A happy new week to you all then as we steam into another Monday on the blog. I just don’t know where the time goes anymore as it seems like it should be midsummer and yet here we are in the second week of October. I also noticed that I have the very best intentions when it comes to rolling along with The Clash Cup and yet once I think it’s about a week since the latest installment it turns out that it’s been close to three weeks which is unforgivably long. My October resolution will be to get to at least three more match ups before Halloween so tonight will be the first. If you happen to be new to the blog it’s a simple process where you vote for the best Clash song based upon a random match up, better still is proportional representation is offered so that runners-up can still make it through to the next round with good support. We’re getting closer to the final 64 songs now and the beginning of round three, the final goal is to propose the best 16, 8 and then the final four best Clash songs ever recorded. According to you, the cream of Clash fans. Before that we have to review the last pairing which I’m ashamed to say was back on September 18.

English Civil War defeated Four Horsemen 39-19

That was far more one-sided than I had expected, but for once (at last) my preferred choice made it through to the next round. I’m very curious to see how many tracks from London Calling make it to the final 64 but Four Horsemen won’t be one of them. So let’s move on to the next terrific twosome.

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 12

What’s My Name versus Jimmy Jazz

This really is a fantastic pairing of songs for so many reasons. First of all both of them are really good tracks and it would be a shame to see either depart with The Clash Cup quite so early. Better still is a huge contrast in styles of the two songs, if you bumped into some herbert who had only ever heard ‘Rock The Casbah’ and wanted to know more about The Clash just imagine if you threw these two songs at him or her to listen to. If you have no prior knowledge of the band you’d probably be shocked to realize it was the same group in the first place, What’s My Name is almost a prototype 1976 English punk song although I think the original version may have predated Joe Strummer joining the band that summer, but received his lyrical reworking like some other early Mick Jones tracks. As for musicianship it along with White Riot is one of the more basic Clash tracks to play but what it lacks in complexity it makes up for with aggression and lyrical nous. Hard to believe then that just three years later the same band knocked out Jimmy Jazz for the London Calling album, what would have been a huge departure in 1978 somehow fit just perfectly onto the album that established the band as being willing to draw from the past as much as write about the future. The origins of the song lay with Topper Headon and his desire to do something with a jazz feel on the album, when added to Joe Strummer’s ability to ‘tell that tale’ plus the introduction of brass you have a Clash song unlike any other.

Form Book

Round 1 What’s My Name defeated The Right Profile     72% of the vote
Round 1 Jimmy Jazz defeated If Music Could Talk    74% of the vote

Back in the first round both songs had to overcome fairly stubborn opposition but did so quite comfortably it looks. If Jimmy Jazz is one of the least likely Clash songs on London Calling, then the song that What’s My Name defeated in round one would probably run a close second. I had thought The Right Profile would have done a bit better, but support for some of the early Clash songs seems to be very strong. With all that said I don’t quite know which way you lot might vote on this pairing. I think it will be very close but Jimmy Jazz will just win it by head. Chop Chop!

Stuff

This is sometimes a tricky bit, trying to tell you something about the songs that you don’t already know. As it happens I’m in the middle of that Marcus Gray book about the making of London Calling, whilst it’s an interesting read at times it gets very very detailed to the point where you need a cup of coffee and a cigarette after reading some chapters – so full of information is his writing. He also runs through track by track in such exquisite detail that you feel a bit overwhelmed by the information, you can’t argue the facts really but you can debate the interpretation of some songs at least to a certain extent. Jimmy Jazz is one such song where the lyrics are examined as painstakingly as a crime scene, though I’m not convinced that Strummer had quite so much in mind when to a certain extent the song is so brilliant because it feels quite free-form and he literally skats his way through it. As for trivia, opening whistle isn’t provided by Joe or any member of the Clash but by band friend and roadie The Baker  (what a relief, thanks for correction lads…). As for What’s My Name, I just checked and the song does get co-writing credits for Keith Levene so it was kicking around from the very early days. It’s a song that is either about alienation or just general confusion, some observerance about boredom by its very nature just simply getting you into trouble, which it can, and does, and I have.

Before you cast your vote, I always urge you to take one last listen to both songs before clicking a mouse so that you vote with a clear conscience. As ever I will provide a few links to get you started, I don’t think you can top this live version of Jimmy Jazz from New Jersey in 1980. ‘Who said no birds will sing’. For What’s My Name you can find a great selection of lovely raw recording from the earlier gigs, but this one from Manchester in 1977 is a must see/hear for Joe Strummer going simply mental.

Thanks for voting, polls are all yours until Friday. Please add your comments to explain your voting, I always enjoy that. Talk to you soon.

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Good morning Clash world how goes it? Still no license plate and no fall out from the kebab last night so it’s a net neutral I’d have to say. Been working on our website in our quest for world domination in blog design, alright I exaggerate. Coffee has brewed, found a decent new music player online that actually seems like it will be worth bookmarking and I’m wearing my best ‘can do’ approach towards the weekend. I actually have to get out back today and clean the grill which is not my favourite task but makes the food taste a lot better and reduces the risk of an explosion which would take out the back third of the house.

Seems like a good morning to fire up another round of The Clash Cup as we get deeper into round 2 and only the big boys remain. Before we sort out the new pairing (selected very officially via this site) we need to review the last vote which frankly was a devastatingly one-sided affair.

