Hello again and welcome back to the blog, I hope your day mirrored mine in that you occasionally see something (a concert, a sunset, a pretty girl) that you know wasn’t exclusively for you but you realise you’ll remember it for years and maybe decades to come. In my years of going to concerts there are a few dozen that I’ll never forget in fairly explicit detail, while hundreds of others were great, good, fair or awful it’s the occasional brilliant moments we cherish.  I had one such moment today, I’ve been following Arsenal since I was a tiny kid and regularly attended games throughout my time living in London. Since leaving England I can’t say my commitment to the team has changed (it might be stronger than ever) and I probably watch 98% of their games even when it involves getting up at 430am to see them as it sometimes does. Over those 35+ years I’ve seen a few thousand goals and although you enjoy them all, once in a while you see one that you know will stick with you for many years to come. So it was a few hours ago when Samir Nasri scored a goal of pure grace today it makes you appreciate the beauty of the sport. I’ll enjoy that for a long, long time.

So this got me thinking about the first time I heard The Clash and the first time I saw them. It made me remember being introduced to songs and bands that become almost a part of who you are as they become embedded in your character. If you’re anything like me you’ll defend the music you love as much you might your own family (or perhaps more). If someone tries to convince me that The Clash don’t belong in a list of the 5 most important bands of all time we’ll have a long debate in store. If a legitimate fan of music tries to say that The Clash weren’t the single most influential English band to emerge from the punk/post punk era we’re going to have to disagree. I also looked at what The Clash and my football club have in common and it’s my big brother, who really introduced me to both.

My older brother turns 50 tomorrow, which I can’t quite fathom. Yes, he has always been 7 1/2 years older than me and the aging process was inevitable but surely he can’t be turning 50 years old. I remember the first post I ever wrote for this blog and reflecting on how my brother’s room was always the home of everything I felt guided by. In 1973 I’d take his Arsenal programs from his wardrobe to read while looking at the sleeves of albums by T-Rex, David Bowie and Roxy Music. The music that came from his  room was a constant soundtrack to being an adolescent and building expectations of what being a teen might be. By 1977/8 I understood that music was more than a hobby for him as it dictated his clothes, his girlfriends and the concerts he attended. I must have been ten when I noticed there was more passion and fire in the singles and albums he was playing, as Elvis Costello, The Clash had begun to dominate his turntable, replacing Queen and Wings. Later that summer of ‘78 when I just turned eleven was when it all made sense to me. He took me to record shops, I started my own collection of vinyl. He started taking me to concerts, I began my own journey of determining what live music represents. I was already obsessed with football and suddenly I had to find time read the NME, Melody Maker and find the extra cash for the next single that he recommended.

I’ve no idea if I would have found The Clash and so much brilliant music without my brother, I’d like to think so but I can’t be sure. I’ve no idea if I may have instead found love for cricket or rugby if it wasn’t for him, probably not as we lived to play football when I was five…but I might not have attached myself to Arsenal. I’m so lucky my big brother left his bedroom door ajar for me to listen and I can simply say ‘Thank You’.

Happy 50th David.

Welcome back to the blog as we leap into a new week and a new month all at the same time. I’ve got just a few minutes so I thought I’d continue with our collective quest to determine the best Clash songs ever recorded. If you are new to the blog it’s a simple process one vote per person, the song with the most votes progresses to round 3. The simple part ends there – some songs were seeded (and will enter the competition in round 3) and some of the runner ups with the best vote percentage will also stay in the hunt. Before I find out the random songs for match 3 we need to review match 2 from February 19th. It wasn’t as close as I expected – and if you want a song to lose just ask me to handicap it by suggesting I think it will win! Hence the result was:

1977   defeats   Koka Kola      33-15

A rather convincing win and we’ll say goodbye to the track from London Calling as a result. Match 3 then and these (don’t forget) are pulled at random. The pitted pair are:

Clash City Rockers   vs   The Card Cheat

That’s an interesting pairing as I know both are loved by a lot of fans. Could you pick more extremely different Clash songs if you tried? One is a straight ahead rocker which heavily ‘borrows’ from the past while the other is as close to the ‘wall of sound’ as The Clash ever got due to the recording process for The Card Cheat. I like both so can’t see an easy way to make my selection so please don’t rush your decision!

