Is Rush by Big Audio Dynamite Mick Jones' story of The Clash Breakup?

Rush by Big Audio Dynamite, at this point in their career known as Big Audio Dynamite II.

It is one of my favorite songs by a favorite band.

The lyrics are a look back at a life lived and having no regrets about things done while admitting it was time to get out of a tangled situation and move on.

Was Mick Jones singing about his time with The Clash?

He was kicked out of the band by Joe Strummer and many fans had blamed him for the breakup of the band when it happened. Like many bad breakups it was really disappointing for fans and got ugly between everyone. Before he passed away Joe admitted they should have stayed together and worked things out.

In the song Rush there is a vocal section where Mick sings in a goofy animated voice on the line "Rush for a change of atmosphere" that is followed by a sample of a man saying "hmm I wish I could sing like that." Is that a sarcastic, and funny, dig at Joe Strummer's vocal style?

The song continues with the sampled man saying "Not everything is singing you know. The only important thing these days is rhythm and melody" followed by a melodic organ and funky drum break. That seems to be a clear nod to the style of music Mick was doing with B.A.D. post Clash. That section ends with a repeated sample of a man saying "a time to laugh a time to cry."

"I can't go on so I give in" seems to be about finally leaving The Clash.

"But life just carries on. Even when I'm not there" The Clash did continue after Mick left the band.

Here are some lyrics from Rush that seem to tell the Mick Jones story of leaving The Clash

If I had my time again
I would do it all the same
And not change a single thing
Even when I was to blame

For the heartache and the pain
That I caused throughout my years
How I'd love to be your man
Through the laughter and the tears

Broken hearts are hard to mend
Know I've had my share
But life just carries on
Even when I'm not there

chorus

Situation no win
Rush for a change of atmosphere
I can't go on so I give in
Gotta get myself right outta here

P.S. how about all that sampling in Big Audio Dynamite songs?

from this good interview with Don Letts of Big Audio Dynamite from Dean Goodman

Funny enough when we did all that sampling, that was all so early in the history of music that no one knew what to do. We didn’t ask anybody’s permission. The record companies didn’t ask us to clear the samples.

They weren’t even called samples then, because we really were the first band to have hits with those kind of things. It was all so new that no one really knew what hit ’em. You could never do that now.

For the whole of Big Audio Dynamite’s career, I think the only thing we ever cleared was a bit of West Side Story in a song called “James Brown.” After that, people cottoned onto it.

I have to say a lot of bands got really heavy-handed. We didn’t nick rhythms or melodies and things, and obviously a lot of bands later on fell foul of that. If you nicked the rhythm or the melody of a guy’s song, then fair dues. That’s plagiarism.

But all we did was take bits of dialogue, and it was our way of almost paying homage to these things. They were cultural pointers as well.

We only took samples from films that we really dug. If we heard a cool sample that was from a really shi**y film we wouldn’t use it.