Career Opportunities        defeated       Last Gang In Town              61-6

It didn’t take a brave gambler to think that the winner would be Career Opps but still the margin of the win was pretty remarkable. I think to a certain extent the early 10-0 head start made some voters want to pick the sure winner. However you slice it that was a bad result for ‘Give em Enough Rope’. I’ve a theory that the better Mick’s hair was at the time of recording the better the chance the song will win. I’ll need a powerpoint presentation to prove my theory but just you wait and see. Let’s move away from the rubble of that result and see what we have next, and I’d say it will be a closer call having just picked the numbers.

Round 2 Match 8

Lightning Strikes      vs       48 Hours

Nice one indeed and I’m feeling some weird symbolism which is daft, as I write it is of course the early stages of our 48 hours and last night we had more lightning than rain (which in truth is always the case here). Two tracks that I’ll suggest won’t be around at the final 16 stage but one is assured an unlikely run into the third round. You probably disagree but neither song is often on my top list of Clash songs I have to hear when I’ve only got 4 minutes of available time. Both songs are good but not what I’d consider to the best in the Clash stable of their respective vintages, though you’re welcome to disagree.

Form book:

Round 1 – Lightning Strikes defeated Crooked Beat                        66% of the vote

Round 1 – 48 Hours defeated Three Card Trick                                 78% of the vote

Odds:

This is a bit like trying to guess if Huddersfield will beat Preston really but I think it will be very close thing. Its time for all the lovers of S! to rally together and see Lightning Strikes through to round 3. I know 48 Hours will get a lot of support but its possible that the other early Clash songs will see much more interest. I’d say Lightning Strikes by the thinnest of margins.

Stuff:

No brilliant insight to offer here, I do think it important to note that Lightning Strikes was written and and recorded in 1980. Not only had The Clash not really made anything that sounded anything like it but nobody else was making music quite like it. Its a great example of Joe’s trust in Mick to really expand the style of the band and Strummer in turn just marrying a lyrical rhythm to match the song itself.  I rarely throw the video in the voting mix but this clip from Barcelona in ’81 is well worthy. As for 48 Hours, you’re not really a Clash fan unless this has gone through your head on a Friday night on the way home from work. I’d suggest listening to this version from  1976 and see how the track evolved in the months between then and when it was recorded. Good Stuff! The rest is up to you…thanks for voting and tell me if it was a tough decision…even now I’m not quite sure which to pick. If you get two minutes can you vote for the blog on the right under ‘best pop culture blog’ we’ve a chance to go top 10!

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Round 2, Match 7 – Two Seven(s)….this better be a good one. Hello again its time for you to get all democratic on me and vote for a Clash song. A simple task in theory but it carries great weight, songs that survive this round will be really strong and offer a decent chance to make the final top 20 Clash songs ever. So vote with your mind and not just your tapping toes, we are not looking for some lukewarm coalition approach to our final top ten tracks.

Before we turn the dusty spotlight on tonight’s contenders we do need to look back to the last match. The outcome was as I predicted but it was close enough to be interesting (think Spurs trying to break into the top 3).

Hitsville UK     defeats     Inoculated City     28-17

So one of the least ‘Clashlike’ songs in their arsenal is through to the next round. Cry your tears and shed your fears all you like but the election stands, we have another Sandinista! track marching on. Now back to the random number machine to pull the next two from the bobble hat of Terry Chimes…..and what do we have for you?

Round 2 – Match 7

Last Gang in Town vs.       Career Opportunities

I don’t like that pairing whatsoever, really great songs both which represent each of the first two albums with equal importance. How many times have I sung along with each of them over the last 30 years? Should I base my vote on that? I’d really hate to see either one knocked out, there is a slim chance that enough second place votes will keep the runner up alive so yeah this is a vote that does matter. Nothing like your local MP but much more important.

Form:

Round 1 – Last Gang in Town defeated Sound of the Sinners        61% of the vote

Round 1 – Career Opportunities defeated I’m so Bored with the USA      74% of the vote

Odds:

I’d forgotten how well Career Opps did in the 1st round as it hammered strong competition. Some Clash songs are firmly rooted in the late 70′s but I thing Career is a song that holds as much value lyrically in 2010 as it did back in the black and white days of 1977. I think many (most) Clash fans felt at one time or another that working was little more than an obligation and what we really wanted to do played no part in the jobs on offer after school. Though I also still like Last Gang in Town I can’t see it going much further than Joe Cole in the league next season. Career to win with at least 60% of the vote….

Stuff:

Surely no introduction is needed for either song? Career Opportunities might rank as one of the 5 most autobiographical songs Strummer ever wrote, for anyone who ever stood in a dole queue this is your anthem. With great significance its also the place where Jones and Simonon first met Joe Strummer. Last Gang is a song for all of us too however. Please listen before you vote - I’ve got Career Opportunities recorded in awesome live fashion in Amsterdam in 1981, tight drumming, dual barking and a song that got bigger the more The Clash played it. Last Gang in Town is the original LP version, Paul’s bass pumping all over the song. If I ever learned bass I’d have to learn this song! Also, are they any other Clash songs where the vocals start the very moment the song begins as is the case here with Joe? Surely there must be….please vote – I welcome your thoughts as to why you chose the wrong track.

Well…I’ve got no choice ! Also…wanna help the blog? Hit the WIKIO vote button at the bottom of this (and any) post, if you don’t see it just click the title of the post so it refreshes on your screen.

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