Good evening how are things with you then? I trust well…I just got back from playing football and for once it was below 75f but was still like running around on concrete. The ‘grass’ in Arizona is typically about as lush as the rocks on the mountains around here and the bumps and grooves in the hard dry surface leave you yelling out ‘bad bounce’ every 5 or 10 minutes to deter any sentiments that you are completely hopeless at the beautiful game. I may have moaned about the weather in England but there was almost always a nice spot of grass for a kickabout. Anyway that’s not why you visited the blog is it? Let’s get to some Clash related stuff.

Topper at Wessex during the recording of London Calling

The Clash had a pretty unique career in that in just over 5 years (of recording) they managed a two single albums, then a double, then a triple and finished (essentially) with a another single – Combat Rock in 1982. If you’re younger than a certain age (30?) then the concept of double and triple albums is probably essentially lost on you. Since the advent of CDs most ‘double’ vinyl albums will happily fit on single CD, such is the case with London Calling where 19 tracks and over 60 minutes of music fit on just one disc. Even Sandinista! made it on to two cds. I still remember getting that on CD and finding it odd that disc one ended at the end of side three, which totally changed the impact of the disc oddly. In the digital age do we even notice when a double album comes out? I’m not sure of the last really notable release that was 20-24 tracks long? That of course was your golden (unwritten) rule 25 years ago – a single album better have at least 8 tracks and ideally 10 or more, when you got beyond 14 tracks you were heading into the realms of a double album unless it was early Ramones and everything clocked in at about 2:10. Thinking back I believe London Calling was the first double album I ever bought and there haven’t been that many others from the vinyl era. Two other extremely popular double albums were releaed near the time of London Calling – Pink Floyd’s The Wall (which interestingly came out just 2 weeks before The Clash released their double album) and Bruce Springsteen’s The River which arrived about 10 months later in the Autumn of 1980. Perhaps where was something in the water in 1979, but I doubt 3 double albums as historical as that trio were ever released in a 12 month spell. There is a lot of rumour and theory attached to why The Clash suddenly released 10 sides of music from late ’79 to late ’80 – much of it concerning the collective goal of hastening the end to their contract with CBS records. However forensic work from authors and analysts have shown that this simply was wishful thinking, the CBS contract tied the Clash down to optional additional albums so that wasn’t the main catalyst.

Original sketch ideas for London Calling sleeve by Ray Lowry

I think the reality is that by the Spring of 1979 the band were really gelling as a unit with a lot to prove (backs against the wall will do that to you), taking more collective influences from one another and writing/experimenting almost constantly. Don’t forget too that a number of tracks never made it onto London Calling and songs as good as Bankrobber and Armagideon Time were completed just after and whilst finishing London Calling respectively. While 1980 offered more of the same, the early goal of releasing a single each month never made it to fruition but the year still ended with a triple album spanning 36 tracks this time with Sandinista! I constantly hear those who complain that the triple album was too ambitious and there was too much noodling, dub, throwaway tracks and filler – but I can’t imagine the album any other way. I’ll even put my neck out and say that 30 years later its the album that I find most interesting and fresh (but only on some days I’ll quickly add to cover my arse). Critics and fans alike have debated for years that S! could have made a fantastic double album or an earth shattering single, but again how can you efficiently decide and edit what songs shouldn’t have made it. One More Time needs One More Dub to compliment it and you can battle long and hard for inclusion and exclusion based on personal preference. As I said I’ve heard this discussion many times – but on the Pop Matters site today I came across a debate I’ve never heard before – “Was London Calling too long as a double album?” Pop Matters regularly run the debate sessions and they are often good fun.

My answer is the same as for Sandinista! NO -  but even more so, how on earth can you elect to pull 3,4 or 5 songs from London Calling and have anything less than a culled version of a classic? To mean the excellence of London Calling is the 19 tracks that comprise it – take away any piece and it has lost far more than 5% of what makes it so special. The Pop Matters debate is linked here and while its somewhat tongue in cheek its worth a quick read. One suggests it would be like trimming an entire scene or two from The Godfather, you’d be left with a very different film. While I was much less satisfied about events when they were happening (1982 and 1983) time has taught me that almost everything that happened to The Clash happening for a reason. Three things I wish had not happened I reluctantly accept – Topper should have got the help he needed and the band took six-twelve months off and released a live album while Topper recovered – Combat Rock should have been the original mix and likely a double album – Mick Jones should not have been fired. Over simplification of course but nothing can be changed now and nor should the length of the albums that they did release.

