Clash (US)
Give 'em Enough Rope
London Calling
Sandinista!
Combat Rock
The Clash, however, were a lot more intelligent, at least in their music. And they certainly did not shy away from politics, speaking to the ‘working-class angry young men’ of Britain and maybe America. Oddly enough, lead singer Joe Strummer was middle-class, but I’m sure he sympathized with the aforementioned AYM. And they made a much bigger leap out of punk than Los Ramones. While the Ramones pushed their ‘60s fixation to the max with 1980's End of the Century, they fell back into three-chord fare afterwards. The same time the Ramones were doing that, the Clash were stretching their musical chops with London Calling and Sandinista, rapidly growing out of punk and taking on all kinds of genres! However, they overreached with Sandinista and somewhat fizzled out, managing one good album (Combat Rock) and one supposedly-atrocious one (Cut the Crap). I’ve heard neither, but I’ll definitely check out the former someday.
Musically, these guys were topnotch. They arguably had more talent than the Ramones at their instruments, and their songwriting was definitely more ‘mature’ than that of the Ramones (then again, a good deal of the Ramones’ output was dumb on purpose, thus giving it a charm). They did the whole punk thing and pulled it off well, but as they got into the London Calling era, both areas peaked nicely. But through all of their career, they always found a nice balance between Strummer’s tough songwriting/gruff voice and Jones’ pop sensibility/more commercial voice.
Anyway, this intro has kind of sucked, so lemme end it. The Clash were not as catchy as the Ramones, but they definitely took punk beyond what anyone would have expected. End of story. And here’s the lineup:
Joe Strummer- rhythm guitar, lead vocals.
Mick Jones- lead guitar, vocals. Left in 1985 to form Big Audio Dynamite.
Paul Simonon- bass, occasional vocals.
Topper Headon- drums, vocals (well, only on “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe”!).
1977
Technically, the above date and album release don’t match. Y’see, Clash was not even released in the US back in ‘77, only in the UK. Suppose someone thought the American public would be scared off by Strummer’n’Jones. A few years later, the album was finally released in the States, with five concurrent Clash singles replacing four tracks off the UK release. Why was this done? To create confusion!!! Ha!!! Today, you can find both the US and the UK issues on CD. My copy is the US release, as you can see. I won’t be doing any comparing between issues, all I can say is that the quality of the five ‘singles’ is higher than the four UK-only songs (I did obtain them and will discuss them after the review) and strengthen the US release’s case.
All of the singles do stick out like a sore thumb, since the production is richer and fuller than on the original tunes. But they’re mostly awesome! “Clash City Rockers” opens the album, and it’s a great little ‘anthem’ with a very clever nicking of the famous “Can’t Explain” riff. “I Fought The Law” isn’t as special as that Bobby Fuller Four original, but still rawks my boo-tay. “(White Man In) Hammersmith Palais” sees them doing reggae-rock; it’s reggae, but it’s still got that edgy hard-guitar sound. “Complete Control” has a nice buildup, but Mick Jones’ “Jail Guitar Doors” is a tad dull. Still, those are damn fine songs.
Now on to the ten numbers from the original Clash that made it onto the US release. Back then, they were completely doing the punk thing. Not that they weren’t punk on the above tracks, but here it’s a bit more apparent, with the requisite speedy tempos and the samey-type production. The best of the lot has to be the ultracatchy “I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.”, which is funny in that it’s more apathetic than hate-filled. In the end, isn’t that worse? I do also dig the hook-fests “White Riot” and “London’s Burning,” the young-man-blues lament of “Career Opportunities,” and the rock-life anthem “Janie Jones.”
But the punk blast does get generic after awhile, and some songs don’t have enuff hooks to get me through the night (“What’s My Name,” “Hate and War,” “Garageland”). Since I so love diversity, I can look at “Remote Control” and “Police and Thieves” as the most promising of the original ten. The former is Mick’s, a great pop-oriented tune with his crystal-clear vocals. At least compared to Strummer’s. The latter is their first step into the world of reggae, and actually almost crosses the six-minute barrier! It’s more timid than stuff like “Hammersmith,” but it’s still great in its own right. Listen to that ‘oh yeahhhh’ parts after every title repetition! Ain’t it great?
The revised Clash was a great sort of ‘introduction’ to the Clash, for the States audience at least. I don’t think many of ‘em ran out and got Give ‘Em Enough Rope, so this album kinda set the stage for London Calling here. Despite the production disparity between the singles and everything else, the song quality on this Clash is pretty strong, enough for a nice 8 score.
(P.S. I promised I’d say a few words about the four UK-only tracks. The midtempo “Deny” is the most melodic, and my fave. A lotta people slag “48 Hours,” but I think it’s a fun take on the weekend. “Cheat” and Mick’s “Protex Blue” are noticeably weaker, however. I’d probably give the UK release a 7.)
