The Clash - The Right Profile [LIVE]

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A song we cannot wait to play every night next year, The Right Profile was a song on our early wishlist when we first formed but we never quite got to it.

This song is a great way to introduce Pete Medland, part one of our burgeoning horn section for our London Calling shows! He played his first show with us on trumpet this weekend in Sowerby Bridge and we were so pleased with how it sounded that we had to share and spoil the surprise early!

A song about actor Montgomery Clift The Right Profile begins with the bell of a ride cymbal, a high octave guitar riff that cuts like a knife and the return of The Irish Horns from Rudie Can’t Fail. Similar to London Calling with its 12/8 shuffle and staccato feel, this song features what seems to be the first appearance of Joe Strummer on piano. You can see him in the Wessex Studio Footage playing it and whilst it was probably overdubbed, all indications are that it was Joe who played that wonderfully chaotic piano part.

It had many working titles from Wessex when it was still an instrumental and it is thought that the lyrics and title were conceived thanks to producer Guy Stevens singing the praises of Patricia Bosworth’s biography ‘Montgomery Clift’ before signing and dating a copy of it as a gift for Joe on Saturday July 28th 1979. When Joe died, it was found amongst his things, signed and dated which confirmed the story that he was given it on a Saturday on returned to the studio on Monday with the lyrics complete.

The third verse describes a night in May 1956 when Monty crashed his car on the way home from dinner with Elizabeth Taylor whilst shooting Raintree County. She had to save his life by preventing him from choking on his staved in teeth. As a result of this crash and his horrific face injuries, the director had to shoot Monty from the right only, and this inspired Joe’s title. The lyrics are naturally full of references to Monty’s life story and whilst one Rolling Stone review when it was released described it as a song of poor taste, I think its hard to agree with that when you consider that the entire band read the book at one point after Guy Stevens said “You’ve got to read this, what an extraordinary life!”

We debuted this in Sowerby Bridge this weekend and it still feels surreal to have played with with a trumpet. Pete isn’t the only horn player we have for the London Calling shows and this isn’t the only song he performed on this weekend so keep your eye on our channel over the next few weeks for more!


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