The Clash

I might finally get round to buying London Calling.It got mentally thrown out with most of the other punk crap at the time. Only the Stranglers from that era have found there way into my collection.

Howard

I too do not own London Calling. I might try to pick up an old Vinyl version, as the cover is one of these best ever produced (IMO).

Greeny
A couple of reasonable looking LPs on E-bay at the mo.

Howard

Am I the only one suffering major cognitve dissonance between the two following statements from BigH47:

"It got mentally thrown out with most of the other punk crap at the time"

"Only the Stranglers from that era have found there way into my collection"

Matthew

PS IMNAAHO Not owning "London Calling" is like not owning "Pet Sounds" or "Revolver".

I loved The Clash. I saw them and The Pistols in the same week, and one oxing Day saw them in a club in an arch under the Westway, for 50p. The stage was about a foot high, and this was after the first album was released.

It pains me to say it but IMO London Calling is not the great album its reputation says it is. I recently bought it, and struggled to hear the whole album.

The first clash album though, is, IMO, truly great.

Howard - tried The Banshees / Buzzcocks?

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

quote:

---

It pains me to say it but IMO London Calling is not the great album its reputation says it is. I recently bought it, and struggled to hear the whole album.

The first clash album though, is, IMO, truly great.

---

Damned right. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this.

-- Ian

SSB -- YOu've been listening to too much Ornette and your brain has become addled.

Matthew

Very possibly Matthew. In my defence: When the first album came out I remember being completely blown away, at the time I preferred the Clash to the Pistols (with hindsight, I think I was mistaken, but that's a different story). Give Em Enough Rope was a comparative disappointment, although "Safe European Home" is still probably one of my favourite Clash songs. By the time of London Calling I thought they were beginning to believe the publicity, that they were the future of rock n roll rather than one of rock n roll's destroyers. It all got a bit Po-Faced Epic Guitar Rock for me, I preferred it when they were kicking some serious arse. Even now, the first album (in either the UK or US versions) seems completely perfect to me, from start to finish.

-- Ian

Ian,

I agree that the first Clash album is perfect but London Calling is more perfecter. Although I was blown away by both I bought "London Calling" on release but missed the first album by a couple of years so it never felt like mine IYSWIM.

"Safe European Home" has always been one of my favourite tracks as well -- along with, in terms of being unhearalded, "White Man In Hammersmith Palais".

Matthew

Matthew is right.
London Calling is truly brilliant and IMHO the best album Clash ever did.
With the three first albums they got better and better. London Calling should not be missed by anyone.

Mathew I was in Battersea Park with my girlfriend when we came across a concert going on, we were able to see and hear resonably well from a high point. Yes it was the Stranglers their music hit a resonance with me that other punk had not, 99% of which I "mentally threw out" IMO they could actually play.The Clash went unheard and would have been in the mental bathwater.Don't know who this Major cognative dissonance is though. Is he Italian? I appear to be too stupid to understand that statement.
I have Pet Sounds and Revolver though.
Mike no I have not tried Banshees or Buzzcocks will investigate sometime.
No one try to get me into SPs it won't work.

Howard

Howard,

For your exploration of the Banshees and the Buzzcocks I suggest the Banshees performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test Vol.2 DVD, and the Buzzcocks album 'Another Music from a Different Kitchen'. If you don't like these then you can safely say that you just don't like punk, just like I just don't like hip-hop.

The Stranglers weren't punk, just a fine mid-ranking rock band with one or two memorable tunes that happened to be around in the punk era.

Just as a favour to me, give the SP's Anarchy in the UK, Pretty Vacant, and God Save the Queen one more blast on the stereo whilst the neighbours are out, and try to catch a glimpse of the sheer excitement the rest of us felt the first time we heard these.

For the record if I had to have only one Clash recording it would have to be 'Complete Control' a largely overlooked complete classic.

Any Clash album is worth listening to.

The singles to me were also some of the best of the punk era.

Thanks guys I'll look out for some Banshees(is that with/without Sousie or is it one and the same) and Buzzcocks.
As regards SPs there was so much shite and hype about them, and I can't stand the members or their management,so even to-day they are an instant turn off. I know it's my loss but I've managed 20 odd years without them I guess a few more won't hurt.

Howard

I largely agree with you about the singles thing, although punk and its immediate aftermath also produced loads of good albums (you were probably too old to appreciate them properly ).

Looking at the tracklisting for the first Clash album, anything on there would be a classic punk single ISTM.

Agree that "Complete Control" is the best thing the Clash ever did, I assumed everyone thought this.

Apart from maybe two songs, I always thought the Stranglers were crap.

-- Ian

I was waiting for ageist comments.
Nick's a mere child though.

