“‘Clash City Rockers’ is a song and single by The Clash. First released in February 1978 with the b-side ‘Jail Guitar Doors,’ a re-worked version of a song from Joe Strummer‘s pub rock days. It was later included as the opening track of the belated US version of the band’s eponymous debut album.The song was first played live at Mont De Marsan (Landes – France), in August 1977 and recorded the same year in the band’s October and November sessions at CBS Studios. Following an argument at the end of the band’s Get Out of Control Tour, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones were not on speaking terms, leaving Joe Strummer as a middle-man, relaying instructions and insults from one to the other. In December, producer Mickey Foote (Joe Strummer’s old sound-man from the 101’ers and producer of The Clash and ‘White Riot’) increased the speed of the tape for the finished master of the song after manager Bernie Rhodes decided the song sounded ‘a bit flat.’ This technique, known as ‘varispeeding,’ rendered the song one semitone higher in pitch. Strummer and Jones were in Jamaica at the time. When they heard the finished result, Foote was sacked. With the exception of the 2000 re-issue of the US version of The Clash, the original version of the song (at the proper speed) has been used on every re-release since. …”
Wikipedia
Genius – Clash City Rockers (Audio), Genius – Jail Guitar Doors (Audio)
YouTube: Clash City Rockers, Jail Guitar Doors (Video)