Hello – Finally got this all sorted out, if you’ve been following the blog you know that I’m launching a Clash Cup – where you can all vote to decide the ‘winners’. Each day I’ll put a couple of Clash songs head to head – we should finish up with a definitive list of the best 32 then 16 and ultimately the best ever eight Clash songs ever. Here is the original idea and since then we’ve conducted 3 weeks of voting to get 16 songs seeded (protected from) the early knockout stages. That was quite a battle and gave us these 16 eventually after more voting. So we won’t be seeing those ‘seeded’ tracks again for quite a while until we reach the last 32. If you’re bored skip down a bit!

Don’t worry if you missed the seeding phase – you can still take part daily and it will take a while. I’ll also build an internal page on the site so you can track these events! Obviously this is objective – I’ve got a good idea of my favourite ten Clash songs – but it’s a lot different to what it was 5 years ago, or 8 months ago. I’m also sure it’ll change again in the next 6 months – and that I think sums up the magic of the band. So much great stuff and to suit all moods.

Next I had to work out how many songs we are looking at – and from this page I was faced with over 230 songs - but so many of them were either very early live songs from 1976, studio demos that never got recorded, warm up songs/covers or session work that never saw a proper recording. With all those in mind I wanted to make sure that every official studio album and single was covered. I’m sure someone will email me with ‘what about xxxx’ but I did my best.

What I’m left with is a list of 142 Clash songs – of which 16 will be seeded until the final 32 – and due to high votes an additional 8 will be seeded until the final 64. I need to whittle down these extra 14 (I was hoping for 128 and this is sounding like a maths class now) So there may be an extra preliminary match or two or the best loser stays in?? It’ll all come together!!

So – I’m using a random number generator to pick the songs – every track has a number assigned to it. Voting will run for 2.5 days usually – with polls closing at 10am EST / 3pm GMT on the third day after the post. I’ll kick off with two cup ties per day! In the result of a draw/tie – I’ll allow an extra 24hrs on a poll.

Where needed I’ll try and link the song and/or tell you a bit about it. So off we go….

The first two Clash Cup ties (think of these as qualifiers) are

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

VS

First Night Back In London

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Police on my Back

VS

Hateful

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Shit !! This was 100% random, I’ve got all my excel sheets to prove it and there are 3 legitimate heavyweight songs that got earlier voting in the seeding phase. I’ve a feeling 3 of these 4 may remain if the votes are close. Do I need to introduce any of them? Perhaps First Night Back in London which was the B-side to ‘Know your Rights‘ and appeared on the Clash on Broadway box set. A really strong song for a b-side too.

Okay…well I’ll post my votes and hand it over to you and yes – please vote in both polls.  (nerves…)