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The ClashAlbums ReviewedThe Clash (1977)Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978) London Calling (1979) Sandinista! (1980) The Singles (1991) Super Black Market Clash (1993) From Here To Eternity (1999) The Clash(US Version, 1979)Perhaps the most enduring of the 1970s British punk bands, although they are somewhat overrated given that only two of their studio records are anything more than good, The Clash's debut album does summarise most of the virtues of punk, combining intelligent lyrics and a no nonsense musical philosophy. Recorded in three weekends, 1977's The Clash was considered too raw to be released on the US market (although it achieved the highest ever sales for an import album), so a modified version was released in 1979, replacing four songs from the original with three non album singles and a b-side. The core of the group was guitarist Mick Jones and vocalist/guitarist Joe Strummer, joined by drummer Terry Chimes (aka Tory Chimes) and bassist Paul Simonon. In step with the punk ethos, Simonon was selected for The Clash because he resembled David Bowie, and was taught to play his instrument with stickers on his fret board. In an early concert, Simonon missed the cue to start a song and joined a couple of beats late. The song sounded horribly wrong and when Simonon played two extra notes after everybody else finished, he defended himself by pointing out that he had started "two bonks" after everybody else. While slightly amateur, The Clash has an edge which is missed by its followups which are overwrought (Give 'Em Enough Rope) or sprawling (London Calling, Sandinista). The key is often Joe Strummer's excellent lyrics, especially in 'White Man (in Hammersmith Palais)' and 'I'm So Bored With The USA'. Jones originally intended the latter to be 'I'm So Bored With You', but Strummer misheard, writing lyrics "Never mind the stars and stripes/Lets bring the Watergate tapes." Singles 'Complete Control', 'I Fought the Law' and the reggae cover of 'Police and Thieves' stand out because they are more distinctive than the punk tracks; a couple of the straightest punk songs ('Hate And War', 'What's My Name') aren't too interesting although they're short enough not to detract from the record. The highlight is the epic 'White Man (in Hammersmith Palais)' which brilliantly mixes rock and reggae to preach about punk, race relations and politics. The original version presumably flows better, but even this bastardised version of The Clash is of historical significance in defining a genre, and is the most important work by a seminal band. 
Give 'Em Enough Rope(1978)CBS made an effort to make the group more palatable for American tastes, bringing in mainstream rock producer Sandy Pearlman to oversee Give 'Em Enough Rope. Pearlman bought a perfectionist ethic to the recording sessions, causing Paul Simonon to become so bored that he requested that war films be projected onto the wall in between takes. Most of the liveliness in the recording is drained, although new member Topper Headon's drumming is significantly stronger than Terry Chimes' from the debut. The weakness of sophomore efforts from otherwise excellent acts in 1978 is quite extraordinary; Kate Bush, The Jam and XTC also released albums that didn't rank among their best, while The Sex Pistols imploded before even making a second record. CBS sent Strummer and Jones on a trip to Kingston to write songs for the album, where they remained terrified in their hotel room for a week, inspiring 'Safe European Home' ("I went to the place where every white face is an invitation to robbery."). The cover of 'English Civil War' is terrific, while 'Tommy Gun' and 'Cheapskates' are also up to the standard of their best work. Otherwise the remainder of the songs are self-righteous crap, such as 'Guns on the Roof' (which virtually recycles the 'Clash City Rockers' riff from the debut, which was originally nicked from The Who's 'I Can't Explain') which tells how Topper and Paul were arrested for shooting pigeons on the roof of the recording studio. So there you go; mostly crap songs with most of the life sucked out of them. Hopefully you can pick up the decent songs on a compilation, but the rest isn't up to their usual standards.
PS. I originally gave this two stars; it's disappointingly predictable and mainstream compared to the two albums surrounding it, but it's worth more than two stars since the good songs are well worth hearing. London Calling(1979)London Calling has been massively praised ever since its release; it's won album of the decade award for both the seventies (when it was released in the UK) and the eighties (when it was released in the US). I admit that represents a stunning rebound after the artistic dead end of Give 'Em Enough Rope, and is light years away from the stripped down punk of the debut, but London Calling is too inconsistent to rate alongside the debut as their best album. The title track is the highlight of the set, with plenty of quotable lyrics from Strummer: try "don't look to us/phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust" or "a nuclear error but I have no fear/'Cause London is drowning and I live by the river". Other highlights include the rock anthems 'Clampdown' and 'Death or Glory' (although the line about the nuns is horribly distasteful), Paul Simonon's first song for the group ('Guns of Brixton', complete with a killer bass line), the ska inflected 'Rudie Can't Fail', and ballads 'Train in Vain' and 'The Card Cheat'. The horn section that features on some of the tracks sounds fantastic, and there are also compelling excursions into rockabilly ('Brand New Cadillac') and rock ('Spanish Bombs'). There's one amazing, eclectic and passionate forty five minute album here, but it's dragged down a little by some less interesting material; songs like 'Lover's Rock' and 'Revolution Rock' pale in comparison to the title track. Still, the sheer songwriting ability of the Strummer/Jones team shown here is incredible, and it's astounding that The Clash were able to progress so far within a couple of years.
