The Clash

[Les Waste]

The Clash were really big on not releasing songs on their albums as singles, and instead releasing new songs as singles. That's what Complete Control is about. You know the song Remote Control? Their manager released it as a single against their will and Complete Control is about how much they hated him ("They said, 'release remote control,' / we didn't want it on the label")

You should get Clash on Broadway. Yeah, it's a three disc box set, but it's so worth it. Besides the extremely interesting and informative book that comes with it, it has all the songs that aren't on any other Clash albums, like: Armagideon Time, Bankrobber, Gates of the West, Groovy Times, One Emotion, Midnight to Stevens, Cool Confusion, Every Little Bit Hurts, This is Radio Clash, Stop the World, 1-2 Crush on You, Pressure Drop, Prisoner, really good live versions of I Fought the Law and English Civil War, and some others too probably but I can't remember if they were on the English version of their first album or not.

Actually, there are way more songs on this album you probably hadn't heard yet than I though.

There is a song on Super Black Market Clash called Robber Dub, which is a dub of Bank robber. It's ok, but I like the original version of the song better. There is a dub of Armagideon Time though that is excellent

[Les Waste]

Last night I got into a big drunken argument about whether or not I would recommend "Cut the Crap" to someone. I decided, after much thought, that I would recommend it but warn them that it's not nearly as good as any other Clash album. For example, I would say that if London Calling is a 10/10, then Cut the Crap is probably a 6/10, or maybe a five and a half.

I read a review once calling Cut the Crap is a disco album, and that's probably not far from the truth. There's only one song I really don't like at all (Fingerpopping). This is England is always considered by everyone to be great or terrible (I love it, but SSA called it the worst Clash song ever ). If you can get it a cheap price, or borrow it from someone, or download it, I would give it a listen though.

[Royal Tenenbaum]

This Is England is one of the worst Clash songs. Not the worst, but one of. I think the worst is Hitsville UK.

[Les Waste]

And Protoclown said he loves Hitsville U.K., so there you go.

[Rongi]

My current favorite Clash songs are "Revolution Rock", "Jimmy Jazz" and "Stand By Me" .

[Royal Tenenbaum]

"And Protoclown said he loves Hitsville U.K., so there you go."

Really? It's so poppy and lame.

[Les Waste]

Rongi, the song is called "Train in Vain" for some reason, not "Stand by Me." To this day, I have no clue why it's called Train in Vain.

And Revolution Rock is one of my two favorite songs of all time (the other being Straight to Hell). It's so fucking awesome, and it's why Topper Headon used to be one of the greatest drummers ever.

[Protoclown]

I fucking LOVE Hitsville UK.

Thanks Les, I will take your advice about buying "Clash on Broadway" into consideration.

I'm still trying to decide if it's worth it though. I might be better off buying "The Essential Clash" but I won't get as many new songs from that.

[Royal Tenenbaum]

My favourite Clash songs have to be "Hateful," "Spanish Bombs," "Guns of Brixton," "White Riot," "Overpowered By Funk," "Ghetto Defendant," "Koka Kola," and "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.."

[Les Waste]

Not many people like Overpowered by Funk. :/

The original cut of Combat Rock was called "Combat Rock: Rat Attack on Fort Bragg" and was completely different. First, most of the songs that did make it to Combat Rock (Straight to Hell, Ghetto Defendant, Sean Flynn, Know your Rights) were all about seven minutes long and of really poor quality. There were also several reggae songs that kick ass and I wish were on the final version of the album (Kill Time is one, and I think The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too is another, although they might have made that during Sandinista. Can't remember, too drunk.)

Their manager Bernie Rhodes, who was solely responsible for breaking them up, complained that everything was a raga (think of that, and think of the first two lines of Rock the Casbah and you'll know what the song is really about) so they had to redo the album. Overpowered by Funk was thrown in at the last second, so it almost didn't make the album.

It's kinda cool cause it's the first ever rap-rock fusion song. The guy trying to rap and failing is a German graffiti artist named Futura. The Clash were weird like that. They always had great opening acts that they liked but their fans didn't. Once, they had Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five open for them and their fans rioted. They also had Bo Diddley as an opening act. I would sell my soul to see a Bo Diddley and Clash concert.