I’ll be back soon…thanks as always for dropping in and supporting the blog. Tim

Hello again, I trust that your Saturday went reasonably well and you are about to ease into a Sunday that it was equally pleasant. I must confess that I’ve had more enjoyable 24-hour cycles than the one that is just coming to an end, we kicked off on Friday night with continued drama of the dishonest and self-loathing variety which in a perfect world you wouldn’t have to endure…. but the bloggette has a past (don’t we all) that includes people with the grace of Mussolini and the integrity of Jimmy Swaggart. It makes for a lovely cocktail of inconsistencies and the sort of drama that should really be limited to daytime television. Nevertheless the sun went down and I woke up full of joy at the prospect of watching Arsenal playing in London against a team you expect to beat handsomely, you can probably gather how that went as well (2-3 win by WBA who thoroughly deserved it), but that wasn’t the icing on the cake….that was to come after the match.

An advert break followed the end of the game and I wasn’t looking at the screen but I heard the familiar opening of a song by Los Campesinos. My initial reaction was ‘brilliant to hear them early in the morning after that bloody match’ and I thought it was probably a preview for another segment, then I looked at my monitor and I saw that the track was being used to promote beer. Again not ideal but manageable until I realised that the beer was Budweiser. Could the day get any worse? It didn’t, but at that moment anything seemed possible. Don’t take this personally if you like Budweiser, I know some people actually drink it by choice, I also know some people like McDonalds, these are things I know but don’t necessarily understand. If you are going to drink beer why would you possibly choose something that tastes nothing like beer? Then to team up the product with a band who are amongst my favourites to emerge from the UK in recent years seemed offensive in the extreme. It’s a pity as you you won’t hear them on the radio or see them in the charts though I’m sure they got an advance from Anheuser-Busch unlike anything that CD sales in the US have generated for them, so I can just about understand the decision to license the music for such a shitty product. We’ve been here before though haven’t we?

While The Clash released five albums and a good number of singles (probably 12 or 13 without checking) during their existence they never cracked the very peak of the UK charts. There were multiple reasons for that of course some of which I’m sure you’ll know well, for starters their refusal to appear on ‘Top of the Pops’ in the UK was a huge factor. The band in their quest for full artistic control felt that (I tend to agree) going onto a program and having to lip sync was totally against what the band were about. I believe the reason this happened on the BBC was due to musicians union rights which impacted the program from most of the years that it was on the air. The problem being 99% of the competition would go to the BBC studios and benefit from the audience that watched the program every week. When I was growing up Top of the Pops was one of the most ritualistic events in our household, my brother would schedule his life around it and when you watch that 52 times a year from the earliest age you can remember it tends to rub off. Of course he wasn’t alone, it was the most influential television program for pop music in the UK and held that position without competition for decades. Clash singles would typically enter the charts somewhere between number 20 and 40 and might move up a few places and then stall and drop out the charts. Combined with the politics behind not appearing on the key music program was the fact that the band received very little radio support outside of the evening broadcast of John Peel. The singles never gained the momentum to become big hits.

I’m not sure I care that The Clash didn’t have a series of top 10 singles in the UK, I do think they merited it and more importantly it would’ve driven album sales much higher and perhaps improved the always difficult relationship with CBS records. That would’ve been the biggest benefit as a fan, that the artistic control and reduced pressure to tour/record/tour/record may have somehow led to the band overcoming the difficulties that ultimately caused them to end. Of course in 1982 they did experience huge success in North America, propelling a single (Rock The Casbah) and the album from which it was taken to the very highest reaches of the charts. This in a market that was more than six times the size of the UK, bringing in resultant attention, pressures and of course cash the like of which they never had seen. Not coincidentally the greatest success was rapidly followed by the bands shattering to bits.

All it took to reach number one was this 1991 advert in the UK

Yes, I mention we been here before and I think why the Los Campesinos song being used for ‘Bud’ seemed especially wrong was that the band is just a few years old, and very much in the middle or the early part of their career. I know the market and the industry has changed so much in the intervening years, but surely there thousands of products you’d rather be associated with? That is of course assuming they dislike the lager as much as most sane people. The Clash as you probably know had their biggest ever hit in the UK about eight years after Mick Jones left the band. I specifically remember being annoyed at the use of a Clash song for advertising, the fact that the song used wasn’t one of the 20 best tracks they recorded and the fact that due to slick marketing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” rocketed up the British charts with abandon. 20 years later and I’m still not thrilled that it was Levi’s that helped the band have a huge hit. Though I’ve subsequently heard ‘London Calling’ being used by Jaguar, ‘Pressure Drop’ by Nissan and I’m sure you can fill me in with other examples wherever you may live. Conversely I realize that the success of the single in 1991 may have led to more people being exposed to the band for the first time and discovering and enjoying all of the music as a result. The reissue climbed all the way to number one in March of 2001 for two weeks, therefore becoming by far the best selling single they ever had in the UK. I hope that most of those royalties went directly to the band and not the huge debt that they had run up with CBS Records. A debt that was greatly due to keeping ticket prices low if you wanted to see The Clash and releasing double and triple albums for the price of a single so you didn’t have to spend a fortune to get the music. Of course the vagaries and complexities of the contract they originally signed in 1977 ran much deeper than that, but I hope that one big single at least put cash in the pockets of the authors, I believe it did.

