Good morning once again and welcome to your tear-stained (Arsenal supporter you see) Saturday morning edition of The Clash Blog. Hoping that your weekend is off and running in good fashion, I’m left with trying to be hopeful about a team that can’t defend…I’m convinced we won’t concede goals quite as stupid again as today but I said that a few weeks ago.

Of all the moments of Clash history that I think I’ve enjoyed reading about most it might be the anecdotes about the regular sessions the band and supporting cast had playing football during the recording of London Calling that make me grin. Much has been written about that in terms of it building camaraderie and loosening any tension within the band and was apparently a near daily occurrence at the adjacent school playground in Highbury when the band were working on the album in the summer of 1979. It was a time when the band felt there backs were against the wall in terms of money, direction, management and the music press which was previously adoring had turned sour. From that came arguably the greatest record of that (or any generation). I remember getting the record as a 12 year old kid and even before listening to it in depth being thrilled at the cover photograph, the fact it was a double album the first I owned as a kid, the lyrics included (the first time for The Clash) and all the inner sleeve photographs. Something special was in my hands and I still remember telling anyone who would listen at that time in school that this was the album you had to have. Anyway, I just was thinking about that this morning and wishing I had photographs of The Clash and crew enjoying a game of 5-a-side football that summer. I don’t think any photographs exist – but if you know differently prove me wrong.

Also I noticed after the event that yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the first ever record released by The Clash as CBS 5058 was released on a pretty unconvinced British public. White Riot came out on March 18th, 1977 and began the  recorded history of the band by just breaking into the UK top 40 peaking at number 38 which of itself wasn’t a poor showing. When you look back at the sleeve of that 7″ single (pictured left) how could you possibly have walked into a record shop in Dundee or Derby and not at least have been curious enough to purchase it. Hopefully some of you reading this actually did so in those first weeks of release, I acquired my vinyl copy some years later. If you’re of similar vintage to me and want to put perspective on how long ago this was now, it was the same month when the worst airline disaster in history occurred when two 747′s collided on a runway in a fog bound airport in Tenerife. Yes, it was a long time ago. I’ve got vague memories of that (I was 9) as I remember being worried about my parents who were at the time on holiday in the Ivory Coast and I naturally thought flying was the most dangerous thing in the world. Turns out I was wrong.

As far as timeless lyrics did Joe ever capture the mood of England at the time with White Riot? He writes of not wanting to go to jail, but not wanting to take orders. Of rich and poor and the haves and have-nots. Here we are over three decades later and we are seeing riots and protests being a focal point of current unrest (and the outrageously immoral reactions) in many Arab states. A riot of our own? Let’s be having it.

all the power’s in the hands
of the people rich enough to buy it
while we walk the streets
too chicken to even try it

Good evening and welcome back to the blog, the more regular readers amongst you will surely be aware that in probably equal reverence to that which I reserve for The Clash I also hold a similar regard for Arsenal (a football club in London). So tonight I’m not in the best spirits although we certainly lost to the better team on the night and 4-3 over two legs isn’t abysmal although tonight’s referee was. Nevertheless I still want to get the taste of the champions cup out of my mouth so I thought it would be a good time to revisit The Clash Cup. Short explanation if you’re new to the blog; we began with nearly 200 songs and are now deep into round two where songs are picked at random and you vote for your favorite all the way through until we get down to a final 32, 16, 8 etc. The winner of tonight’s pairing in round two will make it through to the final 64 but first we have to review our last battle from February 8th which wasn’t any closer than I had anticipated.

The Guns of Brixton defeated Deny 72-17

Thanks so much for an excellent turnout in the voting even though the famous Paul Simonon track took an impressive 81% of the votes to end the short run of Deny. I don’t think there will be that many complaints as it looked like a bit of a mismatch before we even got started. So let me turn your attention to the random number generator and pick out two more Clash songs to pit against each other:

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 16

Broadway versus The Street Parade

Usually when the two songs are selected they come from very different times in the history of the band and/or you can almost instinctively predict which song will win as it may appear in your preordained vision of what the 20 best Clash songs are before you even get started. This is not one of those occasions although if you are like me a great lover of Sandinista! and all of its different flavours then this makes for quite the pairing. I also usually have my own personal preference even when I’m writing the blog but again this is another situation entirely. I have a very sentimental reason attached to Street Parade as for no apparent reason it was the first song I played on my stereo the sad day that I learned Joe Strummer had died (followed after consecutive plays by Nitcomb).

Form Book

Round 1 – Broadway defeated Do It Now with 91% of the vote

Round 1 – Street Parade defeated Stop The World with 71% of the vote

As you can see both songs were paired with lesser-known Clash tracks in round one so it’s a little difficult to imagine how they will fare against tougher opposition in each other. Just based on conversations with Clash fans over the years I think that Broadway tends to get slightly higher recognition of these two and as a result I think it will probably win a very close vote. Of the round two matches I think this might be one that goes all the way until its conclusion which will be next Monday and as I write I’m not sure which way I’ll vote although my sentimental side will probably choose the runner-up which in this case I predict will be The Street Parade.

Stuff

Although Sandinista! has 36 songs I have a feeling that deeper in the competition you’ll see many of those fall foul of stronger songs, we may even only have six or seven left in the final 32 by the time we get there. Part of that might be the very nature of the diversity of Sandinista! You can find people who will like almost any individual song on the album while at the same time there’s plenty of people who say this track or that track should’ve been omitted from the original triple album in the first place to make it a stronger double. That’s a debate for another day but I do have a strong argument for another day that suggests the best 19 songs on Sandinista! might even have been as good of an album as London Calling ended up being. Honestly….

