… London Calling by The Clash was released.
I remember the first time I heard the song. I used to record The Power Hour on video in the 80s; it was on at something like 3am on a Wednesday and it was the only programme which showed any heavy metal. For some reason they played the video of London Calling on it once.
And I was fucking captivated. These four guys just looked so cool. I think I had a full on man crush on them. Just the whole package, they looked like a gang and as for the song itself, it was URGENT, restless, funky, poppy, you could dance to it and it was cool. In amongst all the noise and macho shitheadness of The Power Hour this totally stood out.
Two bands formed my taste in music I think. Public Enemy and The Clash. Both of these bands sent me off exploring music, seeking out new sounds, trying to find out where this stuff came from. I owe them a lot.
And I saw Joe Strummer touring with The Mescaleros when they played King Tuts. He hadn’t lost anything; he played the new, he played the old, it still sounded URGENT. When he died I was bombarded with concerned texts from my friends. They knew I pretty much worshipped him.
I still love The Clash. I still love London Calling.
Bingo Little says
Great post, great band.
bang em in bingham says
Too many skeptics/critics have long since derided the Clash which really is their loss….a brilliant rock and roll band…4 individuals adding up to one stupendous rocking gang
Dodger Lane says
I was somewhere being pushed about when Joe Strummer came on and played London Calling with The Pogues – fantastic.
It’s easy to deride The Clash for being a bit phoney but they were a great band, their music is still exciting to listen to now and I regret never having seen them live.
Johnny Concheroo says
I’ve told this story before, but the 101ers had a residency at The Elgin pub on Ladbroke Grove circa 1975. I saw them there a number of times and while the frontman John “Woody” Mellor clearly had potential I wasn’t that impressed. Their pièce de résistance was a 15 min workout on Van’s Gloria during which “Woody” would roll around on the floor. Looking back their brand of pub rock was probably better than my prog/blues bias gave them credit for.
At that time I worked in a music shop off Portobello Road and also moonlighted as a van driver doing light removals in a battered Ford Transit (this service was advertised on the shop notice board).
One day “Woody” fronted up at the counter and asked how much to take the 101ers to a gig in Bristol (or it may have been Cardiff) in my van. I did a quick calculation and quoted him 80 quid there and back. He swallowed hard and said he’d think about it.
He never came back. Although I do recall he was a very polite young man, without any of the punk attitude we would see a couple of years later.
Gatz says
I used to see him occasionally when I worked at Waterstone’s in Taunton and he lived in nearby Bridgwater. He’d call in fairly regularly and although he was very aware of his own cool he was always a pleasure to chat to.
chiz says
My mates and I thought London Calling was a huge disappointment, which was a bit rich coming from 14-year-old Grammar School boys who’d only ever been as far as London with their mums. We’d been too young to hear the first album when it came out but we’d all demanded Give ‘Em Enough Rope for Christmas ’78 and by January we were the Last Gang in Town in the back row of double maths. London Sprawling was a terrible disappointment in comparison, a double album with an Elvis cover and a song about Cadillacs. In 1979! We expected better from them, frankly.
MC Escher says
File under “Things you knew were correct when you were 14 and later came to realise were wrong.” It’s a large file in most cases and XL in mine. Brand New Cadillac is super duper.
Although I’ll allow that as with most doubles there are moments of averageness among the classics. Which is big of me, I think you’ll agree.
Tiggerlion says
Same here, chiz, except we were older, had been following The Clash since their debut and had seen them four times already. We thought London Calling was shit but it’s the one I play the most now!
Bartleby says
I first came across them on Tiswas. Not sure whether they got flanned. Some excellent songs, but hard to divorce liking them from identifying with the image and attitude?
fentonsteve says
Last summer, I went with my lad to a “bring your 70s vinyl” open-house/BBQ event at my local friendly hi-fi emporium. High-end Rega deck, Bryston amps and massive PMC studio monitors. There was a lot of Led Zep and noodly jazz-fusion. When it was my turn on the wheels of steel – well, glass, being a Rega deck – I stuck on London Calling.
I got up to take it off after the title track and was told by the assembled throng to sit back down. Same thing after Brand New Cadillac. And again. We made the end of side 1, I flipped it over, and – spoiler alert – we listened to the whole four sides. It was ace.
When we got home, my lad opened up my Sound System box set and started playing the CDs. We got some funny looks on the school run for the next couple of weeks.
Clive says
The reason that The Clash attract so much earnest derision is rather like the way conspiracy theories are perpetuated. No one wants to believe one person is responsible for something so awful or game changing. No one wants to believe tbat one band were quite so close to being perfect. They had it all. The music, the image, the attitude, the quotes. They were close to defining modern music and culture in one big wonderful faulty package.
