kleph
02-05-2006, 11:57 AM
This is the heart of punk and it beats as loudly today as when it burst out of England in the late 1970s. I remember hearing "Train in Vain" on WLS in Chicago when I was a wee lad living in Indiana. It was then I knew the horrible musial and cultural vacousness of the 70s were ending and my time... my music, was soon to arrive.
Relentlessly non-conformist The Clash made a career out of defying peoples preconceptions and fostering controversy. So, perhaps, nobody was more surprised than they when their brand of punk proved to be commercially saleable on both sides of the Atlantic.
They took the sound and the fury from their countrymen, the Sex Pistols but left the latter’s infantile petulance at the door. Not that they couldn’t be their own style of self-centered assholes, but they were sharp enough to keep it from bleeding into the music itself. The Clash appreciated the anarchy of it all but were sharp enough to understand it also constituted musical suicide if taken to it’s logical conclusion. Eventually it leaves you nowhere to go and screaming for screaming’s sake just gets fucking boring.
Purists embrace their raw first album, The Clash, as the acme of their formidable talents but I do beg to differ. London Calling is two slabs of glorious vinyl without a single shred of filler. Legendary producer Guy Stevens was able to take their raw exuberance and lead it into wide and fertile new fields. This isn’t just a record, it’s an extended adventure into wild musical frontiers.
It bursts out the gate with anthem-like title track and get down to the nitty with the rockabilly "Brand New Cadillac." From there the band takes you on one of the most eclectic tours of musical styles with the reggae-esque "Revolution Rock," the pop cool of "Lost in the Supermarket," the punk purism of "Clampdown."
Their energy, their sense of purpose and their sheer musicianship keep things moving without getting bogged down. They loved the chaos and the caterwaul but they also keenly understood the need to make a connection with their audience and, once they did that, The Clash turned out to have something to say. The Clash had a political conscience and axes to grind.
This was a band with something to say and say it they did. And never better than this.
Relentlessly non-conformist The Clash made a career out of defying peoples preconceptions and fostering controversy. So, perhaps, nobody was more surprised than they when their brand of punk proved to be commercially saleable on both sides of the Atlantic.
They took the sound and the fury from their countrymen, the Sex Pistols but left the latter’s infantile petulance at the door. Not that they couldn’t be their own style of self-centered assholes, but they were sharp enough to keep it from bleeding into the music itself. The Clash appreciated the anarchy of it all but were sharp enough to understand it also constituted musical suicide if taken to it’s logical conclusion. Eventually it leaves you nowhere to go and screaming for screaming’s sake just gets fucking boring.
Purists embrace their raw first album, The Clash, as the acme of their formidable talents but I do beg to differ. London Calling is two slabs of glorious vinyl without a single shred of filler. Legendary producer Guy Stevens was able to take their raw exuberance and lead it into wide and fertile new fields. This isn’t just a record, it’s an extended adventure into wild musical frontiers.
It bursts out the gate with anthem-like title track and get down to the nitty with the rockabilly "Brand New Cadillac." From there the band takes you on one of the most eclectic tours of musical styles with the reggae-esque "Revolution Rock," the pop cool of "Lost in the Supermarket," the punk purism of "Clampdown."
Their energy, their sense of purpose and their sheer musicianship keep things moving without getting bogged down. They loved the chaos and the caterwaul but they also keenly understood the need to make a connection with their audience and, once they did that, The Clash turned out to have something to say. The Clash had a political conscience and axes to grind.
This was a band with something to say and say it they did. And never better than this.