1978
Mehhh. I smell sophomore slump. The band brought aboard Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman and tried for a more mainstream sound here, to gain an audience in the same U.S.A. they’re so bored with. Whatever. The production IS more upfront than on Clash, but the band forgot to bring some hooks, and there isn’t much musical progression from Clash. Some parts of Give 'Em Enough Rope point to great things on London Calling, but overall it’s a disappointing album after a great debut.
One thing about Rope: it starts and ends with a bang. Most people love the opening “Safe European Home,” as do I. What a cool pop-rock tune with great calls-and-responses everywhere. Joe says his lines, and Mick follows with ‘wheeeeere’ja go?’ every time! The closer “All the Young Punks” has a lovely sad/hopeful melody and can be viewed as an end to their pure-punk era. Sandwiched in between, I like “Tommy Gun” mainly for the artillery-sounding drums.
Now, “Julie’s Been Working For the Drug Squad” seems to be reviled across Clash-dom. Why?? It’s a funny little Southern-rock soundalike, with a “Willie and the Hand Jive”-esque chorus. Not my favorite, but I still like. But more than that, it’s a shot of diversity, that looks ahead to the panorama of London Calling. If you don’t like “Drug Squad” for being different and yet praise London Calling for its diversity, you’re one hippocrite.
Two other songs have grown on me and are definitely in the dark-horse category. “Last Gang in Town” seems to drag a little, but it has a great, subtle buildup and an unexpected minor chord shift at the end. To make things more ominous. Mick’s lone spotlight “Stay Free” has a great pop melody, and is strangely affecting. It’s about Mick’s childhood chum who had just been released from jail. All that nostalgia and such really does touch me, in an odd way.
Too bad the rest of Rope ain’t worth spit. “English Civil War” is basically a Clash-ified rewrite of the traditional tune “The Ants Go Marching One By One (‘Til the Little One Stopped to Wipe His Bum).” Not exactly a beacon of creativity. Nor is “Guns on The Roof,” distinguished only by the exact same guitar riff as “Can’t Explain.” Nooo guys! “Clash City Rockers” was a nice twist of said riff, “Guns” is a note-for-note copy. Finally, “Cheapskates” and “Drug Stabbing Time” have nothing going for them. Nothing. Hell, I still can’t recall how the former goes. At least the latter had a saxophone. What a letdown.
Ahh yes, Give Em Enough Rope has the decent-hooks-for-better-production-values tradeoff, which didn’t quite work. Good thing the great melodies on the bookend tracks and the left-field “Drug Squad” were foreshadowing. Because the rest sounds uninspired. If I hadn’t discovered “Last Gang” and “Stay Free” after a while, Rope may have gotten a nasty four. As is, those discoveries add on two points for a decent 6.
1979
Allright! This is some awesome stuff! This album has been highly revered and given all kinds of awards and lauded as the “best album of the ‘80s” and all that. A word about that last part: London Calling came out in late December of ‘79! You can’t really call it the best of the ‘70s or ‘80s, maybe the best of the ‘cusp??? Back to the album itself, it can’t help but be a eensy bit overrated, since it’s not as perfect as everyone makes it out to be. Take the album as it is, a great melting pot with the band’s musicality, songwriting, and sense of melody at an all-time high for them. Filler is abound, especially toward the last third, but that takes nothing away from the classics that too are abound.
In fact, that first 12-song stretch is amazing!! Except for the dull lounge “Jimmy Jazz” and the hookless Montgomery Clift tribute “The Right Profile,” it’s spot-on perfect. Why look at the first two songs: that title track has its rightful place in rock’n’roll history, with a great use of echoey production and a stomping, apocalyptic feel that truly is a blast to listen to. It’s followed by the menacing “Brand New Cadillac,” one of the best retro songs ever done, by anyone! It puts the Stray Cats to shame. Shame on you, Brian Setzer! You and your orchestra too!
The other songs in that great stretch, as well as London Calling as a whole, have one big quality: they’re far removed from punk. Some songs still rock out, like the powerful “Clampdown” and the ‘mature’ “Death or Glory.” But more often, their sound is softer and more poppy. “Spanish Bombs” and “Lost in the Supermarket” are good examples of that pop-rock. Both are supremely catchy. The former renders a grim subject singalongable! ‘O my corazon’ indeed! The latter is really sad/alienated but catchy, and one of my friends always thought this was a ‘90s song until he heard this album. Them Clash were clairvoyants, no?