Sewer Robot says
When is The Story Of The Clash Volume 2 coming out?
(Poor joke, but I did have a mate only passingly familiar with the band who bought Vol 1 when it came out and thought it was the wasp’s patellas, so I made him a Vol 2 from the remainder of their work and frankly it was ace..)
minibreakfast says
I got the vinly of Sandinista the other day but haven’t got round to cleaning it yet. Is it any good? Three discs for £2.50 was impossible to pass up.
Sewer Robot says
The sides of ‘Nista are like the series of (tv show) Dexter – pretty much everyone’s on board for the first four and after that a lot of people begin to check out. There is some great stuff on the third disc, but opinions differ on what that is.
Pedants, people who like herbal cigarettes and Moose* are quite strict about the merit of staying ’til the death.
2.50 is not shabby, although even back when it was new it was single album price..
(*these categories may not be mutually exclusive)
(**Also, if you’re really playing it for the first time in the run up to Christmas I urge you to nick KFD’s idea and shout “Santanista!” during Washington Bullets)
Moose the Mooche says
I’ve just woken up and noticed this, and frankly…. what was I saying? Christ, I’m hungry….
ruff-diamond says
“There is some great stuff on the third disc, but opinions differ on what that is”
I think everyone can agree that the version of ‘Career Opportunities’ that pollutes side 6 is pure arse gravy, however.
Also its safe to say that Tymon Dogg’s voice (on Lose This Skin) is, shall we say, an acquired taste. One that I have never managed to acquire, by the way.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Mentioned this elsewhere but Jamie T’s Trick is the second best album the Clash have ever made…
Tiggerlion says
The first two discs are a magnificent double album, much like All Things Must Pass.
Locust says
My view on Sandinista is that sides one and six are awful, but sides two, three, four and five are wonderful.
Junglejim says
The Clash are an enigma.
It’s possible to be a fan (which I am), own all of their decent output (which I do), have been mesmerised, terrified and disappointed at their gigs (which I was) and still conclude that most of what they did was sub substandard to the point of embaressing.
They get a pass for this IMO, because when they were great, they were GREAT. For a brief while between the early singles and Cost Of Living EP, they really were the greatest rock band on earth ( probably).
Despite all the drivel they spouted in interviews, despite the occasionally toe curling dressing up, they were glorious. A hopelessly romantic and often ridiculous outfit, but utterly lovable – they really DID put fans up in their digs after shows & got into rows with bouncers who were pumelling ‘ver kids’. They gave a toss.
But let’s be straight – it’s the debut album that still makes the hairs on my neck stand up along with those singles, Complete Control , Clash City Rockers, & White Man, before they had a chance to get up themselves. That was the band at its most vital.
London Calling is terrific & I appreciate it now, but at the time I felt it was soft & muddy.
Anyhoo it was all a very long time ago.
Bingo Little says
Agree with this – it’s the first album all the way for me. They did some glorious stuff after, but what a mind-bendingly great debut that is.
Don’t really get the sniffiness over them. They weren’t authentic? Who cares. They made a wonderful racket, they looked fantastic and they appeared to have a great time. I also really like Joe Strummer – I think he was an interesting, big hearted guy who occasionally got too big for his boots but, certainly by the later stages of his life, was all about people.
If all the Clash had ever done was this, they’d still be a marvelous thing that contributed to the betterment of all humanity…
Junglejim says
Nice post, Bingo.
A chap I work with who has musical street cred credentials I would have killed for as a youngster (saw all of the original punk bands several times, used to go to sound system battles with Mikey Dread etc. etc.) told me straight ‘The Clash changed my life’. As a youngster for a couple of years, they were pretty much all he cared about. He guzzled the Kool Aid, & although he out grew them and has had an encyclopaedic knowledge & passion for music of all types for decades since , he still doffs his hat to them.
Not many bands achieve that level of love & respect. Gotta love ’em for that.
Gary says
Much as I love them, for me they’re one of those bands whose compilation album (The Story Of The Clash, Volume 1) is so much better than any of their albums proper.
That and Sandinista! would be all I’d need.
ruff-diamond says
At this point I do feel it incumbent on myself to point out the following equation:
The Clash+No Top 10 Hits=worthless/shit
deramdaze says
Not necessarily, your words, “worthless/shit,” but one wonders where all ver fans were when it was, my words, “buying the singles time.”
It’s perfectly reasonable to ask the question, surely? If they were so loved, how could a 1981 non-album 45 not even crack the Top 40?
For that long into their career, 46 records is a lot of records above them.
