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

Um, I don't hear the "You Can't Hurry Love" connection in "White Riot."

It's not a direct lift or anything, it's in the bounce of the beat.

I think I buy the noisier thing, at least in terms of pure guitar punch. The key is to listen to punk chronologically (which I've happened to be doing the past couple years for this: http://twitter.com/punkchronology).

The Clash's influence might be one of those things that was so immediate and pervasive that it's difficult to hear now, especially when it comes to seemingly basic stuff like singing about class oppression, or playing distorted guitar on the reggae offbeats. There was definitely a lot of Jamaican influence in rock before the Clash, but nothing like "Police and Thieves," which really launched a genre.

Were they the first to punkify a known reggae song?

On record, for sure.

Or even something as basic as codifying the Ramones as THE punk template. Legs McNeil always blamed the Clash for ruining the Ramones moment, but listening backward, I hear the Clash extending it into what the Sex Pistols started, which really was a different parallel musically, bringing that sound into a social movement the Ramones couldn't have managed.

Yeah, it is interesting how the Clash were pretty much the first social punk band, vs. the glut of anti-social punks.

Voted!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_E_tuning

"... one of the most familiar examples of Open E tuning is the beginning guitar part on the song "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones as well as their distinctly earthy blues song "Prodigal Son" from the Beggars Banquet album, originally by Robert Wilkins. This tuning is also used in Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy," The Black Crowes' "She Talks to Angels", Glen Hansard's "Say It To Me Now", Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way", Billy F. Gibbons in "Just Got Paid", and many others. Open E tuning also lends itself to easy barre-chording as heard in some of these songs."

Who knows why it's written in open E? But it's not that odd of a thing to do. When I regularly played, I would write shit in bizarre tunings just because I could.

If either Joe or Mick spent any time learning by listening to Stones records (which I'd have to think they did), they probably fucked around with a lot of open tunings.

^^Fuck yeah they did. Back when Mojo did their Top 50 Stones tracks survey, Mick Jones shared in his entry that back in the mid-70s he used to hang out outside the gates of Jagger's place in London, and one time he saw Jagger come to the window and wave a spoon at him.

Just listened to that guitar part and once again marveling at the musicianship of such a thing.

Christgau on London Calling: "Here's where they start showing off."

totally going to participate in this. unfortunately i'm not going to have much time to reassess the albums, but a blindly nostalgic approach kinda suits the relationship i have wit The Clash.

Ballot sent!

xposting Not only is E relatively uncommon in rock songs, open tunings are totally uncommon in the Clash, aren't they? I can't think of anything in open G, which is the most common Stones open tuning, and the one you'd think would be most useful for the Clash. But anyway, "Supermarket" just sticks out as the one odd tuning in the catalog, and certainly the only on that album. I wonder if they ever played it live?

Looks like they played it a bit in 1983. Can someone with better ears than me tell if they altered it to do it live here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5uvlGOoLog

Tuning a guitar to open E isn't like solving the energy crisis. It can be done in less than a minute. Probably less than 30 seconds.

Not if you're the Clash! Or me!

I'm such a tuning loser.

If the US Festival show is any indication, Joe's yapping gave Mick plenty of time to retune.

Sent!

It's hard to tell if something is in an open tuning (especially E) until you hear the harmonics. Then the lightbulb goes off.

Like, I had no idea until a couple years ago that a bunch of Keef's Stones riffs were in open tunings, largely G, because I'd never really tried to learn them with any real sense of purpose. I just figured he had a knack for complex chords. Then I saw a thing on youtube about Stones riffs and it all made sense.

I bet there's a lot of BAD/BADII/Big Audio stuff that Mick plays that's in open tunings. The opening chords of "The Bottom Line" just don't sound like they're played in standard tuning.

Opening tuning, G, E ... how can you guys tell?

oh! nm

Ha, the easiest way to tell is when you try to play something and you can't figure it out, or it sounds wrong, and then someone tells you it's in an alternate tuning. See also: capos.

Thank goodness, it sounded like you were idly skipping through London Calling going "A .. G ... open E"

Keef's whole open-tuning deal was just to make the songs as easy to play as possible, right? Feel like I read something about him saying you should never need more than two fingers.

I worked it out years ago in standard tuning, E and Amaj7, adding fingers to the 4th fret to make the riff. Had no idea it was in open E.

Open G takes about 30 seconds to do, I used to know how when I played guitar but have long forgotten.

Just voted. I cannot believe the quality of songs that didn't make my ballot. The Clash were just insanely good.

Open G is a pretty easy alternate tuning. Keith didn't really start using it a lot until the late '60s, maybe 1969. But it's pretty key to a lot of his stuff from "Honky Tonk Women" on up.

Yeah, my song list after the first cut was still 120 or so. Chopping down to 30 was the hard part, then I ordered the crucial top 15 or so, then just left the rest in whatever order they happened to be in.
xp

My list of absolute essentials was at 38. This was gruelling.

The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good. The Clash were just insanely good.

Yes.

I got it down to 32 with some brutal cuts. I feel like I'm killing my children.

Poor Sean F. Snappin!

Ballot sent. Fuck, that wasn't easy. First draft of my ballot was pretty much their entire output (minus CtC).

I might excise some sacred cows I know everyone will vote for.

I did a good bit of that.

Ballot sent. Only voted for one set of the original & dub versions. Ditched a whole bunch of "hits"

Okay, that's 26 ballots in so far.

Okay, I lied and picked two songs and their dub counterparts. I love dub Clash!

so a propos of this thread I heard "I fought the law" on of all things sf drivetime radio a couple days ago. clearly summoned by this thread. still had just incredible stopping power. urgency, immediacy, all that cliche stuff. but and this is what makes the clash stand out wrt the punk/noise convo upthread this incredible clarity too.

and that's sandwiched between modern brickwalled-for-radio stuff. glad I haven't sent in a ballot yet bc this track clearly needs to be higher than I had it.

Nobody forget to vote for:

Stay Free
One More Time
Washington Bullets

I voted for one of those, and another was a one of my very last cuts.

I voted for one too.

Two of them in my top ten so far, no worries.

one of those songs is my no.2

sent my ballot!

mine too

I'm slightly bummed that I'm going to be out of town for a week and will be following the rollout in snatched moments during my Chicago trip.