Good evening to all corners of the world, I’d love to say London Calling but that would be just an echo of my past. Phoenix calling doesn’t have the same lofty status and while we have a river to live by its a dry river, which by definition makes it a rocky snake with bridges crossing it (it does flow in the Winter now and then). Its very late here at Clashblog towers and odds are I might succumb to sleep before I finish this missive but lets see what I can muster at the end of a very long and emotional day. Before I forget to mention it don’t forget to vote in the most recent Clash Cup (see two posts back) and also I picked up more yesterday but I can still get the big pink Clash book for you at a very reasonable price and ship it if interested. Check this post for more details.

I suppose I can’t post tonight without mentioning the rescue of the miners in Chile who had spent 10 weeks trapped deep underground. While I appreciate that it was a feel good story I can’t get in sync with the outpouring of ecstasy from the public and media alike, I can’t help feeling the chance for reality TV in real time was too much for the networks and viewers and they went completely overboard. More to the point the media here tend to ignore that South America even exists the other 364 days of the year so it was doubly strange to see this media party play out. A strange day indeed as the biggest enemy of miners in modern times Margaret Thatcher turned 85 years old at the same time, they really should have put her down the shaft and sealed it up. If it was me…I couldn’t last 69 days without hearing The Clash and they had some bloke down there leading Elvis Presley singalongs. Can you imagine? Sitting in a dark hole with 32 blokes thinking this can’t get any worse then a fellow miner starts singing Love Me Tender….I’d have suggested Career Opportunities but probably wouldn’t have got many takers.

Anyway, enough of that. I was hoping that in between the gigs and tour bus routine that Mick and Paul might get hunted down for some interviews with magazines, newspapers or radio stations. While that might be happening I’m not finding much yet so if you’ve heard or seen anything please let me know. What is very apparent from the photos and videos I’ve seen so far is that both of them look like they are just having a brilliant time – aware of the symbolic aspect of sharing a stage again but also enjoying the music and the venues and especially in Paul’s case cementing his already established friendship with Damon. I’m still getting used to the idea that Paul and Mick are playing together almost every night and I’d assume spending more time together offstage than they have at any time in 27 years. While it seems rather surreal I can’t help wondering what might come of their renewed friendship of if the Gorillaz tour will be the summit of it? Either way it still seems incredibly unlikely to me even though its happening. Special thanks to Fallon for the photo on the left, great shot.

As expected I fell asleep before getting this completed last night and now I need to do some proper work. I’ll catch up more over the next few days, we’ve got lots of photos and a first hand account of the Gorillaz/Letterman concert coming up soon. Have a good one…..Tim

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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Its a big weekend around here, I might just finally see the back of summer and try and complete digging the fish pond that was started in May and then suspended due to our ridiculously hot weather. See…I knew you’d be excited, but imagine how the fish feel! They’ve made it through an Arizona summer via the efficient use of shade and occasional ice in their temporary pond so I can’t wait for them to have something deeper and by default cooler. You’ve not arrived by accident at the pondblog – but I read somewhere you can better engage your blog audience by sharing whats going on in your life (so proof positive that this advice might be entirely sound) …that and Arsenal vs Chelsea this weekend- tasty! Also later this month of course Gorillaz will be in town with Paul and Mick and I might be going to Los Angeles at the end of the month for some blog related research…more on that soon.

Ou est Monsieur Jazz?

So, The Clash…yes indeed we’ve got stuff to be getting to over this weekend so I’ll break it up into shorter than normal posts this weekend and try and cover as much as I can. First things first, it seems the Sandinista! 30th anniversary reissue has now unofficially been postponed until the New Year which sort of makes it the 31st anniversary doesn’t it? Needless to say I’ll forward any information as I get it and see how the 36 tracks will be expanded upon when the details get published, although a DVD seems to be a near certainty with some live footage.

Speaking of live footage I have to pass on this which was kindly posted to our facebook page overnight by Ina Visio. I think (not sure) that I’ve seen some of this live footage from The Clash playing live in Paris in  single song segments but never the extended clips with between song banter and such. What is sure though is that it provides almost as good a visual document as any of The Clash mid-period in early 1980. Its a crowded stage with the addition of a Blockhead on keyboards and at least three cameramen that I can detect scrambling all over and not a huge stage to work with in the first place. What is apparent though was a band at the peak of their confidence in the live arena visibly enjoying playing within the now broader confines of the more recent material from London Calling as well as breathing extra fire into some of the earlier tracks. Visually the quality is decent and benefits from the multiple cameras and the audio is of an above average standard as well. Seems that Mick’s microphone gets lost in the mix at times but you can’t have everything. Two things that really stand out to my casual observation compared with footage from 77-79 is that Topper is just amazing in setting the platform for all of the live tracks, he doesn’t miss a lick and the band feed off him at all times. The second thing is that Mick used to play a bit more rhythm and a bit less lead in earlier concerts but by this stage he completes entire songs (see Spanish Bombs) without playing a single barre chord but just entirely lead. It demonstrates a lot of how their songwriting had evolved and that Joe’s rhythm guitar would hold a song together live as needed. Anyway a good chance to hear some tracks you rarely find live footage for also. Two clips for you then and if you’ve seen ‘em before…well enjoy them again:

OK…we had a complete bugger of a time embedding those two videos so time I had earmarked for writing a bit more this evening has been eaten up by trying to get the videos on the blog. They might take a little time to load though you should be able to make them full screen. Here’s what’s above for your pleasure:

Video 1: Jimmy Jazz / London Calling  / Protex Blue / Train in Vain

Video 2: Koka Kola / I Fought the Law / Spanish Bombs / Wrong ’em Boyo / Stay Free / Janie Jones /  Complete Control /  Garageland / Tommy Gun

I must confess I’ve been a bit obsessed the last week or two with London Calling since picking up that Marcus Gray book about the making of London Calling. More on that after completion I’m sure. As for the gig, it took place at Le Palace in Paris on Feb 27, 1980 and was filmed for television. You’ll notice constant chaos at the perimeter of the stage with equipment being moved around and the band looking indifferent, which would be another word to describe Joe’s command of French. 40 minutes of video and audio survive from the gig although I think releases have been limited to bootlegs and online. Yes, that was Antoine de Caunes at the beginning of the video. My sincere thanks to Ina.Fr for pointing me toward these full versions of the tv videos that are a bit hard to find. Please check the site they have a host of The Clash in France related videos. Right then bed for me and more tomorrow including a milestone I need to tell you about.  Cheers ~