16 Oct, 2022

The end of 1979, seems like a musical life time between the first album and the release of their third. By now I am working in a record shop in Soho, which gives me my own vinyl Spotify. All five people who work at the shop get to choose what comes out of the speakers so we have a cosmopolitan selection of New Wave, Gay disco, MOR and punk.

Music under the banner of indy had fragmented into an exciting spectrum of sounds and influences. Ska, modern folk, industrial, new wave, electronic, dance, Mod and punk to try and pigeon hole the varieties. Most of these movements, though wildly different, owed their origins to the spirit of the punk movement. More importantly to punk this was the beginning of the great divide.

Punks in 76 had been a small group of people and a few bands, but the success of the bands attracted more and more followers which produced more bands which were able to cater for individual tastes. In 76 we sort of liked everyone, some bands were more garage, others a bit more arty but they were all punk. As we moved into the new decade there were many more followers and lots of new exciting bands. This choice gave punks the option to follow many different bands in the area they liked. For me there were two clear choices, Art Punk or Raw Punk. The later drew on the short sharp tunes that we heard in the first Clash album, in your face with a message. Where as Art Punk had slowed down a bit and was experimenting with sound and more surreal messages. Or going back to a root, Raw Punk’s grandfather was the Stooges, Art Punk came from a Velvet Underground heritage.

Of an evening I am still going to two gigs a week, mainly seeing the emerging bands that would dominate the early 80’s. But I was also popping into the newly emergent Soho club scene. Just round the corner to the shop was an old disco called Whisky A Go Go which was starting to do alternative nights, further north on Oxford St was Studio 21 hosted by Jock MacDonald or a jump away The Blitz club which my friend John Crancher and I used to go to. The nice thing was these clubs were great places to meet up and plot plans to take over the world. Dave Archer and Rusty Egan’s musical choices were an eclectic mix of emerging music and older music we had never heard…..Could be something from the US like James Chance or Chocolate Watchband, maybe sounds from Germany like  DAF or Marlene Dietrich. The great thing was these places were melting pots of likeminded people exempt from the football terrace violence that marred the gig scene at the time.

So come a day in December 79 and our shop gets a whole stack of the new long player from The Clash “London Calling” with it’s uber cool cover showing the smoothest member of the band, Paul Simonon, beating his bass guitar to death on stage, it’s a double album usually the domain of hippies. Popular folklore was that Joe has once stated that you would never pay more the £5 for a Clash album so the only way round it was to produce at double album which I think retailed at £7.99. As we slipped it on the turntable I remember we were all interested to see if this was going to be a further decline after the disappointing sophomore offering.

Brilliant start with the title track, not the rapid sound of 77 but the new producer Guy Stevens was off to a great start, ripping in next with a cover of a rockabilly classic, Vince Taylor’s Brand New Cadillac which seems to have walked out of that smart new shop on the Kings Road called Johnson’s a fusion Punk Rock n Roll boutique. Jimmy Jazz takes another turn in a different musical avenue, slow punk jazz with horns on which you could argue a piano would have been a better accompanying instrument than the guitar. Hateful moves back to a pseudo rock n roll punk but never really takes off in the way Cadillac does. Side 1 finishes with a caribbeanistic number, Rudie Can’t Fail, which gets a big thumbs up from Clash fans as reggae was always associated with the band.

Side 2 Spanish Bombs, a jaunty number about terrorism which is almost a duet between Joe and Mick. That same frivolity carries on with The Right Profile, it’s not the foot stomping Clash of 77 but most tracks are foot tappers. Lost in the Supermarket sees Mick take on the singing which gives Joe’s lyrics more of a Kinksy feel than he would have done had Joe’s raspy voice taken the lead singing about consumerism. Clampdown has the feel of a Clash meets Mott The Hoople which is in fact what this was as Guy Stevens had worked with Ian Hunter’s Mott-ley crew. The first platter then finishes with Simonon’s vocal for the excellent reggae themed Guns of Brixton…..a gruelling walk down the back streets of London SW9.

Side 3 kicks off with Wrong Em Boyo, more West Indian feelgood vibes with a nod to the current Ska vogue sweeping the nation. Death or Glory, Koka Kola and The Card Cheat sound like too many songs from Rope that really could have done with 77 style production, more speed and some raw power. Boyo is the best track but the rest plod a bit, Card Cheat sounds very 70’s glam rock and could easily be on The Hoople.

Side 4 begins with another nod to the latest musical fashion, lovers rock which was a slow dance version of reggae being played in the clubs. Whilst Lovers Rock isn’t actually Lovers Rock it is a slow ambling song that doesn’t really suit Joe’s voice. Four Horsemen sounds like a filler in need of more pace and some heroic drums. Jonesy takes us through I’m Not Down which like so many songs has potential but lacks fulfilment. Revolution Rock brings us back to the Clash with a fine bit of reggae complemented by Micky Gallagher’s organ and the Irish Horns giving the track a live feel similar to Marley’s Live album. Train in Vain though not listed on the cover finished off the latest Clash odyssey with a MJ foot tapper. For me the last two tracks are the best things on the second disc.

At the time I remember this was a marmite album, loved and hated in equal measures. Opinion in the record store was generally that it lacked direction and the band seemed to be looking to jump on a Rockabilly, Ska, British Reggae, New Wave band waggon but couldn’t decide which one. They seemed to have moved on the musicality adding in a horn section and a keyboard would widen the appeal out into the audience that Elvis Costello was appealing to, particularly in the USA where their sound was nearer to Springsteen and Southside Johnny than it was to the UK Subs or Stiff Little Fingers. My world was moving on and my gig nights where more likely to be seeing a guitar band like Joy Division at the YMCA near Tottenham Court Road or watching John McGeogh inventing new guitar sounds with Magazine at Brunel University.

Looking back on this album today I am not so hung up on the pick n mix of musical genres, in some ways it does still mean that the album lacks continuity but on the other side the broadness of the cannon makes it the disc loved by so many. My core belief from 79 is still the same, this was a classic single album:

London Calling, Cadillac, Rudie, Spanish Bombs, Boyo, Supermarket, Guns of Brixton, Rev Rock and Train in Vain…..that would have been a cracker.

So having paid our £2.45 to get into Studio 21 at 11pm, we had eaten our free burger and chips that Jock needed to serve to maintain a licence as a restaurant rather than night club….or some such thing. Chat would have been about all the new records that had come out as we eyed up who was in tonight and who wasn’t. At about 3am Dave Archer was playing the Velvets Sunday Morning followed by John Handy’s soulboy classic Hard Work. Time to say goodbye to Jackie and Sally, arrange to meet Vaughn at the Whiskey and see Jerry at Martian Dance. John and Chris and I walked back to Fulham to my flat, stopping to salivate over the leather jacket in the Johnson’s window with the skull and crossbones buttons………..

I know this is generally heralded as the Clash’s classic album…….so have your say and make a comment….after all that’s the fun of social media forums