Good evening everyone and cheers for the visit as always. As much as the Europa Cup final in Dublin sounds a better night out than Wembley I’m still chuffed that Arsenal didn’t self destruct tonight and won 3-1 in a must win match in London. Speaking of must win events that phrase will also surely apply to The Clash Cup of which we have another installment this evening. You can’t really win The Clash Cup but hopefully we will end up with the best 16 songs ever recorded by the band so you can make the ultimate mix tape, or mix CD or whatever it is we now do when we compile music. We’re deep into round two now at the end of which we will have 64 songs left standing and each one seeking your votes for the final 32 where I can imagine decisions be nearly impossible. Few decisions were harder than the last pairing which saw the lead changed hands numerous times before the eventual winner was revealed.

Charlie Don’t Surf beat  I Fought the Law 43-40

Excellent turnout on the voting for which I must thank you and the best news is that with a final vote tally so close “I Fought the Law” pulled in enough support to make the next round (unofficially at this point) which is probably as it should be. As you know all the pairings are completely at random so let’s pull the next two songs from the remaining list.

Clash Cup Round 2 Match 14

Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad versus   White Riot

While we have had quite a string of unpredictable results in recent votes this one looks like it should probably be a lot more one-sided unless I’m completely misjudging how you are likely to vote. A proper matchup of the first and second albums although probably not the best songs on either (again, feel free to disagree) I recall being really surprised that White Riot wasn’t originally seeded we began this policy. Everyone voted for songs that shouldn’t face elimination in the early rounds and White Riot didn’t get enough support to protect it from the early voting variances. Even with that said if it gets paired up with the right songs I would still say it’s got a very good chance of making the final 16 or even the final eight. That being with the assumption that it will be able to defeat Julie’s Been Working…

Form Book

Round 1 – Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad defeated Are You Ready 95% of the vote
Round 1 – White Riot defeated Silicon on Sapphire 91% of the vote

Both songs have robust wins under their belt in round one against a fairly simple pair of opposing songs. Round 2 brings a lot of extra pressure and I would say with pretty good confidence that White Riot will win with at least 70% of the vote. Julie’s Been Working will need at least 40% of the vote with a high turnout to have any chance of progressing.

Stuff

Do I have a personal preference? Yes it would certainly be for the earlier song which although I didn’t find the most appealing song on the debut album back when I first heard it as a kid, it’s certainly grown in stature and relevance to me over the years with a better appreciation of how it was written and why it was written. The fabled inspiration from the Notting Hill Riots in late summer 1976 has taken on the place of proper Clash folklore when it comes to why some songs were written in the first place. Strummer’s combination of exhilaration and fear, frustration and confusion all resulted in a song that said where’s our riot and why are we doing just what we are told. The ‘we’ that he referred to was essentially any disaffected youth that weren’t of Jamaican origin and thus controlled by the inhibitions that might stop a riot from starting in the first place. A furious bundle of energy that sounds as coiled today as it was when first recorded.

Everything that White Riot was (short, focused, angry) Julie’s Been Working really isn’t. On an evolutionary scale you can say it speaks much to the constantly evolving style and song structure of The Clash between the debut album and 1978′s follow-up. While I think lyrically “Julie’s” shows Joe trying to pull together a lot of ideas somewhat successfully the song but essentially focused on current events (a police drug raid in Wales) of itself it now seems overly long and a bit too much R&B or piano based to my untrained ears. While Sandy Pearlman promised ‘GTER’ would have ‘more guitars per inch’ than any album ever recorded – this wasn’t the song that demonstrated it, more romp than stomp and while it would be a good song for most bands it’s not at the top standard for The Clash.

As always before you vote I suggest you clear your head of other distractions such as wikileaks or the lack of a Christmas bonus and devote six or seven minutes tearing both tracks one last time. For White Riot I had to include the Rock against Racism clip from 1978  – whereas for Julie’s Been Working… I would try this demo version which is pretty raw and some squealing sax. Still one of my favourite lyrics ‘they arrested every drug that had ever been made’ which sounded both sing-song and cynical at the same time.

Thanks in advance for all your votes and if you feel inclined please add comments as to why or spread the news around so that more votes get tallied. I’ll have the polls open through until Sunday. Cheers – Tim

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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 afternoon and thanks for another visit to your Clash Blog. I just had a shower during which all that I could think about was the blog and trying to find a way to get more content posted more frequently. One of my biggest concerns when I started writing about The Clash was whether there would be enough content of interest to go around, talk about being worried about the wrong thing – as the last year, actually nearly year and a half have provided far more current Clash related stories than I ever expected in addition to how deeply we can look back at the past. That’s a good thing though, I don’t possess the contacts, the history nor the expertise to provide the sort of analysis already available in some great books and online publications but just like you it’s fun to interpret the history of the band and equally enjoyable to look at all that’s happening today.

As a mentioned last night I need to get up to speed on a few things and back in the rhythm of research and contacts to provide lots of new features, but in the days ahead will have a least one very special story about Mick and Paul from New York City earlier on the tour, a special feature about one of the artists on the Strummerville roster, and we’ll also leap back into The Clash Cup / lost in the supermarket / Video Clash / Clash Landmarks and more. The one major thing I really wanted to at least get off the ground on the blog in 2010 was interviews and want to announce that we’re finally just about ready providing the software and file structure of the blog passes the testing stage. I’ve been really lucky to get wonderful support from a number of people I know you’ll enjoy hearing from, hopefully I haven’t burned my bridges with everyone by having to delay far longer than I would’ve liked. But at last interviews will be coming soon and hopefully will develop into a regular feature on the blog, whether a podcast ever becomes a reality will be very much a matter of finding time rather than the right technology or having enough to talk about. I’ve become a remote friend with somebody who does one of the most successful weekly podcasts in the UK and although he loves it he warns me that it takes so much time in preparation if you want to put out something good (which he consistently does).

I’m also working out the potential for some special promotions or discounts in affiliation with The Clash Blog but due to lack of time that might not kick off until 2011. I would like to do something where something can go to Strummerville and another cause that Joe was passionate about (more on that later). The other thing I will add over the weekend is a look back at the month just passed and the most popular stories which a number of people have asked about.

Last but not least thank you so much for all of your support, comments, ideas and participation. Without you reading this,  the blog serves no purpose and without your participation it wouldn’t be half as much fun as it’s turned out to be. In the meantime off you go and kick over some statues, I hope to see you a bit later on.