Interesting Fact: When this song was written the Number 19 bus was a Routemaster running from Tooting Bec to Highbury Barn, right through the heart of the West End. I lived at one terminus, and went to see the Arsenal play at the other end, drinking Crucial Brew, smoking a No10 (you could smoke on buses then) and singing this song about Jamaican Rude Boys in my head...
(StrummerJones)
Sing, Michael, sing
Up on the route of the 19 Bus
Hear them sayin'
How you get a rude and a reckless?
Don't you be so crude and a feckless
You been drinking brew for breakfast
Rudie can't fail
So we reply
I know that my life make you nervou
But I tell you that I can't live in service
Like the doctor who was born for a purpose
Rudie can't fail
I went ot the market to realise my soul
cause what I need I just don't have
They curse, then they press me till I hurt
We say Rudie can't fail
We hear them sayin'
Now first you must cure your temper
Then you find a job in the paper
You need someone for a saviour
Oh, Rudie can't fail
We reply
Now we get a rude and a reckless
We been seen lookin' cool an' a speckless
We been drinking brew for breakfast
So Rudie can't fail
Okay!
So where you wanna go today?
Hey boss man!
You're looking pretty smart
In your chicken skin suit
You think you're pretty hot
In your pork pie hat
But...Rudie can't fail
Look out, look out...Sky juice!...10 cents a bottle!