 Sandinista!(1980)London Calling was an ambitious enough double album, but it's less than half the length of its follow-up; the triple album Sandinista! that The Clash released less than a year later. Named in honour of the Nicaraguan revolution, part of the reason for the excessive length of Sandinista! was a nasty ten album contract that The Clash had signed with CBS. By releasing three albums at once, they were able to reduce their obligation substantially, although the group themselves made little money from the set, taking the fan friendly stance of releasing it a price marginally higher than the going rate for a single LP. Of course, it would have been more fan friendly to trim this set to manageable length, but for its size Sandinista! could be far less approachable. There's about ten or so absolute throwaways among the album's thirty six songs and 144 minutes, and those are mostly clustered towards the end. It's been said before, but it's a truism that there's a really good double album or even a sensational single album hiding among the dreck. The dreck includes a children's choral version of the debut's 'Career Opportunities', backwards versions of songs that appeared on the album and a dub version of 'One More Time' immediately after the original. The rest ranges from passable to excellent; the fact is that it's such a huge chunk of the Clash's discography, and covers such huge stylistic ground, that fans need to track it down. If nothing else, Sandinista! features some of the most eloquent lyrics in pop music, with songs such as 'Something About England', 'Washington Bullets' and 'The Call Up' demonstrating the extent of Strummer's political consciousness. Sandinista! starts brilliantly with 'The Magnificent Seven', one of the first excursions into rap by a white group. The Clash pull it off with authentic music and British lyrics; the magnificent seven are Marx, Engels, Gandhi, Socrates, Nixon, Plato, and Martin Luther King. Headon plays everything on 'Ivan Meets G.I. Joe'; it's one of the least profound lyrics on the album, but it's an entertaining tale of US/Soviet tensions. Old England is rationalised in 'Something About England' then romanticised in 'The Rebel Waltz'. Mose Allison is covered on the jazzy 'Look Here', before Simonon pushes the Clash into the deepest reggae waters with 'The Crooked Beat'. 'Somebody Got Murdered' rocks, before 'One More Time' offers reggae at its most accessible. The group even explore gospel in 'The Sound Of The Sinners'. The fourth side of the set is arguably the best; 'Police On My Back' is the hardest sounding The Clash get on the entire album, 'Washington Bullets' is a brilliant piece of political commentary set to jaunty Caribbean rhythm, while 'The Call Up' and 'Broadway' are two of the most gorgeous pieces of music that The Clash' ever recorded. Strummer's old busking buddy Tymon Dogg is the guest star on the fun, but out of place, 'Lose This Skin', while 'Kingston Advice' and 'The Street Parade' are both catchy and infectious. The Clash achieved exactly what they wanted with Sandinista!; a sprawling triple album that can be difficult to sit through but which has a lot of great moments. Even if listeners may feel tempted to siphon off the best songs to a single CD and disregard the rest, Sandinista! is a fascinating record and Clash fanatics need to hear it just as much as the debut or London Calling.
Combat Rock(1982)Cut The Crap(1985)Never heard either of these in their entirety (sorry). What I've heard of Combat Rock seems a little bit random, although 'Straight To Hell' is one of the group's best songs. Cut The Crap has a reputation as one of the worst albums ever made by an otherwise respected group. The Singles(1991)It would be relatively simple to create a single-disc Clash compilation that would score five stars on this site. There are moments of sheer brilliance on each of their albums: even 1985's Cut the Crap features 'This Is England'. But instead, their label chose to make bizarre choices for singles and then release a literal singles collection years later. The Singles was released to cash in on the surprise #1 single 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?', popularised by a Levi's commercial nine years after its original release. The Clash had many attributes, perhaps nothing more so than the passionate left-wing idealism inherent in Strummer's lyrics that made the Clash so loveable. In the documentary Westway to the World, Mick Jones comments that he could not help writing good music when Joe Strummer wrote such great lyrics. Jones and Strummer made a great writing team, penning classics such as '(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais' and 'London Calling'. Later in the Clash's career the rhythm section also contributed material; Topper Headon wrote 'Rock the Casbah' on piano and played almost all of the instrumental parts. Early singles 'White Riot' and 'Clash City Rockers' bristle with aggression while '(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais' indicates an interest in reggae that dominated the Clash's later work. Diversification occurs with ballads ('Train in Vain', 'The Call Up'), and a convincing stab at rap ('The Magnificent Seven'). Even the later commercial singles, 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Should I Stay or Should I Go', are innovative. The collection is sabotaged by three highly questionable selections. The only good thing about 'Remote Control' is that its unsolicited release by CBS inspired 'Complete Control'. Mick Jones' 'Hitsville UK' is insipid, while 'Know Your Rights' is self-righteous and hookless. It would be a simple matter to remove the three offenders, and bulk out the disc with great songs like 'Safe European Home', 'Clampdown', 'Armagideon Time', 'The Guns of Brixton', 'Washington Bullets', 'Straight To Hell', and 'This is England'. While some bad choices spoil the continuity of The Singles, it still makes for a good introduction to The Clash.
