Written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
Produced by Guy Stevens
From the album London Calling, Epic Records, 1979
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 provocative. It's just something that occurred to me, 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 10" 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 often than I listen to the Pistols and Clash 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 an Syracuse University student named 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.
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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 the group 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. 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. The albums came to me in time, and I generally liked all of them except for Cut The Crap. And 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," "Clampdown," "Death Or Glory," "Spanish Bombs," their cover of the Equals' "Police On My Back," and more than a few others. 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, 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 they're both in this book. 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?
"Train In Vain" is far and away the most pop-sounding track the Clash ever did. "Pop" never really seemed to be the Clash's primary goal; they were politically aware, socially conscious, and that ambition and reputation (plus, y'know, actually being great) made them the most revered group to come out of 1970s British punk. Punk songs like "White Riot" are pop, of course--it's ALL pop music--but "White Riot" isn't pop in the same way that "Train In Vain" is pop. Nor is "London Calling," nor is the throwaway B-side "1-2 Crush On You." Nor is "Rock The Casbah," even though that was the Clash's biggest pop hit in America. "Rock The Casbah" was popular; "Train In Vain" was pop. I tell ya, outside of "Train In Vain," the closest thing to pure pop in the Clash catalog o' hits is "Spanish Bombs," which is much prettier and catchier than one would expect of a song about the Spanish Civil War.
"Train In Vain" has no qualifiers, no asterisks next to its description as an unabashed pop tune. If we close our eyes, we can imagine "Train In Vain" by Otis Redding, "Train In Vain" by the Monkees, "Train In Vain" on Motown or Apple. As we open our eyes, it's The Clash, with guitar hero Mick Jones crooning a simple song over a simple riff, a boy spurned in love and unashamed to say it. There is not a shred of self-consciousness in play, no taint of irony; to paraphrase another set of British punks, he means it, man.
And "Train In Vain" got the Clash on the radio in America. "I Fought The Law" had received some attention before that, but "Train In Vain" was really the first Clash track to earn meaningful airplay in the States. For some, maybe it was the gateway to the Clash's manifestos, to "Clampdown"'s plea to let fury have the hour, because anger could be power. For some, maybe it was just a pop song on the radio. But it was on the radio, its lament I see all my dreams come tumblin' down/I can't be happy without you around offering as effective a teardrop as the works of Gene Pitney or the Four Tops. Even though love wouldn't stand by them, the Clash stand tall.
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