Did I mention the melting pot?? Because not only is the album diverse, it sure has an interesting meshing of styles. Take the quirky “Wrong ‘em Boyo.” Forget the false-start organ breakdown, look at the next part. It sounds like a ska band trying to cover “Sea Cruise”! Really, listen to that horn part after ‘don’t you know that it’s wrong.’ Lemme take you on a sea cruise! Two songs on here use weird permutations of the Bo Diddley beat: the drug-dealer-praising “Hateful” has a hyper working of the beat, and “Rudie Can’t Fail” puts it in a reggae setting. Both are also catchy, by the way. Speaking of reggae, Paul Simonon comes through with the hard-hitting “Guns of Brixton,” which is probably more authentic than “Rudie.”
Problems pop up during the last six songs. “I’m Not Down” is another great example of genre-mixing, and I even kind of appreciate the punk throwback “Koka Kola” more than before. But elsewhere, “The Card Cheat” makes me very uncomfortable. I have no aversion to the Spector-by-way-of-Springsteen sound used herein, but it just doesn’t work here. I thought the punks hated Brucie! “Four Horsemen” is another one of those hookless rockers that shoulda been on Rope, “Revolution Rock” isn’t very good reggae, and “Lover’s Rock” is the worst of the lot, as they veer too far into ‘70s AOR ala “The Pina-Colada Song.”
As you can see, London Calling takes a lot of chances, and not all of it works. Still, I have a huge love for diversity, so this album is IT for me. Oh, I almost forgot the hidden wonder: their first hit single: Mick’s “Train In Vain.” People say it’s new-wave, but I dunno, I just hear a fun little harmonica shuffle, and the most catchy melody ever penned by the Clash. Makes a better closer than “Revolution Rock,” and gives me another good reason to give London Calling a 9. Very ambitious, and cool.
1980
Oy. Getting into this album was no easy task. It took me about a month to assemble this 3-album monstrosity, though luckily it was room enough for two CD’s. I went about it one CD at a time, seeing that taking it all at once would be the end of me. As I listened to only one CD at a time while getting tracks down, I will focus my review on one CD at a time. Just thought I’d get that out of the way. So, what’s the scoop on Sandinista? It seems either the Clash wanted to experiment even more than before, or maybe they had to fulfill some contractual obligations. Or maybe both. Their lyrics are their most political to date, being leftist enough to piss off/freak out Sean Hannity. And the sound is much less upfront than on London Calling, a lot more echo-ey and muddy. What’s more, synthesizers are brought into the subject, which makes some tracks annoying.
Truth be told, there are some great tunes on Sandinista, quite a share of those. However, while there was some filler on London, yes, some parts of the album give new meanings to the word ‘filler.’ It would be nice if they did more experiments, like the spooky backwards-tape collage “Mensforth Hill” and the hilarious kids choir-sung “Career Opportunities” (a knock at Pink Floyd’s bit on “Another Brick In the Wall”??). But most of the filler is in the form of unremarkable tunes and dub remixes of previous songs. I admit, I’m not as open-minded to dub as I could be, but those should have just stayed to B-sides and not taken up album space. But let’s get to the album itself, shall we?
CD 1. Definitely the stronger of the two CD’s on Sandinista. In math terms, half of this CD is flat-out brilliant, a third stinks, and the rest is OK. Things are kicked off with a great funk-rap offering “Magnificent Seven.” Not that I’m a huge fan of rap, but it’s got a bassline to kill for, and some Chic-like guitar parts. The best rap done by British dudes, at least until the Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls.” Ha. Next up is the power-pop “Hitsville U.K.,” one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard in a while. The melody is pretty simple, but it’s one of those that makes you nostalgic...I don’t know why, but it does. The girl on the lead vocals is Ellen Foley, of Meat Loaf (yuck) fame. Weird, eh? Boy, the second straight powerful one-two punch for the Clash!
Aside from that, the Clash have several awesome reggae tunes: the manic “Junco Partner,” Paul Simonon’s stuttering “The Crooked Beat,” and my personal favorite “One More Time,” with a depressing piano melody that I can listen to all day. I’m not even all that mad about the dub cut “One More Dub” coming right afterwards! Mick’s pop-rock sense shines through on the almost-stately “Something About England” (much better than “Card Cheat”) and especially on the chilling “Somebody Got Murdered.”
Drummer Topper Headon gets his first lead on the crazy video-arcade-sounding “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe,” which I actually hated the first time around, stupidly. They even throw in a mock-gospel number, “The Sound of Sinners,” which is so damn catchy that you’d have to have a huge anti-gospel bias not to groove to it. Love those ‘juuuudgment day’ vocals all throughout! Some not-quite-as-awesome numbers include the inessential but still nifty rockabilly “The Leader,” a more labored funk-rap song “Lightning Strikes,” and the driving but anonymous rocker “Up In Heaven.” The other songs aren’t worth mentioning, or else they’re stuff like “One More Dub.” I guess I’d give this portion of Sandinista a 7.
