Good evening to you and this time to complete something I began last night but never managed to finish so better late than never applies I suppose. Magically it’s the beginning of another week, talk about the silicon chip inside her head – it’s been one of those. Speaking of better late than never tonight marks the return at last of The Clash Cup – I’m absolutely disgusted with myself as more than a month has passed since the last installment of one of the more enjoyable things on the blog. I blame it on the visit to Phoenix of Gorillaz and meeting Paul/Mick put everything out of alignment for a few weeks. I’m making a mental note to myself to work out just how many Clash Cup match ups are needed to complete round two so that we can begin round three (the final 64 songs) as early in 2011 as possible. If you’re new to this it’s very simple, I randomly pick Clash songs to face off against each other in a knockout tournament and the one with the most votes proceeds. We’ve already had many great pairings but it promises to get even better as essentially nothing but great songs will remain very soon. One vote per person and the voting is left open for a week. Before getting to the next two songs we need to review unfinished business from the last pairing which was a really close run thing, is that when all is said and done at the end of the round but songs will likely to proceed.

Jimmy Jazz defeated What’s My Name 40-31

So for once my form book analysis was pretty good as I wrote back then “I think it will be very close but Jimmy Jazz will just win it by a head” Makes a change to get one right. So let’s have a look at the next two as picked by the random number generator.

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 13

I Fought The Law versus Charlie Don’t Surf

"How do you think he does it?" "I don't know"

Oh dearie me, this is not going to make me popular is it? Fact is it’s beyond my control as the random machine picks numbers at random – the clue is in the name. In all honesty I thought that “I Fought The Law” would be seeded in the first place but that never happened when I got your initial input at the start of this process. I’ve always thought that despite it being a great song (and the cover version no less) it became perhaps more associated with The Clash than it merited. I might be being unfair but I think it’s because it’s a very accessible song, became well known and was played live by the band for many years as they enjoyed it so much. People with far more casual knowledge of The Clash than you often tend to think that the song was a Clash original. Regardless my point is that it would probably be a strong favourite to make the final 32 but now it’s been paired with a very popular track from Sandinista! Personally my sentiments are probably opposite for ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ as I think it’s one of the least heralded classics that the band wrote and certainly amongst my favourites during their last two years of recording. As a live song it’s burned in my memory as being even bigger and more atmospheric than the recorded version and many live performances of it prove to be correct. It should be a good vote with high turnout and I hope it’s close to keep interest high. I’d hate to see either song dropped from the competition this early.

Form Book

Round 1 – I Fought The Law defeated Let’s Go Crazy     82% of the vote
Round 1 – Charlie Don’t Surf defeated Futura 2000      98% of the vote

Well neither song had what you would call the biggest challenge in round one so you cannot read too much into the results thus far. Logic tells me that not enough people will share my personal fondness for Charlie Don’t Surf to overcome I Fought The Law. I can’t really pick myself which song I think is better as it would depend completely on my mood. Seeing as I am supposed to make a prediction at this point I’ll guess that it will be I Fought The Law fairly comfortably.

Stuff

It’s an interesting pairing, a cover version that became synonymous with The Clash against a song title famously lifted from a film that timestamps the recording of it. But songs therefore have origins based upon influences outside the band. I Fought The Law had Joe quickly changing the lives lyrics to “I killed my baby” instead of the original as a roundabout way of acknowledging the death of Sid Vicious. I can throw some stupid trivia at you if you would like – in Apocalypse Now what lines in the script precede Col. Kilgore shouting “Charlie Don’t Surf”? Is it dark moment in a very dark film but I think also inspired The Clash to rise up with lyrics and music that matches the mood that was set. To my ears it was very much Mick Jones building sounds that would later become very much part of what he did with B.A.D. check out the live versions available online to see what I mean.

Before you cast your important vote I always ask that you have one more look and listen to each song if you’re on the fence (or even if you’re not). For the former song the original video really is some of the best Clash live footage that was mainstreamed and still holds up today – so check out I Fought The Law. As for Charlie Don’t Surf I think this live version in Japan is something I’ll never grow tired of watching and listening to.

Thanks for your votes, polls are all yours until Saturday morning. I’d love if you can leave comments to explain the voting or even discuss the difficulty of doing so. I will really be trying to get through a Clash Cup much more frequently at all costs. Cheers – Tim

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Good evening and welcome back to the blog on this fine sunny Thursday afternoon, I hope wherever you may be that your day went well. I’ve made a vow to myself to not discuss further than Joe Strummer film concept at least until more information is forthcoming as it seems to be quite a prickly topic just bordering on the suburbs of divisive. Hopefully it will either astound me and exceed expectations or be shelved as a project as it’s just not up to snuff. I do watch some interviews with the man asked with the screenplay last night, although he appears to be close to the right vintage pen is indeed London born something tells me you might just focus on idiosyncrasies when it comes to Joe rather than the difference he made to so many people. I’m also fully cognizant of the fact that the community who read this blog and also comment on the associated Facebook page are of a fairly unique calling in terms of our collective appreciation and inspiration often sourced via music in general and The Clash specifically, I’m tempted to write to whoever wins the director’s seat for the film and tell him that we would happily make up a test audience for the project. It might just point them in the right direction, plus I’d be able to share popcorn and assorted chocolatey goods with some of you fine people.

