The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket

"Lost in the Supermarket" is a 1979 song by The Clash.Written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones and produced by Guy Stevens, it is credited to the Strummer/Jones songwriting partnership. It was released on their third studio album London Calling. It is the eighth song on the track listing. Although it features Mick Jones on lead vocals, the lyrics were written by Joe Strummer.

A slower song than many of the others on the album, its lyrics describe someone struggling to deal with an increasingly commercialised world and rampant consumerism. The song opens with Strummer's autobiographical memories of his parents' home in suburban Warlingham, with a hedge "over which I never could see." With lines such as "I came in here for that special offer - guaranteed personality", the protagonist bemoans the depersonalisation of the world around him. The song speaks of numbers about suburban alienation, the feelings of disillusionment that come through youth in modern society.

In the Making of 'London Calling': The Last Testament DVD, released with the 25th anniversary edition of London Calling in 2004, Strummer said he wrote the lyrics imagining Jones' life growing up in a basement with his mother and grandmother.

• Category

  Music

[agoCR]

11 people are lost in the supermarket.

[12rockandrollforever]

1303 people are lost in the supermarket

[tarshorceceliah]

ironic tempo & happy beat.love this song

[NaturallyNathalie]

I got lost in a Tesco once or twice.

[booyahboyuk]

Not true, affects us all white black yellow red or whatever.....

[TheWratox]

I don't think that you're getting the message.

[Alexhimself]

damn this is a good song, sure consumerism etc. but I can't help but get a little bit of a love song vibe.

[Samuel Hrmel]

My childhood!

[Regginyaga]

WHITE PEOPLE PROBLEMS

[linda johns]

Alex.....;)

[Brody Thompson]

Heh. U.S. Army ads on a Clash video. Joe would have loved that.

[redpaul101]

"its lyrics describe someone struggling to deal with an increasingly commercialised world and rampant consumerism."

Kind of ironic then, you have to sit through an ad (for mineral water, was it?) before you can actually get to the vid ;)