The Clash. A Reflection
11 NOV 2022
Having reviewed each album over the last six weeks just reaffirms what a great band they were. Yes they could have done things better, but that’s easier to say in hindsight. This journey reconnected me with the excitement of discovering new music and being part of what became a global youth movement at its infancy. The UK in 76 we had three television stations and between two and five music radio stations depending where you lived, BBC Radio 1, the local commercial station churning out pop and MOR and those whacky boys at Radio Luxembourg……it was a very rare thing to get any punk being played, our main source was a show that was run by John Peel on Radio1 that went out between 10pm and midnight during weekdays. Whilst Mr Peel had an ear for new off centre trends in 76 he was very much an “old hippy” so lying in bed with a transistor radio, using the single earphone (a great design which allowed you to hear your parents walk up the stairs so you could switch your light out and pretend you were asleeep!) we would wait and hope for a punk song to appear. John’s soothing tones would grace the segways “That’s another fine song from Roy Harper’s excellent HQ album released last year, next we have a session from those rascals The Damned”….cue New Rose
We were all desperate for material an when The Clash produced a new single we all got it straight away, when the Snivelling Shits, Eater, TV Personalities etc singles came out we did the same…….early albums from The Ramones and The Vibrators got played continiously as did the debut from the Clash when it arrived.
The best thing about the band in 76-79 was they had everything, great music, great clothes that we could buy or make ourselves, a message that resonated with the youth unemployment of the era, previous reseassions had seen older manual workers laid off as they were not as productive as the young. In a shifting ecomomy the market would produce more with trained opprotives so trainees got ditched to save costs leading to the disafected youth of the day. But most of all they put on a great live show, fast short anthemic sound bites of a generation, coupled with a strong visual image and stagecraft born from a strong touring ethic. This comes across with the initial album simply reflecting the rawness of the live product.
Give ‘em Enough Rope was the LP for them to break into the US market, slicker than before with a slower paced disc as effort to win over the rock based FM stations that dominated serious music in America.
As the band got older and more musically proficent this allowed them to explore…..yes the band could have stuck with the White Riot blueprint but it wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting an adventure. London Calling and Sandinista! saw the band challenge both themselves and their audience into new directions. During this time the strong visual images mad morphed into a different direction with a more American 50’s gangster feel reflecting the styles that Johnson’s shop on the Kings Road were selling, visually Paul Simonon really stood out with his slicked back hair and shirts with cut off sleeves whilst twanging his low slumg bass an iconic look replicated by players ever since.
Combat Rock saw their most successful commercial period, Rock The Casbah being a favourite on the newly launched MTV and then a few years later Should I Go Or Should I Stay reignighted sales making this the number 1 seller in the catalogue. By this time Britain had fallen out of love with the band and they had fallen out of love with each other. Mick left and formed his own band Big Audio Dynamite producing a series of albums, whilst Joe soldiered on with his back to punk Cut The Crap……..of which I am currently listening to the remixed version Cut The Crap Rebooted (Mowhawk Revenge) worth a listen on YouTube, Gerald Mann had added in real drums and taken out a lot of the annoying samples, actually this is The Clash.
I have always liked the Clash’s reggae output, not so much a cover as an interpretation of the genre. So one night I find myself at the Mojo magazine awards whose guests inluded Jimmy Page, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Harley and Prince Buster to name a few. So after the ceremony a party was held, sponsored by Mount Gay rum, in a big room upstairs. As a token of respect to our sponsor I had consumed a few of their beverages when I spotted Mick Jones and at this point I thought it would be a great time to pitch my idea for a Clash reggae complilation with remixes and dubs….he was ver nice and listened until half way through our chat Pete Shelley appeared and having supported our sponsor to a greater degree than me, he put his head on my shoulder and just closed his eyes and rested…….we both laughed and Mick said it was a good idea and wandered off. Mick was probably thanking Pete for saving him from a drunken idiot…..however I do think it is a good idea. Before you say it, there is a Clash dub album on YouTube which is well worth a listen and would give you a taster as to what a whole catalogue version would be like.
There are other albums out there, The Story of The Clash is a brilliant walk through the band with the bonus of having non album singles on it. I quite like the Shea Stadium album which is a sort of myth by it’s self…..yes the Clash did play Shea Stadium but it was as the support band to The Who! Post that the next year they toured smaller venues across the USA. Finally, controversially, I really like the second USA album which is a regigged version of The Clash (UK first album which wasn’t released in America), US version has White Man, Jail Guitar Doors and Clash City Rockers on it.
So ending this series it’s been great to meet this band again, the journey was fanominal. So as I sit here at midnight looking into the flames of my fire with a glass of Talasker I am contemplating my next musings…..maybe something about David Bowie, The Stranglers or even The Ramones…….who knows…..until the next time and thanks for reading