Super Black Market Clash(1993)An expanded version of 1980's Black Market Clash, Super Black Market Clash collects the b-sides released by the group during their tenure. It's no exaggeration to title this as one of their stronger releases and to recommend it above most of their studio releases; the first half features excellent songs omitted from their first two records, while the second half explores their exploration of reggae and dub. It's an interesting alternate view of their development from their singles collection, and in many ways it's an even more enlightening perspective of their multi-faceted talents; few other bands have been able to convincingly put together vitriolic punk ('1977'), ground breaking dub ('Justice Tonight/Kick It Over') and a whole bunch of other eclectic material within a five year span. There are complaints to be made - some of the songs on the first half don't take themselves as seriously as their album material and some of the later b-sides resort to dance mixes of their a-sides - but by and by it's an entertaining compilation, and it's excellent value for money with nearly 80 minutes of interesting material. Their first b-side, '1977', is arguably their most iconic; "no Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones in 1977" Strummer sneers. It's a measure of their productivity at this time that they were able to relegate it to b-side status. Similarly significant, 'Capital Radio' was their response to a lack of radio play (Strummer spray-painted the lobby of a station), originally coming out in New Musical Express as a promo singles in extremely limited numbers. The version on Super Black Market Clash, 'Capital Radio Two' was recorded in 1979 after the original was being sold at 40 pounds. It features an overload of musical ideas, a deceptive acoustic introduction and a coda where Strummer takes the mickey out of Grease. The absolute masterpiece here, and one of the best things that The Clash ever recorded, is the nine minute 'Justice Tonight/Kick It Over', a magnum opus of dub which demonstrated The Clash's authentic appreciation for and mastery of the genre. 'Radio Clash' is the b-side of 'This Is Radio Clash'; it was originally intended as one song, but was cut into two halves after it was discovered that it was too long to fit on a single. 'Stop The World', recorded with Strummer on piano, locks into a paranoid groove. There aren't a whole pile of other lost Clash gems here, but there's nothing annoying either, and the whole album is relentlessly enjoyable; a combination of Jones' melodic sense, Strummer's charisma and the band's restless energy and exploration of styles make this an effortless jewel in The Clash's catalogue.
From Here To Eternity(1999)With a charismatic and energetic approach and some terrific songs in their back catalogue, it's hardly surprising that The Clash had a strong live album in the works; if anything it's only surprising that it didn't appear until twenty years after their peak. One of my most enduring rock images is watching video footage of Strummer, Simonon and Jones all turning around and stepping up to their mikes in unison to sing the opening salvo of 'London Calling'. Rather than a single concert, it's a compilation of songs from live performances throughout their career mostly later in their career, some featuring Terry Chimes who was reinstated following Headon's sacking for his heroin habit. Arranged in chronological order, similar to the track list the band would use in concert, it's pretty effective as a career retrospective, drawing heavily on their strongest albums (The Clash and London Calling) at the expense of their other material. There's nothing from Give 'Em Enough Rope (less surprisingly, there's also nothing from Cut The Crap), and only one song from Sandinista!. Just like you'd expect, it's very entertaining and enjoyable, even if a lot of the songs, especially those from the debut, don't sound particularly different. The major problem I have with this album is that it's a really strong selection, but not necessarily the most interesting selection. For instance it would have been great to hear The Clash play material from Give 'Em Enough Rope, without the blemish of that album's overproduction, or some of the dub material from Sandinista! like 'One More Time'. It would also be interesting to hear the live four piece take on 'Rock The Casbah' without a pianist. On this album it's much more interesting hearing the more ambitious and eclectic material like 'Straight To Hell', 'Armagideon Time' and 'The Magnificent Seven' rather than the straight punk like 'Career Opportunities' and 'What's My Name', as energetically as that is delivered here. That's just wishful thinking though, and this set does capture The Clash's charisma; Jones' emotional reading of 'Train In Vain' is probably the most effective performance on the album, while his backing vocals and guitar leads are constantly energising. Strummer's onstage persona is also endearing, especially his vocal ad libs in 'Capital Radio' ("I'd like to hear the song "Wool-ey Bull-ey"), while the rhythm section are ultra tight and professional. Even if this is something of a lost opportunity, it's still an excellent live document of The Clash - it's definitely among the upper echelon of live albums.
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
