Well hello again….it’s Saturday night and I’m glad to be back – welcome. The topic tonight is self-explanatory – the return of The Clash Cup! If you’re a regular you know the drill – vote for your favourite track in the quest to find the ultimate Top 10 of Clash songs. If you are a newer arrival we started this magnificent process last Summer (seriously) and I do mean to complete it so you’re very welcome to join in. For the rules and concept please visit this older post where I had clarity in better doses about the method. Speaking of voting I asked over a week ago whether .5C/G (Gorillaz with half of The Clash) should play a Clash song at Glastonbury. Thanks for your votes and there is a decent consensus which you

Police on my back...

can see on the original story. I was happy to see that 63% of you felt it was the ideal tribute, and another 17% felt it depended on the song. So only 20% remain resolutely against the idea of a Clash song ringing around Glastonbury this week – despite the fact that Mick and Paul will be performing it. Don’t really understand your logic if you’re in that minority but I respect it. I also hope the rest of us are fawning over a video this time next week of the other outcome!

Speaking of doubts, I know I’ve dragged my heels on The Clash Cup – but I really think it’s worth continuing as we’ve had some good fun and discussions as a result. That will only heighten as we keep chopping down the number of remaining songs and the decisions become more difficult. If you nothing else about this process know this – all the songs are matched up at random – so you might have to kick out a song you love. Before the next pairing a review of our last result, I’m ashamed to say it was back in March (!!) but I’ve a partial excuse as the blog went to The Shetland Islands for six weeks being rebuilt. The two up for grabs were The Leader versus Every Little Bit Hurts – and The Leader won comfortably with 72.4% of the vote. Sandinista! lovers rejoice. Okay then enough fluff – I’ve visited the random number generator and picked today’s pairing. If I get my life together we’ll try and run the cup twice a week, allowing the players time to recover and train.

So dig into these two: Round Two Match Five

Jail Guitar Doors         versus         Police On My Back

That’s not easy is it? Most of the time I’m quite sure what to vote for and this isn’t one of those times. I’d hate to see either get knocked out here in Round Two – worth noting the best runners up will make the final 64, perhaps this will save the one with fewer votes. How do you pick? Listen to both (below) or maybe study your tea leaves.

Form:

Round 1 – Jail Guitar Doors defeated One Emotion – with an amazing 96% of the vote

Round 1 – Police On My Back defeated Hateful  – picking up 55% of the vote

Odds:

You might not want to trust the ClashBlog bookmaker or a prediction here as I’ve only been correct on 2 out of 4 this round. Considering the ‘fame’ of both tracks and I’m sure it will be very close. Seeing as Police.. beat Hateful I think it might have enough to see off Jail Guitar Doors. Then again earlier Clash songs seem to bring out the voters. I’m going to forecast Police On My Back although at long odds – perhaps by a vote or two.

Stuff:

Jail Guitar Doors isn’t your average early Clash number but has Mick really stamping his authority all over it with guitar. Arguably Joe’s barking 54-46….over the last 25 seconds outro make it one of the best endings to a Clash song. On the other hand Police on my Back has one of my favourite openings to any Clash song, if you ever wondered how powerful Topper was this one is like a machine, download some different live performances of this one.

As ever you can make your mind up in the privacy of your own cubicle but first have a final look at these. Your standard version of JGD is here but you might like the abbreviated (and very blurry) clip from Arms Aloft in Acton in 2007 with Mick Jones which is here. As for Police On My Back it has to be the clip with Joe’s intro and howling and of course his request for people to….STOP YAKKING!

Vote early, just the once and polls close in tandem with England’s World Cup bid…or sooner. Night….!

 Loading ...

Bloody Hell….where does the time go? I had the best intentions of getting to this last night but it wasn’t to be, however I’m a believer that good things are worth waiting for and what could be better on a Monday than the latest installment of The Clash Cup. You can find out all about the premise on many earlier posts (It’s a knock-out cup competition with democracy mixed in and you help vote for the best Clash songs of all time). It’s a fun and simple process but as we’re now in round two I’m seeing decisions that are far more difficult and the voting reflects that. How do you oust a song when you love both? That’s a problem we need to overcome I fear.

Before we find out the next two random songs to ponder I do have results from our last pairing.

Round 2 – Match 3:

Clash City Rockers defeated The Card Cheat    35-23   (60.3% vs 39.7%)

So that’s twice that The Card Cheat has lost in the popular vote and the 39.7% share probably won’t be enough to keep it floating into round three. The timing on Clash City Rockers is funny as I just read in the Strummer biography about how Mickey Foote sped up the original master tapes ‘by about 1.5%’ at the insistence of Bernard Rhodes but without the knowledge of Strummer/Jones. Needless to say it was the last time he produced a Clash record. Still a great single if just a bit too fast….

So the random number machines has been wheeled out for our next two songs and the dynamic duo are:

Round 2 – Match 4:

The Leader    versus   Every Little Bit Hurts

Blimey!! Well if this was the FA Cup the equivalent would be Gillingham pulling Chesterfield out of the magic bag and avoiding Liverpool or Manchester United wouldn’t it? Still all songs got to round two on merit and one of these is guaranteed a place in round three, so are you loyal enough to back the same horse. Let’s see how they progressed to this stage.

Form:

Round 1 – The Leader defeated Junkie Slip  19-5 (79% of the vote)

Round 1 – Every Little Bit Hurts defeated Cool Confusion 20-14 (59% of the vote)

Odds:

Well at least we can see how both songs got through round one can’t we? I wouldn’t make a good bookmaker as I’ve missed 2 of 3 predictions so far, but I’d bet my Clash coins on The Leader for this pairing. It’s a good song, good support in the first round and is taking on a track that never got an official release. How can you not back The Leader? (prove me wrong).

Lyrics:

So the girl let the thin man touch her
Mixing questions, drunken laughter
The ministry car was waiting there
A minister knows his own affair

Come back to me
Darling you’ll see
I can give you all the things
That you wanted before

As ever you can spend some time listening before voting (always encouraged) by clicking the respective links The Leader (live!!) or Every Little Bit Hurts.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Thanks for voting and for visiting the blog, polls close Saturday evening. Til next time…and don’t forget to submit your questions for Strummerville.

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

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

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