I’d love to know if any of you first heard The Clash due to that Levi’s advert in 1991? Surely that might apply to some of you, don’t be shy. At least it wasn’t for Budweiser. The rest of the day was great, I managed to catch up with someone that makes me realise what’s most important, and then played football tonight without breaking or twisting anything. That’s me done for now, I’ll talk to you soon. — I’m a criminal everywhere don’t you know — (my new tagline apparently)

Only me again with the latest installment of the Clash Blog. I’m not impressed today as the temperature is back over 110f just when I thought the worst of the summer was gone, if you’re sitting somewhere and complaining about it being in the 60′s outside I don’t want to hear it. Make sure you check back with the blog over the weekend as I should have approval for some very cool images from a recent art exhibition for you. This afternoon back like a zombie it’s time for The Clash Cup, I know it’s been dormant for a few weeks but all of the events surrounding Joe Strummer’s Birthday including reviews and previews took out much of the blog during the latter part of August.

So will it be this B-Side...

The Clash Cup if you’re new to the blog is a very simple and democratic process allows you to select your favorite Clash song by way of voting on the blog. We are now in round two and looking to whittle down the best Clash songs ever until we reach a final 16, then eight and so on. Each of the pairings is set 100% at random so you take what you get even with the decision isn’t always easy. Before tonight’s pairing we do have to review the voting for the most recent installment of the cup which was earlier in August. Decent voter turnout for the last matchup but I would suggest the more likely song still won out:

This is Radio Clash defeated Ghetto Defendant 28-18

Closer than I expected but I don’t think enough runner-up votes to allow the Combat Rock track to make it through to the next round, which to be fair is probably how it should be. As I said this is most likely the last round where the voting will often be fairly easy, so let’s have a look at the next pair:

Round 2 Match 10

City of the Dead versus  Justice Tonight/Kick It Over

Well that’s a turn up for the books as neither song would make the most obvious list of Clash songs which is not to say either song is poor by any means. In fact both songs are quite unique in terms of sound and come from that spell of hyperactivity that The Clash were guilty of from ’77 until ’79. The other thought I had almost immediately is how do you separate the two and choose a winner? I know which one I prefer (just) but I won’t share it so as not to influence your voting… as if. Also by sheer coincidence both tracks appeared on Super Black Market Clash which I think is another novelty in this pairing. The extended version of the album is sometimes just the perfect tonic for a good Clash fix perhaps especially because it featured many songs you don’t hear quite as often. Battle of the B-sides!!

Form book:

Round 1 – City of the Dead defeated Freedom Train           98% of the vote
Round 1 – Justice Tonight defeated Junco Partner             73% of the vote

Odds:

I am not quite sure what you can take from the first round, both for convincing wins although Justice Tonight had to overcome a trickier challenge from Junco Partner which was tough because I love both songs. If I had to predict a winner I think it might just be City of the Dead because it is an original track and not a dub/remix. Though I do think the voting will be close.

Stuff:

...this B-Side?

Not many tracks by the Clash have dated that badly at all, although I do think City of the Dead is one of the rare exceptions where the production just sounds a little muddy and the song could only be from the mid-late 70s. Worth remembering a song this good was originally just a B-Side to the stellar Complete Control. Justice Tonight of course was B- side to another of the most famous Clash singles London Calling so for yet another reason this pairing has fantastic symmetry. You don’t need me to tell you it’s also the dub version of Armagideon Time, a song that I will go on record and proclaim as my very favourite Clash cover version and high on my list of all Clash songs.

As for the voting the polls open immediately and you will have until next Tuesday morning to cast your vote for which song remains in the competition. Before you vote it’s always good to have one last chance to compare the songs side-by-side so if you’d like to just click the links that I provide. For City of the Dead let’s substitute the live version so we don’t focus on the production of the original. I do think some of Joe’s lyrics on the track are superb. Your last task is to reserve 8:54 of your life to just mellow out to Justice Tonight / Kick It Over and make sure you turn up the bass first of all.

Enjoy voting and thank you – this is actually rather an interesting pairing.

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