As many of the punk bands of the late 70s blew their brains out
\nwith a double-barrel shotgun of nihilism, The Clash were given the
\nuneasy honor of making some of the first sounds of a new decade.
\nPunk’s remaining trump card pulled out a full betrayal of all the
\npunk values that stifled so many bands with their epic,
\nLondon Calling<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Joe Strummer and Mick Jones violated such sacred punk
\ncommandments as “Thou shalt not create a double album”, “Thou shalt
\nnot in any way dare to experiment with other musical performing
\nforces, such as violins” and the most cardinal sin of all:”Thou
\nshalt not possess any motivation to do anything about the problems
\nthat you’re bitching about in your albums”.<\/p>\n
That all said,
\nLondon Calling<\/i>, though a bit torn and frayed 17 years later,
\nstill remains a seminal piece of music. Strummer’s bitter confusion
\nand Mick Jones’s pop-smart earnestness gel together perfectly for
\n70 minutes. Their musicianship on
\nLondon Calling<\/i> rivals that of the best material made by the
\ndualism of McCartney\/Lennon or Richards\/Jagger.<\/p>\n
The first side of
\nLondon Calling<\/i> paint a mustard yellow picture of the
\nupcoming decade. “The ice age is coming\/the sun’s zooming in”,
\nStrummer rasps on the title track. Personal apocalypse is only a
\npart of the misery though. The Clash incorporate the strugglers of
\nthe Spanish War (“Spanish Bombs”), the tale of an alienated addict
\n(“Hateful”) as well as the drunken car wreck eulogy to Montgomery
\nCliff (“The Right Profile”). Some light does appear throughout the
\nshelled out haze the Clash lays down in the first half of the
\nalbum. “Rudie Can’t Fail” is a great Irish pub style drinking
\nanthem boasting a Bo Diddley riff.<\/p>\n
Strummer’s sounds like he’s either having an asthma attack
\nthroughout
\nLondon Calling<\/i>. His anger and emotion detonate throughout
\nthe album. Mick Jones puts everything in more humane perspective
\nthough. In “Lost In The Supermarket”, Jones heartfully confesses,
\n“I wasn’t born so much as I fell out\/nobody seemed to notice me”.
\nYet another punk rock rule was upended by Jones as he openly
\ndisplayed his vulnerability. In closing, Jones keeps whispering
\n“I’m all lost”. The listener is too. After an oppressing first half
\nit seems like the conditions of existance in the world give little
\nhope of making sense out of this often fucked up place.<\/p>\n
But wait…A squall like feedback begins to rise and drummer
\nTopper Headon begins to lay down a march style beat similar to a
\nfrenzied apartheid protest march. Strummer yells out, “What are we
\ngoing to do now!” The song “Clampdown” serves as a violent,
\ninvigorating response to the ails that weighed against the
\ncharacters in “Hateful” and “Lost In The Supermarket”. Strummer and
\nJones play a ferocious game of tag-team in the vocals.<\/p>\n
You have no choice but to storm ahead, as The Clash does.
\n“Clampdown” either pushes you ahead or pushes your ass aside. For
\nthe brave, it pushes you into the more experimental side of
\nLondon Calling<\/i>. A piano and string arrangements are used in
\n“The Card Cheat”. “Revolution Rock” is another testament of the
\nimportance of reggae and the influence of Lee “Scratch” Perry on
\nthe band.<\/p>\n
If “Clampdown” represented a full air strike assult on any
\ndetractors of the band or their fans, “Death or Glory” is a
\nproclamation of victory. The band may get a tad righteous, taking
\naim at bands that don’t live up to their pathos, but at least they
\nstick to their agenda. “Well I believe in innocence\/and this is
\nbeen proven so\/he who fucks with nuns\/will later join the church,”
\nas Emeril Lagassie would put it…”BAM!”, that’s a powerful ass
\nlyric.<\/p>\n
“London Calling” is full of great moments like in “Death or
\nGlory”. In “Spanish Bombs”, Strummer and Jones harmonously sing,
\n“My Senorita’s rose was nipped in the bud,” as another example of
\nhow the lyrics compliment the musical arrangement.<\/p>\n
Not all credit is due to The Clash, however. Producer Guy
\nStevens (of Moot the Hoople fame) tapped into The Clash like no
\nother producer could ever do. When the Clash were ambitious,
\nStevens would pour beer in the piano if they tried to use it in a
\nsong. In one instance, Stevens even threw a ladder at Mick
\nJones.<\/p>\n
The outcome paid off big time though. Paul Simonon’s bass
\nplaying keeps the heartbeat of
\nLondon Calling<\/i>. His work shines in the last track, the
\nunlisted, but still very popular “Train in Vain”.<\/p>\n
Old school rockibilly, punk pathos and elements of classic rock,<\/p>\n
London Calling<\/i> serves as one of the most important albums
\nmade in rock music. While politics eventually led Strummer into
\nisolation and the techno craze intoxicated Jones, the two obviously
\nneeded each other to produce their best work. Armed with Strummer’s
\nangered drive and Jones’s idealistic humanism, The Clash forged a
\nbold new chapter in the rock world. Their influence on today’s
\nartists are just being felt right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":24603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5815],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35807","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-clash","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35807"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35807"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}