Howard

One of the best Clash albums is From Here To Eternity. It just seems to explain what they were about.


And the best single IS White Man In Hammersmith Palais.



Nigel

Interesting.
I´ve never regarded London calling as solely a punk album.
I was 18 at that time and already a clash devotee. But the first time I heard L.C. I thought that Clash had made a "sell out"

However that album gave the listener a ticket into music that he or she might never heard of before. Johhny Burnette, Tennesee Ernie Ford ( his 16 tons was played in the PA before Clash went on stage), Toots and the Maytals, Booker T and the MG´s and Ray Charles ( There are bootlegs where Clash performs "Hit the road Jack").

The Clash first album is mainly a blend of Ramones and reggae. London calling is much more, R&B, rockabilly blended with punk and reggae. As the first came mostly from the throat, London calling came from the heart.

London Calling remains one of my alltime favorites. It is one of those records that are like an old friend. On a good day it makes me feel like I am 18 again.

The first Clash LP and From Here to Eternity should be sought out next before delving deeper into other things Clash.

Matt

quote:

---

Am I the only one suffering major cognitve dissonance between the two following statements from BigH47:

"It got mentally thrown out with most of the other punk crap at the time"

"Only the Stranglers from that era have found there way into my collection"

Matthew

PS IMNAAHO Not owning "London Calling" is like not owning "Pet Sounds" or "Revolver".

---

Back at work and feeling feisty so:

1) The Stranglers??? Punk??? Come on, even in '77 they were barely credible ( btw Lambchop did a cover of No More Heroes last time I saw them!) Maybe they could"play" - if coverbandbeforetheirtime Doors riffs is "playing", but they didn't produce anything worth listening to.(IMO, of course) First item for the prosecution,"Peaches" (although given the state of the sexual politics on this site I expect a post arguing that it's a classic!!)

2)As has been argued in other threads at other times, no-one needs a copy of Revolver, in fact no record containing Yellow Submarine or Taxman should be allowed into the house!!! I suppose it's better than Sgt Pepper though. Just.

3) Glad no-one mentioned The Jam. Does anyone else remember them singing the praises of the Tories when they first appeared? A bit of collective amnesia methinks.

4) Buzzcocks: Mmmmm

5) I think the American stuff has lasted better than the English, with the exception of the First Clash album and a handfull of singles (esp Buzzcocks). The Ramones first record still sounds great and the NY/New Wave stuff - Television, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Talking Heads still rings my bell while much of 77 vintage GB leaves me a little cold, even though I loved it to death back then.

Kevin

Good grief. There are actually people out there who think that London Calling is nothing special

Now, I'll grant you that, just like ALL other double albums, it has flaws across its' four sides but nevertheless it stands IMHO as simply a great album.

I don't care whether it was punk or not really. Indeed, much punk passed me by in a haze and struck me as comical. I would venture that there are clearly bits of The Clash (first album) that are simply unlistenable now.

I'm afraid, for me, it's one of THOSE albums. If you can't see what's so great about it; if you don't hear the sheer abandon, commitment and joie de vivre in its' grooves then I would wonder about you as a person.

Mike

London Calling is fabulous, essential etc etc. But I rarely play sides 3 & 4.

Give 'Em Enough Rope - considered a sellout (horror of horrors, produced by an American rock bloke) at the time - has aged very well.

I agree with Kevin about time being kind to some of the American stuff. But among the Brit albums that still sounds good to me: early Wire, Elvis Costello, XTC, Magazine. That's enough. My brain has seized up...

Its Siouxsie, BTW.

The first Banshees album ( The Scream ) is very probably not what you would expect, should you not have heard it before. It is a bit like a slightly cheeerd up Joy Division, not pop at all.

To get an idea of the VERY early days of UK punk, there is a live album "Live at the Roxy" which gives an glipmse into three months of gigs in late 1977. I saw a few bands there, Furs, Sham 69 ( stunningly good live in the early days ), The Members etc. A true landmark of Punk. The club premises where in Neal Street, Covent Garden and have now been converted into a button shop and a taylors. I went there a little while ago to look around: I patronised the staff by telling the what the place used to be, and they said that it explained why there was some odd punk scribblings on a wall....

Regards

Mike

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

I don't think it's in print at the moment, but Don Letts' Punk Rock Movie, largely filmed at the Roxy, is a pretty good document of punk in London. The usual suspects (Pistols, Clash, Banshees, etc), alongside the great and forgotten (Subway Sect) and the dreadful and forgotten (Eater).

-- Ian

"But I rarely play sides 3 & 4"

I'm not not sure why you would Wrong 'Em Bhoyo.

<da-dum, tish>