[Rongi]

I just got Sandinista

And I LOVE IT :o

I only listiened to the first CD though. I like "The Sounds Of Sinners" and a lot of the other ones I can't remember right now

What does Sandinista mean anyway ?

[Rongi]

And who's the little girl in Broadway :o?

[Protoclown]

Sandinista is fucking wonderful, but I have to say I like the first disc MUCH better than disc 2. The second disc is mostly kind of boring, especially the latter half. :/

[Rongi]

I like the first one a tad better too. And hittsvile u.k. is growing on me

Where are you bobo ??

[Rongi]

Bump

[Les Waste]

The second half of Sandinista disc 2 is pretty boring, but there are some cool songs. Street Parade and Version City are two of my favorite songs. I like Sillicon on Saphire, which if you listen closely enough you hear it's a techno version of Washington Bullets. And the last song on the album sounds a lot like Revolution Rock. Putting a dub of Junco Partner on the album was probably a bad idea though. As was having children sing Career Opperutinites. But even though it might not be good, I like it so much because I think it's extremely interesting.

The album was named after the FSLN, or the Sandinistas, who were a Marxist revolutionary group in Nicaragua named after an old leader named Sandino who was killed years earlier. They overthrew the crooked dictator who was appointed by the US (I can't remember his name right now) and set up a moderately successful, socialist government. One of the verses on Washington Bullets is about that.

After the album was made, Reagan sent contra groups there to try and overthrow the government, and the Sandinistas had to spend all the country's funds on defense. Remember the Iran-Contra scandal? Where we sold weapons to Iran and used the money to fund the contras? Well, after almost 20 years we completely destroyed Nicarauga, but we finally got the Sandinistas out. That's a sad story.

I have no idea who the little girl at the end of Broadway is, but I have an interesting fact: Most people ask me who the girl is who sings the lyrics on "Lose this Skin." Well, that's a guy. His name is Tymon Dogg, and he not only did the vocals, he was also the fiddle player. He joined Strummer's last group the Mescaleros and was on their second album as a fiddle player. Who knew?

[Protoclown]

Yeah, I was pretty surprised to learn he was a guy when I picked up the Mescaleros second album and saw his picture on the back.

[Rongi]

Holy shit ! That's a guy? I could've sworn it was a lady

I love Sandinista! because it's just so strange and tries to do a lot of different stuff instead of one thing :o.

I like, in no particular order,"The Magnificent Seven", "Junco Partner", "Charlie Don't Surf", "Hittsville U.K." ( ) "The Sound Of Sinners", "The Leader", "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe", and a lot others.

[Protoclown]

"Hitsville UK"

[Royal Tenenbaum]

Hitsville UK

[Rongi]

How can anyone hate it? It's so catchy :o

[Rongi]

BTW, should I get 'Westway To The World", Bobo?

[Les Waste]

I don't know. I haven't seen it yet as I can't find it anywhere.

I've heard the live performances are great on Westway. You should definetely get From Here to Eternity Live though.

[Rongi]

I'm definatly getting "Live Frome Here To Eternity". I saw it on amazon for ten bucks .

[Les Waste]

Proto, or anyone, if you want to hear something INTERESTING, but very bad, you might want to download (I wouldn't buy it for two red cents ) Burning London, which is a Clash tribute album done by very high-profile artists. Some of the songs include:

White Man in Hammersmith Palais by 311, which is a terrible, terrible version.
White Riot by Uncle Cracker, which is just delightful. 2nd best song on the album.
This is Radio Clash by the Urge, best song here
Lost in the Supermarket by the Afghan Wigs. Topper Headon, the Clash's drummer, is on this track. It's good.
Train in Vain by Third Eye Blind. Awful.
Should I Stay or Should I Go by Ice Cube ft. Mack-10. LOL.
Hateful by No Doubt.
Rudie Can't Fail by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Yuck.
Cheat by Rancid. Pretty good.
An accousit version of Clampdown by the Indigo Girls. I don't like it at all.
London's Burning by Silverchair. Terrible.
Straight To Hell by Moby with Heather Nova on vocals. Heather Nova does an awful job. Moby also sucks it up.

There are at least two other Clash cover albums that I know of with less-known artists, but they are VERY rare. I've heard they're alot better. One of them includes covers by the Dropkick Murphys, who do a kick ass cover of the Guns of Brixton.