CD 2. Problems start to set in on this CD. The ratio of good to bad is reversed, now half of the album is forgettable and only a third is brilliant! Dang! The high points are still very enjoyable. “Police On My Back” is one of the hardest rockers on the entire collection, and is very cool. Eddy Grant (he of “Electric Avenue”) performed the original, which the Clash transformed from reggae to rock. Hmm! “Charlie Don’t Surf” is another maddenly catchy tune with sitars and a melody reminiscent of the Searcher’s “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”! Really! “Lose This Skin” comes out of left-field, as it is written and sung by some dude named Tymon Dogg. Some people hate it cuz Ty sounds like Geddy Lee, but I think it’s a hoot. Love that fiddle!
As far as reggae goes, there’s the haunting “Washington Bullets,” which is even more scathing than “I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.” “The Call-Up” is even creepier, a gloomy tune with anti-army lyrics. With the threat of a draft hanging over America in the next few years, this hits home very hard to a non-fighter such as I. I also give props to the mild-disco track “Version City.” Slightly weaker are the inessential but still nifty rockabilly “Midnight Log” and the oddly-catchy “Kingston Advice.” Except for the aforementioned “Mensforth” and “Career Opportunties,” the rest of CD 2 consists of indistinguishable songs and some more dub for youse. Mehhh. CD 2 would get a 5, seeing how half the damn CD is Fillersville U.K.
Overall, Sandinista can’t hope to equal the brilliant London Calling, as the Clash overreach and throw in way too much samey filler. The highlights are right up there with those on London, which makes Sandinista even more frustrating. Oh what could have been? I know I gave CD 1 a 7 and CD 2 a 5, so the final grade should average out to 6. But you know what? I’ll be nicer and upgrade to a 7. Cuz “Magnificent Seven” and “Hitsville U.K.” rule mi mundo.
1982
What’s that? The Clash does a single album? The audacity of those guys!!! Then again, while Combat Rock is a single album, that doesn’t mean it’s normal. The first half of it is, but the last half continues in the weird randomness of Sandinista! Only problem is, that last half really isn’t that good. The first half does contain two of their biggest US hits, and some more typical Clash fare, albeit in different form.
The opener “Know Your Rights” is what I meant by the last statement. The song is Combat Rock’s only glance at the punk days, but it’s almost overly simplistic. Yes, that’s more or less only one note being played on the guitar over and over again. And no, you shouldn’t take that opening ‘public service announcement WITH GUITARS!’ too seriously. I still don’t know about that one. “Car Jamming” follows, a typically shuffling tune that wouldn’t be outta place on London Calling. Simonon’s “Red Angel Dragnet” isn’t reggae like his other efforts, more of a new-wave styling that’s mostly spoken. It even quotes Taxi Driver! I never seen it though, I must suck.
What about the hits??? The first was Mick’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” a vastly overrated poppy rock song. I dunno, I just find it repetitive and not nearly as tasty-yummy as “Train In Vain.” Even bigger was “Rock the Casbah,” and I will never play the skeptic on that one. To a lotta people, it’s the only Clash song they know. Well...it could have been worse. But “Casbah” is the catchiest thing ever, about rock music invading the Middle East. You knew that! “Straight to Hell” was not a hit, but is fairly well-known. I really like it, it’s chilling reggae, maybe my second favorite on Combat Rock after “Casbah.”
But that second half...experimentsville, baby. And I don’t care for none of them. “Inoculated City” probably comes closest to me, even though it’s a normal pop song that would have only been like a minor gem on side 13 of Sandinista! The other ‘normal’ pop song “Atom Tan” sounds like “Corner Soul” from Sandinista! (not a compliment, “Corner” was very nondescript). We also got a failed attempt at funk in “Overpowered by Funk,” the bo-o-ring sax-noodling “Sean Flynn,” an unclassifiable “Ghetto Defendant” (featuring mumblings from Michael Savage’s buddy Allan Ginsberg), and some weird folk parody “Death is a Star.” Ginsberg’s megapolis-populace rhymes are probably the highlights of that side.
Too bad for the Clash. Sandinista! obviously took a lot out of them, understandably. They still experiment on Combat, but it sounds more tired than before, and they miss more than they hit. Plus, ‘80s production shows up on some songs, mostly in the form of loud drumming (“Should I Stay”). They did have hits from the album, but it turned out to be their last go-round, as Mick Jones left the stage afterwards. The Clash went on to make Cut the Crap, which the entire human race hates, I guess. So I’m scared to listen to it.