Right, consider that topic temporarily closed for the time being although you can go-ahead and comment on either of the last two posts which navigate the same topic in greater depth. Tonight is another example of why I love doing the blog and simply adore the support I get from some many of you, it’s the first time that the blog has been the beneficiary of translation services. In this circumstance the time and skill (and brilliant English) of my friend Silvia was called upon and generously given to translate a lengthy article that unless we speak Italian would simply be beyond our scope to enjoy. You may well remember if you read the blog regularly that Carbon Silicon made a special trip to Italy back in July to appear at a music festival where they were warmly greeted, and even took the time to put together this rather enjoyable video clip (thank goodness Tony James loves gadgets) of the trip down to Italy. Whilst there they also do a little bit of press and conducted this interview that currently appears online in the aforementioned Mediterranean tongue on Freakout Online. Thanks to Silvia who did a bang up job of translating into English we can all now enjoy it. Silvia incidentally speaks and writes better English than many people I know born in the UK or North America, it really is shameful for us! On to the article then which I’m sure you will enjoy.

Even more than Sex Pistols,The Clash have been the most representative of the british punk scene.Working class rebels,musical language innovators and rockers with a strong political view. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were the punk equivalent to what Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were on the previous decade.And then Jones,once the Clash experience ended,has gone through the next 15 years with various embodimentsof B.A.D.,before hitting the headlines again in 2002 as producer of the Libertines. It’s in the same period that Carbon Silicon take shape,the ongoing musical project shared with longtime friend Tony James,himself leading the british punk scene with Generation x first and with Sigue Sigue Sputnik later in the 80′s.

“I’ve never really abandoned the music scene” clarifies Mick,whom i met during the Neapolis Festival’s most recent edition.
“I’ve always been playing music and a few years ago i produced the two Libertines albums.So when i met Tony again we asked each other if we could do something together and the answer was yes!.What came out of this was a song,and then another one followed and another one again…”

The first track composed by the two was called “mp free “and it’s a kind of Carbon Silicon “manifesto” song,a representation of their liberitarian attitude: since the beginning Mick and Tony’s project was based on the gratuitousness of their music,easily downloadable for free on their official website. A choice that followed the Clash’s political approach when for example they used to demand the final selling price of their records to their record label. This happened with London Calling in 1979, a double album sold at the price of a single, and then again with the triple Sandinista! that CBS had to sell at the price of a double.

“it’s the music that counts” say unanimously Mick and Tony. “Since the beginning we found very exciting the fact of being able to make music that we liked and diffuse it directly to the public without having to go through a record company. The great idea is that you can record a track in your own bedroom and the next day a million people have the chance to download it for free from the web. In comparison to the time of the Clash, today there are many more opportunities”

For the young bands though,free download represents not only an opportunity but also a matter of “economical survival” – objection rejected:

“Good groups will always find the way of making money. It depends, if you play for the money (and then you are a banker not an artist) or if you do it for passion with talent. If someone has got something interesting to say,he eventually emerges from the masses and is recognized,economically too”

The same relaxed and upstream approach can also be found at Carbon Silicon’s concerts :

“The great thing about this group (C.S.) is that we can afford to play for our own pleasure,and for the fan’s.We play only where we know that they really want to see our concerts”

The London based band – that also has as a member bass guitarist Jessie Wood,Ron Wood’s son,and drummer Dominic Greensmith – has played this summer only one concert, in Italy,at Neapolis festival to promote their new album” The Carbon Bubble”. Rock tracks that don’t dislike contaminations and don’t hide their melodic qualities, rock and roll for the 21 st century.

“We don’t like to put a label on the kind of music we play : we play and compose freely,a bit like Grateful Dead used to do ” says Jones.

And if The Clash were really good in creating generational anthems that alternated personal stories with political matters,CarbonSsilicon prefer to concentrate on a more intimate aspect and on a message of hope even in times of crisis:

“We believe that positive thinking can influence the change. Our optimism is associated with the search of a deep meaning in our lives.That’s why we write songs about positivity… and then again we always just want to play music and have fun”

That concludes tonight’s translation! What an exceptional job she did and I can only imagine how much time it takes to do well, I speak English and have the vocabulary of a five-year-old French boy who didn’t pay attention in class – so I have great respect for anyone who has mastered second or third languages. Thanks again for taking the time Silvia to transfer over what was a really enjoyable interview, I do hope you good readers will also pay our thanks below in the comments section. Have a great night and I’ll be back tomorrow. Tim

On the other blog I wrote about the situation with the banks in Ireland…if you fancy a read.

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