--- title: Brexit Vote: The Clash Have Got the Perfect Song description: On Thursday, 46 million registered voters in the U.K. are asking the same question as The Clash: "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" canonical: https://time.com/4379418/brexit-eu-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-23T09:02:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:40.960Z og:title: This Is the Brexit Song You Didn't Know You Needed og:description: Should the U.K. stay or should it go? og:url: https://time.com/4379418/brexit-eu-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is the Brexit Song You Didn't Know You Needed twitter:description: Should the U.K. stay or should it go? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Brexit Vote Is the Perfect Excuse to Revisit This Song by The Clash by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 23, 2016 9:02 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 23, 2016 9:02 AM UTC “If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double,” sings The Clash’s Mick Jones, “so you’ve got to let me know, should I cool it or should I blow?” The song was first recorded in 1981, but in 2016 Britain, the sentiment could not be more fitting. On Thursday, the U.K. asks itself the same question as The Clash: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” More than 46 million Britons are registered to vote in what is expected to be a tight race to decide if the country remains in the European Union, or leaves — an option that’s been dubbed “Brexit.” The band’s politically outspoken front-man, the late Joe Strummer — perhaps fittingly in the modern context — delivers the song’s backing vocals in Spanish. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4379418/brexit-eu-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4379418/brexit-eu-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/"},"headline":"The Brexit Vote Is the Perfect Excuse to Revisit This Song by The Clash","datePublished":"2016-06-23T09:02:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:40.960Z","description":"Fittingly, the backing vocals are in Spanish","url":"https://time.com/4379418/brexit-eu-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4379418/brexit-eu-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/","name":"The Brexit Vote Is the Perfect Excuse to Revisit This Song by The Clash"}}]}] ```