The Clash First Album Reviewed

OCT 2, 2022

I remember the week before the release well, on the Friday I walked up the Kings Road from my flat in Fulham. I did this quite regularly when I was being a bored teenager, my route would be going up the New Kings Road which is in Fulham then following the street up until I got to the Worlds End estate which to me was the beginning of the fashionable thoroughfare. Just before the kink to the left in the road was Vivian and Malcolm’s shop which normally seemed to have a glaring shop assistant in the door way, I always avoided it as I couldn’t afford their prices (I seem to think a parachute shirt was £60, a lot of money in 77….but I might be totally wrong. What I do know is the stuff was beyond what I was prepared to pay).

Next up was Beaufort Street Market, a big mock tudor building which had a warren of stalls inside. I had a few mates who has rented space so would pop in there every time, mainly to chat. Up past the Roebuck pub and further along to Boy (Punk shop) to ogle at a pair of black bondage trousers which I could afford. Moving on towards Sloane Square was the Chelsea Drug Store which was another building converted into a market, lots of hippy clothes with the odd punk stall. After that I would turn back and retrace my steps, if I hadn’t popped into the Roebuck on the way up then I would do so on the way back, it was the place where punks hung out. This time I bumped into Bruno and about five of his mates. Having purchased my Cider I made my way to his group. Now Bruno wasn’t really a mate but we had been to school together, he was two years older than me so had already left by 77. Someone looked at my Clash slogans penned on my white T Shirt and asked if I had the album, it doesn’t come out until next week was my reply…….We’ve already got it…..what’s it like……brilliant replied Bruno, “sold out album by a sell out band” muttered his mate, obviously referring to the band signing with a major American label which was about as unpunk as you can get. I was really jealous, and it was due to this conversation that I remember where I was the week before.

So the next week off I went to my local record shop and there waiting for me was a copy of The Clash’s debut long player. I was like a dog with two willies on the bus home devouring every detail on the cover. Great punk picture on the front, three angry men staring defiantly at you, daring you to buy their disc. On the back was a scene from the riots, police on the move an indicator to the defiance within. Home, straight into my room putting the platter on to my portable music centre (When you packed it up it looked like a brief case!).

Janie Jones, Remote Control rip off the turn table, this is what I have been waiting for……next up Bored with The USA sums up the punk ethos of doing stuff for ourselves rather than becoming a 51st state. White Riot was a disappointment, not the song but the fact that a single appeared on the album, I thought this band were all about value and not getting the kids to pay for something they already had, and we all did, as punk was so new with very little recorded material we all had the 20 single that had been attributed to “punk” bands even if in some cases they clearly were not. The great thing was this offering captured the rawness of punk as it was in the clubs. Just as I was thinking side one couldn’t get much better Joe’s gravelly voice announced “London’s Burning” and everything went up a notch.

Side two kicks off with Career Opportunities, if ever a song was going to resonate with the disaffected youth of 77 then this was it, sung in the heads of a generation waiting to have that fateful meeting with the careers teacher….what would you like to do…….I’d like to be a marine biologist Sir……Good, I have got you an interview for British Leyland production line……..this face of the disc continues to spit out Clash rhetoric until the 12th song a cover of Jr Marvin’s “Police & Thieves” the juxtaposition of the reggae classic throws a spanner in the work of quick fire punk which strangely makes the record. Then it’s back into the groove ending with the fabulous Garageland which is still an earworm of mine over 40 years later.

I absolutely loved this opening offering, My friend’s Mark and Graham would sit in my room and listen to it endlessly. This truly was the sound of 77 along with the lyrics that reflected our world. Many bands that followed had their raw punk smoothed over by record company production, but The Clash and The Damned with their early to market product captured the essence. Later to follow Sex Pistol produced a record that vocally shouted punk but musically hollered heavy metal, Steve Jones guitar is absolutely titan and Slash from Gun’s n Roses sights it as a major influence on his playing. We probably have a record company exec at CBS to thank for this album, I am sure the reason it came out so quickly is that the management view was to get it out as soon as possible as this genre was only a passing fad, so getting the songs out was more important than the finesse…….and anyway they thought it all sounded crap so didn’t matter how raw it was.

I hadn’t listened to this record for at least 25 years when I got a record player for Christmas and the first LP I got was The Clash…..by the way I hate it when bands have self titled discs, really how difficult is it to come up with a name…..and isn’t that part of the fun! So on it went and a legion of emotions jumped back at me, some buried in the back of my mind from what seems like a life time ago. It is a raw offering but that is the appeal, I would have thought any 20 year old jumping on to Spotify will immediately spot this is a young (well youngish, they seemed old to my 17 year old self) band on the first steps. Some of the lyrics are of the time but the power of the music and anthemic lyrical columns convey us to greater things. It is clearly a classic of it's genre but lacks a more general appeal to make it a “classic album”……and I am sure that punk who popped into the Roebuck for a cider those many years ago would have thought that was a good thing. It’s still 35 minutes of magic, 14 songs 10 of which are under two minutes and 26 seconds!

So I will wander off down the Kings Road, as usual I will stop at the chippy near the Worlds End pub and order a large bag of chips to eat on my walk back to my flat…..if you see a bloke with a slim lapelled charcoal grey jacket, ripped at the shoulder held together with safety pins and loads of chains (stolen from the cinqs at school)…….that will be me so stop and say hello……see you with the second album review next week.