to justify their
actions of stealing money.

These shots here are dark and intense, giving the police a threatening image
which puts is in the position of the characters who broke the law.
THE NARRATIVE
The setting used in a few of these shots is just in a regular city.
We can see a red bus in the background which implies this city is
London.
In terms of this narrative of thieves running, this is cut
up/fragmented throughout the video, as are scenes of
police/sirens/police dogs. This shows a narrative is only implied
through the music video. I can actually link this to Carol Veranallis
who is a music-video theorist. She states that narratives arent
complete, but instead are a consideration of a topic. This fits
perfectly with the music video.
LYRICS AND VISUALS

Breakin rocks in the hot sun

I fought the law and the law won

THE ENHANCED PERFORMANCE JON GOW

This music video would all in all be considered an enhanced performance by Jon Gow.
While we have shots of performance, shots of dancing, shots that tell a narrative, there are also many inserts of
alternative videos. Looking further into this its possible that the music video entirely made up of other video
extracts excluding the performance shots. I noticed there are shots of both US and UK police, but upon further
investigation it seems they didnt travel to the US for any filming as theyd already returned back to the UK after
learning to play it.

Random inserts of Prince Charles and a cartoon

Performance
and dance