I almost spat into my coffee yesterday morning when I read an article by Alan Connor on the BBC news website that The Clash’s 1979 punk anthem ‘London Calling’ was used as as part of the countdown coverage to the 2012 Olympics.

Yes, yes you’re reading this correctly. Yes we’re talking about the very same track that depicts London as a grey, suppressed, edgy and drowning city. Oh how times have clearly changed.

Surely the Olympic marketing bods have actually listened to the track and more to the point understood the context of which the lyrics were written? I can’t see how this is even remotely possible – OK, lets assume you’ve never heard ‘London Calling’ before (and if you haven’t … ), what do these Joe Strummer lyrics conjure up in your mind:

London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out, and draw another breath

In my mind I am taken back to a normal Saturday night in Soho and as Connor highlights “”I live by the river” might now be the boast of a mega-mortgage condo-owner – in 1979 it was a shout from a part of the city ravaged by the Blitz.”

Using songs such as this, where their meaning is obscured by the context, is simply down to a bad marketing call. And I am now left wondering just how far our industry will go to undermine the value and understanding of artistic expression for the sake of capital gain?

Stevo