Good Morning Britain

A protest song written for Mick Jones of the Clash, who sings on it.
Aztec Camera, from Stray (1990)

Written by
Roddy Frame
Released
October 1990
Length
4:01
Album
Stray

Frame wrote the song for Mick Jones while Jones was ill, he said, and later realised he had taken half the melody from Rudie Can't Fail. He took a rough tape to Jones's house and told him he would either want to sing on it or sue. Frame also said they wrote it in 45 minutes after a long conversation in a London studio canteen. He counted it among his best songs, and linked its sound to the Clash, whom he had seen at the Apollo when he was 13.

The lyric lists problems in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England, with a nod to Margaret Thatcher and a verse that mentions Neil Kinnock. It ends on a hopeful note about standing up to injustice. The second single from Stray, it debuted at 52 on the chart dated 6 October 1990, peaked at 19 in the UK and spent eight weeks on the chart. It also reached 12 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart and 22 on the Eurochart Hot 100. The video imitates a television breakfast programme, with a clock running backwards, and Rhino put it on YouTube in 2013. Jones joined the band at Glasgow Barrowland and at the Ibiza Festival on the 1990 tour.

More songs by Aztec Camera

Oblivious, Walk Out to Winter, Somewhere in My Heart, All I Need Is Everything

Sources

  1. Good Morning Britain (song), Wikipedia
  2. Stray (album), Wikipedia
  3. Stray, Discogs
  4. Aztec Relics, The Scotsman, via Killermont Street (1999-07-17)