Moose the Mooche says
Ha ha! Fancy seeing you here!
MC Escher says
Wikipedia says they had 11 Top 30 hits. For a band who never appearred on TOTP during the height of singles sales this ain’t too shabby. Hate to bring those pesky “fact” things to the argument.
fentonsteve says
They gave Pan’s People the (career) opportunity to wear stripy tops, carry bags marked ‘Swag’, and express themselves through the means of interpretive dance to Bank Robber.
For that, many dads were truly thankful. Eh, Moose?
Hawkfall says
Point of order, that would have been Legs & Co by then, not Pan’s People. These things are important!
Bingo Little says
If we want a proper act, with proper hits, may I suggest Michael Jackson?
40 UK top 10 hits. Probably the most well known musical artist on the planet. Created a sound and image that still pervades across most pop music.
Hell, here’s footage of a remote Indian tribe being show footage of the modern life. They don’t know the moon landings, 9/11 or Zinedine Zidane. But they know Wacko Jacko (seriously recommend this footage, incidentally).
http://www.theearthchild.co.za/amazonian-tribe/
Everyone loves Jacko.
Moose the Mooche says
Michael Jackson was and is bigger than Jesus. He is the most famous person who has ever lived. By a bloody long way.
ruff-diamond says
Michael Jackson was alright but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.
Moose the Mooche says
I don’t believe in Michael
I don’t believe in Whitney
I don’t believe in Bowie
I don’t believe in Prince
I don’t believe in Pete Burns
I just believe Bie
-ber.
ruff-diamond says
I just believe in me.
Bubbles and me.
Johnny Concheroo says
I said what I said (about Focus) and it was wrong
And now it’s all Thijs
Black Celebration says
When Jesus was around the population of the earth was about 170 million. When MJ was born it was 3 billion – when he died it was nearly 7 billion.
What I am trying to get my head around is how many people born, lived and died between the year 1AD and Michael Jackson’s birth. They cannot have heard of Michael Jackson but a significant number would have heard of Jesus – conservatively, 25% of everyone, up to that time.
It took 1,800 years to eventually get to a billion. 30 generational cycles (based on a flat age 60 mortality) multiplied by half of one billion – 15 billion – and 25% of that number is 3.73 billion people.
By 1800 perhaps 50% of the world had heard of Jesus. Up to MJ’s birth, the population grew by a further 2 billion. 4 cycles of people, again divided by 2 to get an average – so another 4 billion people – 2 billion of which had probably heard of Jesus.
So I make that about a 5.75 billion head start for Jesus by the time baby Jacko squeaked his very first OOH! when his little arse was smacked by one of Indiana’s finest maternity nurses.
So for the sake of argument, and to give Jacko a chance to catch up – let us assume that everyone immediately forgot all about Jesus in the late 1960s. (“Well, they DID!” – Anne Widdecombe) From the time of his birth to death, the world population increased from 3 billion to 7 billion. In 50 years. Average in that time 5 billion – and let’s say everyone has heard of Michael Jackson.
So even if we skew things heavily toward the DSTYGEH (as I did above) it’s still Jesus all the way. But it’s “interesting” to try to do the numbers because the world population has increased by so much that, in his 50 years, Jacko reached far, far, more people than Jesus did in His 33 years. And it’s not at all ridiculous to project in 100 years time that Michael Jackson may well catch up with bearded Nazarene on every measure.
Bingo Little says
Yeah, but dude – did you ever see Jesus try to dance?
MC Escher says
Don’t blame it on the peacemakers – oooh!
Don’t blame it on the meek – uh, uh –
Don’t blame it on the merciful
Blame it on the Assyrians – shamone!
chiz says
Ah but Jesus is planning a comeback, which would probably get him some headlines and therefore mess up your calculations. Apparently it’s going to be a short Greatest Hits tour, with an invitation-only afterparty.
Black Celebration says
His previous attempts at a comeback have somewhat mixed results. The “David Icke” and “Bono Vox” reincarnations to name but two.
Moose the Mooche says
Not to be confused with Bona Vox, an extremely camp amplifiers shop.
ruff-diamond says
Ooooh, it’s mister ‘Orne! How nice to vada your jolly old eek!
what brings you trolling in here?
I’d like to buy a gramophone.
Sorry ducky, wrong sketch! Not The Nine O’Clock News two doors down!
MC Escher says
He must also be the best in artistic terms too, having sold so very very many records? Certainly makes you think, doesn’t it?
Alias says
Should I Stay Or Should I Go was a number 1.
davebigpicture says
Rereleased after it was used on a Levi’s ad, 1991.
bricameron says
Bravo! Gangles.