I like The Clash, but I don't think I like The Clash quite as much as many of my friends and peers like The Clash. I don't say that to be iconoclastic or provocative or--God knows!--a proto-hipster, because I hate all of that. It's just something that occurred to me recently, and I've been picking at that thread in my mind ever since.
I have a decent collection of The Clash's music. On CD, I have the Clash On Broadway boxed set. On vinyl, I believe my copies of The Clash (U.S. version), Give 'Em Enough Rope, and London Calling have survived the various purges of my album stash, and I might still have Combat Rock, too. I have never owned a copy of Sandinistas!, and I couldn't get rid of the awful Cut The Crap album fast enough. I think my singles and EPs--imports of "Remote Control"/"London's Burning," "Tommy Gun"/"1-2 Crush On You," and The Cost Of Living EP, plus the domestic Black Market Clash--all found decent homes with other caring and loving record collectors, while the Super Black Market Clash CD was traded in somewhere along the line. Oh, and I have mp3s of "Remote Control," "I Fought The Law," "Capital Radio Two," and "Hitsville UK." I have more Clash than I have Sex Pistols. But I listen to The Sex Pistols more often than I listen to The Clash. I listen to The Ramones more than both of them combined.
I first heard of The Clash in the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine in (of course!) 1977. Over a year later, I read about them again in New York Rocker, and also heard more about them from Diane Lesniewski. Like me, Diane was an enthusiastic fan of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes. Diane wrote about the 'Cubes and other things rockin' and new wavey in her own local fanzine Poser, where she used the nom du bop Penny Poser. Our Penny was into The Clash and The Who, and her zeal for The Clash inspired me to buy my first Clash record, the above-mentioned "Remote Control" single.
Yeah, I know--not a great place to start with The Clash. It was okay, but neither I nor (as it turned out) the members of The Clash themselves really dug it (as they later sang on "Complete Control:" They said release "Remote Control"/But we didn't want it on the label). B-side "London's Burning" was more to my liking (and it still is). I didn't get another Clash record until "Tommy Gun," which hooked me with its ratatatat-ratatatat military drum sound. B-side "1-2 Crush On You" was a pleasant throwaway. I also got the Cost Of Living EP, specifically for "I Fought The Law," though "Capital Radio Two" really became my go-to track there.
What was my first Clash LP? Can't remember the precise sequence, though I think I started with the U.S. revamp of the eponymous debut when it was finally released here in 1979. A Christmas gift from lovely girlfriend/future wife Brenda brought me London Calling, which contained a track called "Spanish Bombs" that would soon become Brenda's favorite Clash song. Give 'Em Enough Rope was a subsequent birthday gift from a friend. In this time frame, I also purchased Black Market Clash at Brockport's Main Street Records, and I later picked up a used copy of Combat Rock...somewhere. Cut The Crap was a promo LP I snagged when I was managing a record store, but Jesus, let's not even talk about Cut The Crap.
Oh, except that I've gotta mention seeing The Clash live in Buffalo, when they were touring in support of Cut The Crap. Guitarist Mick Jones had been exiled and declared a non-person by The Clash's apparatchik, so was it really The Clash on that album and tour? I guess it was; you had your Joe Strummer and your Paul Simonon, along with whomever it was they drafted as deputy Clash. It was not a great concert.
For all that, I remained a fan. I've never stopped being a fan. I love "Complete Control," "Capital Radio Two," "London's Burning," "London Calling," "Tommy Gun," "Safe European Home," "Hate And War," the sublime "Train In Vain" (The Clash's purest pop song), "Clampdown," "Death Or Glory," their cover of The Equals' "Police On My Back," and more than a few others. I share Brenda's fondness of "Spanish Bombs." I'm not yet tired of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go," nor even "Rock The Casbah."
I enjoy listening to all of those tracks. I like The Clash. I just don't embrace them with the full-tilt devotion that some others may feel. I guess it brushes against irony that a group once billed as the only band that matters ultimately doesn't mean as much to me as some other great groups. When the thought first occurred to me a month or so ago, I asked a pal, an avowed Bruce Springsteen fan, if he thought folks who were into the Boss would be more likely to also listen to The Clash, or to The Sex Pistols.
The answer was The Clash, of course; the Pistols had power, but no melody he could discern. I disagree, but this divergence in individual rockin' pop ideals may be a partial key to understanding my preferences. See, the Pistols, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, The Undertones, The Jam--to me, that's all pop music, not dissimilar (in my mind, anyway) from the essence of The Beatles, The Kinks, The Isley Brothers, The Monkees, Motown, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, The Beach Boys, the early Who. With all of these acts, their best stuff sounds like a 45 rpm single. Glorious, irresistible noise. Both Springsteen and The Clash (and Bob Dylan) are a step or two (or more) removed from that visceral aesthetic. Nothing wrong with that; hell, The Clash's "Train In Vain" and Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" cross camps into my pop world, and the latter tune is The Greatest Record Ever Made. It is a big difference nonetheless, and possibly the beginning of an explanation of why I champion The Bay City Rollers and don't often say all that much much on behalf of The Clash.
But I like The Clash. Sometimes I love them. Y'know...as a friend. And after all this, won't you give me a smile?
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