White Riot

Strummer wrote it after he and Simonon were caught up in the riots at the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival. The lyric is about class and race. Strummer told the New Musical Express in December 1976 that it was not racist, and pointed out that inner-city black youth were fighting back against poverty and heavy-handed policing. The song urged white youth to do the same. The band first played it in public at the 100 Club Punk Festival on 20 September 1976.

There are two versions. The single was among the first things recorded at CBS Studio 3 in Whitfield Street after the band signed to CBS. For the debut album they used an earlier demo made in 1976 at Beaconsfield Studios with Julien Temple, which begins with Jones counting in. The single opens with a police siren and reached number 34 in the UK. Its B-side was 1977. Caroline Coon took the sleeve photograph on 5 November 1976 at the band's Camden Town rehearsal studio. On release the New Musical Express wrote that it was the first meaningful event all year.

Afterwards

On 30 April 1978, at the Rock Against Racism carnival in Victoria Park, the Clash closed their set with it, with Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 on vocals. Footage appears in the film Rude Boy. Q placed it number 34 on its 2005 list of the 100 greatest guitar tracks, and Dave Simpson of the Guardian noted in 2020 that Jones now dislikes it. Rage Against the Machine played it at their free concert in Finsbury Park and at Download Festival in June 2010.