As for these two songs both demonstrate that by 1980 Joe Strummer was a better vocalist than ever before and also that his lyrics were as versatile as Mick’s songwriting. There are probably 50 or 60 Clash songs that I can never think of a bad time to hear (okay exclude funerals and sex perhaps) and these two would both be on that list. Before you vote I encourage you to think this one through and listen one last time to both songs. No special versions for you just the standard studio recordings of each Broadway here and Street Parade , also if you are a Clash historian I wondered whether either of these songs performed live with any regularity? I think they were only featured right around early-mid 1981. I’m guessing that Broadway would be the more likely of the two, if either.

SOME LATE NEWS JUST IN…..Big Audio Dynamite added Roxy (Los Angeles) April 14 and Roseland (New York) April 18….more details tomorrow…and more info on the Clash Blog Facebook page.

Thanks for voting the polls are open now and will close next Monday by which time I’ll have recovered from today’s Arsenal’s result and hopefully celebrating a win over Manchester United. Cheers – Tim

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Good evening and welcome back to the best blog that I write, although today that might not be entirely true as you might find my other post today on Word Service Bulletins about the Tufty Club to be critical reading also. I was in the supermarket earlier and just as I was deciding upon which cereal to purchase the collective trio of snap crackle and pop asked me “when was I going to do another edition of The Clash Cup“. Alright I made that last bit up but it was when I was in that aisle then I remembered it was really overdue and hence it’s making a long-awaited comeback this evening. For the newly initiated to the blog is our ongoing quest to determine the best songs that Clash ever recorded, we began with more than 180 different tracks and an are now in round two which will get us closer to the finish line or more specifically the final 64. I’m making a pledge tonight that The Clash Cup will feature far more regular updates I have been able to find time for (the last pairing was back in December to my disgust). Let’s revisit that specific contest first of all before reviewing the next two tracks.

White Riot defeated Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad 67-10

Well, as you and I probably expected it wasn’t really a close run thing was it? With a margin of victory in keeping with the South Sudanese quest for independence White Riot bounces on to the final 64 (even money on it making the final 16) with the GTER track losing by a hefty distance. I think that the vast majority of songs recorded by The Clash stand up well to the test of time but for some reason “Julie’s Been Working…” has long sounded to me as if it belonged to a different era entirely. Poor thing. With the help of the random number generator I have a fresh twosome for your perusal tonight:

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 15

Deny versus The Guns of Brixton

While there I was hoping for an edge of the seat thriller in terms of two songs that are perfectly matched and then the random number machine manages to squeak out the equivalent of Wigan versus Tottenham. I know you’re thinking that Wigan can beat Tottenham but they really shouldn’t and nor should Guns of Brixton have much trouble beating Deny. Having said that I know that there is a huge level of support for all tracks that date back to 1976/1977 so it might be closer than I think. However I don’t think I’ve ever met a Clash fan who doesn’t have a special spot for Guns of Brixton which not only offers that famous and brilliant bass line but also a rare vocal appearance by Paul matched up with lyrics that are timeless in their menace.

Form Book

Round 1 – Deny lost to Innoculated City but remained due to best runner up with 44% of the vote
Round 1 – Guns of Brixton lost to Train in Vain but remained due to best runner up with 44% of the vote

So it turns out that this is almost the *asterisk matchup that we’ve all been hoping for. I allowed certain songs in round one that lost in the general voting to remain in the cup so that we would have to equally divisible ratios to see out the tournament (just like the FA cup or the college basketball March madness in the US) – thus I needed 8/16/32/64/128 tracks to allow for a straight knockout competition. Only songs that received a certain percentage of the vote were allowed to continue and as chance would have it both of these scrape through with 44%. Also worth noting that Guns of Brixton lost out to a far more difficult opponent in round one, I’ve got a feeling that Deny won’t repeat its early luck so I’m guessing Guns of Brixton will tally at least 70 percent of the vote. Match fixing allegations will not even be listened to however. Also why does my computer not accept the word Brixton? pffff….

Stuff

Personal preference? When I was 12 years old I would have chosen Deny simply because my listening skills at the time didn’t have the patience for slower or reggae tinged Clash songs. When I first heard London Calling it was my first experience of actually hearing Paul’s vocals and after being exposed to just Mick and Joe up to that point it also took a bit of getting used to. Thirty years of hindsight though have taught me that Guns of Brixton is the richer song of the two. I think it holds a fairly unique place in the fact that it wasn’t released as a single at the time of the original release of London Calling but was eventually released as a single in 1990 in both its original format and extended dub versions which made use of that famous bass line. I could write a whole post about the history of the song and subsequent uses by other acts, chances are I’ll get to that at a later time. As for Deny it was one of the five tracks that CBS ingloriously elected to remove from the original album when eventually they decided to repackage The Clash with extra singles, b-sides and a re-record of White Riot. Rotters!

Before you click the button below to vote (which you can only do once just like in Florida) I think it’s always a good idea to have one last listen to both songs that are on the chopping block. For Deny why not try this ancient and slightly slower version recorded at the Roundhouse in London in late summer 1976. For Guns of Brixton why not the Return to Brixton version just to unsettle you a bit and remind you why remixes aren’t always the best idea. This isn’t technically election rigging.

Polls will be open until Sunday and I hope you can take part and perhaps explain your vote in the comments section. Back with more soon – have a splendid day/night etc. Please share this one as voting is our right!!  Tim

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