The band Beton out of Ukraine has gotten The Clashes permission to cover the song “London Calling” and change it to “Kyiv Calling.” According to The Guardian proceeds from the song will help fund a communications system that will alert the population to threats and lobby for international support. It’s a fundraiser for the Free Ukraine Resistance Movement.
The veteran punk rock trio’s new lyrics, all in English, call on the world to support the defense of their homeland, with such lines as “Kyiv calling to the NATO zone/Forget it, brother, we can’t go it alone,” “Kyiv calling, now don’t look to us/phony Putinmania has bitten the dust” and “Engines stop running, but I have no fear/’cause Kyiv is rising/We live for resistance
We should say that UK singer/songwriter Billy Bragg pointed out on Facebook that some of the shirts Beton are wearing in photos on their website indicate their support for Stepan Bandera. Bragg describes Bandera as “a far-right Ukrainian politician who collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine and whose followers were complicit in the Holocaust.” He says far-right nationalists today have adopted Bandera’s image in their struggle against Russia, which has allowed Vladimir Putin to smear all those who want a democratic Ukraine free from Russian influence as neo-Nazis.
Bragg concludes that “while we can argue about the meaning of ‘London Calling’ and what Joe Strummer would or wouldn’t have said about the lyrical changes…we can be damn sure that he would not have allowed his song to be utilized by a band that expressed their support for fascists.”
