Ooh Ooh Ooh, Complete CLASH POLL (that's a laugh) - ILX Artist Poll #41 (?) - Voting Ends July 9th at Midnight (EST)

I'd still rep for "In the pouring rain" as a lost classic (you have to get the strummer soundtrack CD to get it) and something to show they could have saved it.

Speaking of which, I did vote for "This Is England" but I know its status as a Clash song is pretty suspect.

Nah, it's the only post-Mick song that even Joe counted as a Clash song.

Even Mick said he liked it.

wasn't gonna vote in this but this thread is bringing me in so why not. I like the Clash, good classic rock band, like Thin Lizzy or the James Gang (though worse than the former & better than the latter).

"London Calling" is horrible, though.

Wow, that's some Eddy level shit there. Kudos.

I've recycled this story a lot--I recycle all my stories a lot--so I may have posted it on another thread somewhere, but I don't think so. I saw the Clash in late '79 at a famous show in Toronto:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/clash_zpsfe962572.jpg

It was the last rock-related show ever at the O'Keefe Centre, after about $5,000 worth of ripped-out seats. There'd been rock shows there going back to Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane a decade earlier; from what I can tell, they started bringing bands back in the 2000s, after it had become the Hummingbird (now Sony) Centre. Anyway, I was there because my friend Peter had got me on to punk that summer (late to the party). I loved the Ramones and Sex Pistols, wasn't as big on the Clash. But when they played "White Riot" as an encore, that's when I--and I don't know; two dozen? a hundred other people?--ended up on stage. I can't remember what we were doing; singing or jumping or both, I guess. My memory is that I was only a few feet from Strummer, but it's so long ago, I don't know. I did manage to find a download of the whole show.

wow that is awesome clemenza

That's amazing. And Mick didn't shout at you to "GET OFF THE FUCKING STAGE!!" ?

No, but I remember shouting "Please don't ever get involved with the Wallflowers!" at him.

I've found two other accounts of the same show online:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenschafer/4916010639/
http://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~plragde/music/concerts.html

I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THIS POLL.

#theonlybandthatmatters

I say that and yet I never remember to vote in these things. I am going to put a reminder on my phone.

Here's a thing about the Clash -- they have so many songs with great little moments in them, a particular cackle from Joe or a particular fill from Topper or just the way the piano or the horns sound or whatever, things that seem impossible to have really written or planned out. Their studio recordings seem alive and unruly in a way that very few other bands do, even other great bands. Maybe Exile on Main Street, maybe the Basement Tapes, but they sounded like that on almost every record, all the time.

OTM. And they were overflowing with ideas; they never seemed stuck, or like they were treading water.

It's hard to think of another band whose final album was both their biggest seller and their weirdest and most experimental. (I know Sandinista has more weird stuff by volume than Combat Rock, but as a percentage of the total I think Combat Rock beats it. Half the album is off the wall.)

"Cut the crap" exists, I feel the "Boom Box" really should include it.

Well like I said, I voted for " This Is England." But Combat Rock is still the last Clash album in any real sense. Cut the Crap at best needs an asterisk. (The Clashterisk!)

It's more a Clash album than "Squeeze" is a Velvet Underground one...

I think there's at least one other good song on Cut the Crap: "Life Is Wild." I only voted for "This Is England," but "Life Is Wild" was a possibility.

Weirdly, Christgau gave Cut the Crap a B+, same grade he gave to Combat Rock.

It's not good, but it's nowhere near as bad as people make out...

Well, it's probably accurately described, but.

The other track I like on Crap is "Are You Red...y?" It sounds like a lost Sigue Sigue Sputnik single.

It's more a Clash album than "Squeeze" is a Velvet Underground one...

eh, Doug Yule was at least *in* the Velvet Underground. no-one was left in The Clash when Bernie Rhodes made the record from Joe's demos

Everything they released is too commercial for me. I'm only voting for songs from Ratt Patrol From Fort Bragg.

Eh, they're nothing but street trash.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/86aa9f689f28fb2660b70fb1f9de4379/tumblr_mji0nrqVW81qzzz6ko1_400.jpg

lmao is this a commonly known factoid?

The Clash selected two guitarists, Nick Sheppard and Greg White, with the latter taking the name Vince White due to Simonon's refusal to play in a band with someone named "Greg".

Who can blame him?

this was England!

I like "Three Card Trick"; the Out of Control demo gets to me somehow. Cut the Crap showed how much they missed Mick as producer, along with everything else.

they never seemed stuck, or like they were treading water.

Against all consensus, I think it's a shame they never got back together.

There was serious talk of reuniting for a headlining spot on Lollapalooza '95, but Topper couldn't get a visa because of his drug charges.

And before Joe died, they talked about playing at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, but Simonon was against it.

i missed seeing joe in california a couple months before his death -- couldn't afford it. one of the biggest regrets of my life.

yeah the mescaleros played at the big day out but it was so effing crowded I couldn't get there in time, missed the whole thing

;_;

Missed him in Edinburgh a few weeks before. Still kick myself.

Ballot sent.

Turned out a lot different than I had envisioned.

Probably asked already:

30 picks for ballot 1, how many for 2 and 3?

Regards, MG

You can just rank all the albums if you want. Live tracks...uh...5?

cheers.

How many Clash tracks are there in total? If I check out the 5+1 albums and a singles collection, will I be missing much?

Extra tracks on "Super Black Market Clash" and the "Clash on Broadway" box set.

Also, a few live tracks of songs they either dropped early, or never got to record at the late end.

Mescaleroes at BDO was fine but their headline the night before was one of my top 5 gigs ever

Gosh, isn't Sandinista! fantastic?! This should be a Tusk-level ILM favourite, really.

it faffs a bit towards the end, saved only by the kiddie version of "Career Opportunities."

it is "triple album" honed to a cliche. it's too long and there's a bunch of stuff on there that doesn't need to be, especially the kiddie career opportunities. i wouldn't follow the line that they should've cut it down to a single album because the material suits a record that takes its time, but it would've been a significantly better double album, and as a back to back pair with london calling, such different records, it would have been really remarkable.

reviewing it for my college newspaper a long time ago as part of a "classics" series, I said the kiddie version was the band's utopian dream fulfilled: leftism absorbed by children demonstrating their solidarity by singing a Clash song.

I don't think it needs honing. I'm less and less a fan of perfect albums. After their biggest selling album, they needed to sprawl. Let it sprawl.

^^^ otm -- it's my favorite of theirs by far

"Mensforth Hill" may make my ballot.

I'm curious to see which Sandinista tracks will place, aside from the obvious ones. "Sound of the Sinners," "Lose This Skin," "Hitsville UK" and "Charlie Don't Surf" are my faves from that record.

Oh, and I suppose when we are voting we should specify which version of "Career Opportunities" we're voting for.

"Up in Heaven."