Form:

Round 1 – Clash City Rockers defeated Remote Control  29-14       (67.4% of the vote)

Round 1 – The Card Cheat lost to The Prisoner 29-18      *stayed alive due to runner up support in round one.

Odds:

Clash City Rockers has got to be favoured, I’d forgotten that The Card Cheat only remains due to the best runner up support and thus I can’t see it beating the odds a second time. I’ve got to back Clash City Rockers as an odds-on favourite at 7-4 on. Then again I’m not you and I’ve only got the one vote.

Best Lyrics:

So don’t complain about your useless employment, jack it in, forever tonight

He only wanted more time, Away from the darkest door
But his luck it gave in, As the dawn light crept in
And he lay on the floor

Listen and watch here if you need any refreshing Clash City Rockers and The Card Cheat

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Polls are open for a week – please be responsible. Thanks for taking part.

Blurry (sorry) video capture from live Clash performance in 1977

Hello good people, any excitement at your end? I neglected to mention earlier the week the passing of Doug Fieger from the Knack. The Knack weren’t a band that changed the world but at the tail end of the 1970’s they were one of the first American bands to takes a pop/punk sound (let’s just call it New Wave I suppose) to the top of the charts. Remarkably ‘My Sharona’ was #1 in the US for six weeks and also in the UK for five weeks! I remember the song being everywhere for a while when I was a kid but was it that huge? Fieger died in his home at the age of just 57 from cancer last Sunday, more details here in the Washington Post.

Right then… I know this is a few days late but a good way to get the weekend off and running eh? We started round two of the search for best ever Clash songs last week and I’d better report on the results for that match up first of all. As I explained in full on this post the song that gets the most votes automatically makes it through to round two and the runners up with the highest percentage of total votes are also staying in the competition. Its more simple than it sounds and most importantly every vote counts (where have I heard that before – Florida presidential election?), match one was a close run affair:

Kingston Advice defeated Cheapskates     27-22

This was even closer than that the first few days but a few late votes saw Kingston Advice pull away, Cheapskates might stick around with 44.90% of the overall vote. So much for my prediction, best you ignore that in future. So match up number two via the random number machine:

Koka Kola    vs    1977

Not two of the strongest songs in round two in truth so one of them reaching round three is probably a bonus. One of the very earliest Clash songs against something from essentially the exact middle of their career. .

Form:

Round One – Koka Kola beat Drug Stabbing Time 20-13 collecting 60.6% of the votes                                                                                                                 Round One – 1977 beat Dirty Punk 44-1 collecting an amazing  97.8% of the votes

Odds:

London Calling has so many songs that I think will make the final 32 but is Koka Kola one of them? I do think if you go back and listen to both songs before you vote that it will be strong enough to get more votes than 1977. That said I was wrong in the last match, though I do expect these to be close again.

Best Lyrics:

Your eyeballs feel like pinballs and your tongue feels like a fish

No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones

As for the lyrics, I think Strummer’s couplets on Koka Kola are amongst his best and they are spat out with such pace it makes for a brilliant song. That said that line from 1977 became part of Clash legacy, a line repeated in more Clash stories I’ve read over the years than perhaps any other.

Listen (and watch) here – Koka Kola or 1977

1983 for track one, from the ill fated US festival in Southern California though I think this was one of the better songs caught from that difficult evening. 1977 is that just the greatest close to a Clash song?

Thanks in advance for all of your votes, polls close next Friday and I’ll endeavour to get another match up put together by Monday!

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