The Clash

[The Heartical Don]

Forget the Sex Pistols. Forget the Heartbreakers. Forget the NY Dolls. Here's...

THE CLASH!

OK now that I have this off of my chest, a few home truths:

...the Clash were great. No doubt. However, they only made 1 (one) punk album, and that is their début, same-titled. You should have it on vinyl, in its US configuration (sometimes more is, um, more). And that silly song about condoms is thankfully absent. Oh yes, you could complete their punk years with the original 10" vinyl thingie 'Black Market Clash'.  Also brilliant. I have it.
The Clash were also very naïve. They oozed some kind of gullible revolutionarism, like all resistance fighters would be automatically ethically good people. Which is not true.

Their second LP proper, 'Hang 'em High'...um, no, make that 'Give 'em Enough Rope', is a quite lame attempt at a pop/metal album, with Sandy Pearlman at the helm. It has its moments (notably 'Safe European Home'), but it also has songs about shooting pigeons and getting fined for that, based on true events. The sleeve, by the way, is awful.

Then came 'London Calling'. Rightly applauded. But wrongly labeled as 'punkrock'. It's simply pubrock, and there's a lot to enjoy: rockabilly, ska, reggae, Spectorian grandeur, simple lightweight pop, the lot. The sleeve, by the way, is great.

Then came their pièce de resistance: 'Sandinista'. Nick Kent dismissed it at the time in the NME, describing it as silly, overblown, and sounding wafer-thin. But then: Nick Kent = fool. He did not see the grand vision.
Originally the Clash had tried to talk Columbia into releasing one single per month for a couple of years, if memory serves. Columbia refused. Then the group thought: well, if we can get away with 2 LPs for the price of one (which was London Calling), then we can get away with 3 LPs for the price of one and a half. Which they did. They hired engineer Bill Price and made 'Sandinista'. Quite a dazzling affair, vast in its scope, and always daring to fall flat on its face. I give you: 'Lose This Skin', a dazzling folkrock stomper by friend Tymon Dogg. Or: 'The Equalizer', probably the first and only reggae song with a violin as the lead instrument, and in which the dub version actually preceded the song proper. Or: 'Career Opportunities', originally their signature tune about being on the dole, now sung as a children's ditty by... children. Or: 'Shepherd's Delight', a super-lazy country-dub version of Lee Perry's and Junior Murvin's 'Police And Thieves'. Or: 'If Music Could Talk', a reggae tune with lots of dub effects, to which Joe Strummer does some marvelous dreamy Sprechgesang, freely associating about Yamaha motors, Errol Flynn, the lot.
Really: this triple set is often dismissed. Too often. It is one of the very few really adventurous risky artefacts from the post-punk era.

After that, their steam ran out. 'Combat Rock' was, surprisingly, a single LP for the price of a, you guess it, single LP. It has its moments, but it also has some real duds.

End of story.

[lance]

To my ears, no group other than the Beatles define positivity more than the Clash: not positivity in a happy, sunshiney way, but positivity in the sense that the Clash(and the Beatles) had a certain amount of "innate cylinders"--and they fired them all. If they could do it they did do it. One of the great rock bands.

Punk is not only a musical form, it was a whole art movement, and the Clash's war with their record company, their ability to put there money where (Joe Strummer's) mouth was--even if, in the end they got their asses kicked by CBS and sold out later on down the road-- is admirable. If your definition of punk rock is "Never Mind the Bollocks" alone, the Clash abandoned punk. If punk rock includes Patti Smith and Television, etc...Well, the Clash certainly is punk rock and remained so to the end.
 Few bands have so sacrificed commerciality for having balls and character and still they managed to make good music. I don't know about the rest of the band, but I really believe Joe Strummer meant every word he screamed into the mike.

Musically, the combination of STrummer and Jones--never a stable combination personality-wise--was perfect. Jones' Keith Richards-esque attitude and talent and Strummer's very real, articulate passion mixed to make music that kicks ass AND is profound--and I would say neither of them came close on their own to touching what they had had in the Clash.

Most of all, the Clash never sold out completely--they could have made millions on a reunion tour, but always refused such a crass move til the day Strummer keeled over--though maybe they just weren't able to find Topper.

The Clash--the original UK album and the singles and B-sides that followed that made it onto the US album--is punk rock with a message, not the nihilism of the Sex Pistols or the artiness of the NY bands.

I disagree with you about Give 'Em Enough--it's a good(not great) album. There's a few clunkers(I've never liked Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad) but it's got more good songs than *just*Safe European Home.

London Calling--eh. I love it, but am tired of it. In the nineties, I couldn't walk into a pub in Denver without hearing songs from it.

Sandinista: the most underrated album of all time. Not made to be listened to all the way through. Listen to one side's worth and give it a rest. It's a collection of would be singles and b-sides and it's brilliant.

Combat Rock: running out of steam, but still a solid album, up there with Give'em Enough Rope.

OK, Cut the Crap sucks, but nobody counts that one.

[The Heartical Don]

Nice long call Lance -

thanks for chiming in. For the most part you are right here. The Clash never sold out, that is sure. And they cared much more about music than about the doll... um, pound. Sad that Topper got addicted to heroïn eventually. He did a marvelous, now hard to find 12" called 'Drummer Man', and he had the drum talent of many a jazzman from the '50s.
Perhaps I was too harsh on 'Combat Rock'. Could be because I find 'Red Angel Dragnet' and suchlike pure filler. But there are ace songs on it too: 'Rock The Casbah' (a secret favourite within the GOP, I hear) and 'Ghetto Defendent', and of course 'Straight To Hell'.

FYI: Joe did a stunning soundtrack album, up there with Ry Cooder's best, for an Alex Cox movie: 'Walker'. It came and went largely unnoticed, I don't even know if it ever made it onto CD. I am lucky to have it on pristine vinyl still. Seek it out if you can, it is totally worth it. One Zander Schloss (from the 'Circle Jerks', if memory serves) does a lot of gorgeous string work there.

(edited) I just did a bit of searching. 'Walker' (OST) is available WITH bonus tracks on CD for around $ 7 new on Ebay. This is beer money for a wonderful soundtrack - only: don't expect Clash-style music. Expect beautiful, atmospheric, romantic instrumental music (3 vocal cuts in 18) that evokes Nicaragua.

[lance]

Well, Combat Rock IS their weakest album pre-Crap. I would stick up more for Give 'Em Enough Rope.

 Some of the songs don't really sound finished to me but: Know Your Rights, Atom Tan, CarJam, Should I STay or Should I go, Straight to Hell, Rock the Casbah, Ghetto Defendant.. All great songs. Some of them could use a bridge--like Ghetto Defendant and another one I can't remember(don't have any albums by them anymore.)
Red Angel Dragnet is horrible, true, but I think that's a Paul Simonon song, mainly(with lyrics by Strummer.)

Interesting fact: Rock the Casbah was a Topper Headon/Strummer song--and TH played piano, bass, drums percussion and synth on it.
Jones pretty much just added the guitar in the chorus, and he and Simonon sang the background vocals.

Do you remember the  band Simonon had in 1988? Because I can't remember

[The Heartical Don]

Simonon re-appeared for the first time on, hold your breath, Bob Dylan's 'Down In The Groove' (1988). Don't really know how large his contribution is. And then, as you rightfully indicate, he came back with his own band, Havana 3 A.M., but I never heard anything by them. TBH: I never investigated things by the other ex-members. Strummer was my man, so to speak.

[lance]

Strummer was the Man. A cooler rock star I have never come across.

Havana 3AM, that was it. The lead song sounded like a Clash could-have-been classic. Don't remember the rest of the album at all.

I had the first three Big Audio Dynamite albums back in the eighties, in high school.. The first one was listenable, barely. More songs that needed bridges, much like a disco Combat Rock--only with worse lyrics.

 The second one rocked, it had five new Strummer-Jones songs on it and was produced by Joe Strummer. The first song, Beyond the Pale(I think) is one I haven't been able to get out of my head for TWENTY foda YEARS--which was the last time I heard it. Well worth checking out if you're a strummer OR a Jones fan.

The third one sucked donkey balls in the most profound of ways.

[The Heartical Don]

  ...I will certainly investigate into that second B.A.D. album! I never knew what you write about it here... could become a totally unknown minor classic for me then.

At the time some parties were cynical about Joe (real name: Mellors), being a diplomat's son, lacking real integrity therefore. Now, if ever one singer through his art expressed honesty, it's Strummer. He carried some real, to me not traceable, pain in his voice (perhaps a very strict upbringing, devoid of emotion and with mental abuse? Could very well be, in those circles).
What's that song called again, from Combat Rock, about Errol Flynn's song, a war reporter? I hear Joseph singing in my head right now... 'You Know He Heard The Drums Of War..../When The Past Was A Closing Door...'. Great stuff.

[lance]

I've read the slags of Strummer for his background. But that is irrelevant. If anything the working class Jones was the rock-star baby phoney-pants of the group.  Strummer meant that merda all the way, every interview I've read with him from during or after the Clash exudes real soul. The Clash needed Jones, but it WAS Strummer who was at it's soul. He articulated a vision of punk rock that was angry, uplifting, intelligent, political, compassionate. And, oddly, irony-free. Pure soul.
Utterly unique.

If you don't know where I come from, better steer clear off my trail
From the dark side of London, and that's way beyond the pale
Now St. George used his sword on the immigrant poor
Cause he couldn't kill no dragon
And if I was in there shoes, I'd say Soweto's gonna happen here too...

These are the words I can't get out of my head.

No. 10 Upping Street is the name of the album.



I think the name of that song might be Sean Flynn?

[The Heartical Don]

It is! You got me there. I knew the guy in the song is called Sean Flynn, but I wouldn't have guessed that the song bears the name as its title.
At any rate, wonderful stuff. As is: Straight To Hell. 'It Ain't Coca-Cola... It's Rice'.

Thanks for quoting etc. Makes me really hungry to seek a bit further.

[Alex]

Do you remember the  band Simonon had in 1988? Because I can't remember

Big Audio Dynamite???

[lance]

NO, it was Havana 3AM.

BAD was Mick Jones' band.