This is a CLASH POLL service announcement...WITH RESULTS!!!!!! ILX Artist Poll #41

It's like good Mekons

So OTM.

This is a band I love so much I've almost by design not dug beneath the surface. LIke, I haven't learned the lyrics, or tracked down live shows, or looked for clips and stuff. I've lived with these albums for decades now, and they often still feel like the first time when I put them on.

yeah I'm the same way

I really got into them in my late teens and read books/tracked bootlegs down etc (most of which I don't remember now). What's been really great these past few weeks is paying attention to the lyrics for the first time in so long. I don't think it clicked just how global Sandinista! (yeah, the name, i know i know) and, really, just how good they are.

I like how much of the Ramones I can hear in their first album now that I am listening to it with more ~context~

yeah, 'janie jones' and 'career opportunities' in particular sound pretty ramones-y to me.

totally!

One thing that's neat about Sandinista is when there's a great song buried in the muck someplace. I forgot "Up In Heaven" and "Corner Soul" even existed until a couple years ago. I keep discovering things in that record. I still remember when Street Parade jumped out at me as being a great song. It just happened one day.

And Give 'Em Enough Rope got cheated, but Safe European Home is their best album opener and All The Young Punks is their best album closer. Wish all their albums sounded like it too. Production is great.

Rope gets short shrift for some reason and I've never really worked out why

Give 'Em Enough Rope sounds fantastic blasting loudly in a bar.

i want to go to that bar right now

i vote we move this poll to that bar & finish it there, all in favor

aye

are you guys still at the bar?!?

Give 'em enough soap.

40. The Street Parade - 162 pts - 8 votes - 1 #1

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/972/9kpr.jpg

39. The Right Profile - 168 pts - 8 votes - 2 #1

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3664/9k82.jpg

how much do I love that "the right profile" snagged two #1 votes? a lot. this is going to be a great rollout.

Glad to see "The Prisoner" yesterday; thought "This Is England" and "Garageland" might have finished higher.

38. Lose This Skin - 173 pts - 9 votes - 1 #1

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/6804/a619.jpg

A #1 vote for "Lose This Skin?!" I didn't even expect that anyone else would have it on their ballot!

Well liked in certain corners. I'm in that corner, obv.

i suspected there would be a good spread of #1s. this is great. right profile and street parade near misses for me.

My highest rated Sandinista! track.

("Lose This Skin" that is)

"The Right Profile" was on my shortlist of things that didn't quite make the cut, but I love it to pieces. Especially the breakdown where the song is sort of falling apart the same way Monty is, but then Topper and the horns pull it all back together and lurch unsteadily toward the exit.

The "Lose This Skin" number one was mine. It's a fantastic song, very free and inspiring and the idea of the Clash being super awesome on a friend's song is very touching in a very Clash way to me.

37. Washington Bullets - 174 pts - 10 votes

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/6392/1hut.jpg

From Kosmo Vinyl's Clash on Broadway liner notes:

A long time after 'Washington Bullets' came out, I asked Joe if he'd known that there was a basketball team called the Washington Bullets, and he said that he didn't, and that if he'd known at the time he wrote it, he would have given the song a different title.

see now here's a case of Jones-Strummer harmonizing well

A #1 vote for "Lose This Skin?!" I didn't even expect that anyone else would have it on their ballot!

― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Tuesday, July 16, 2013 12:00 PM (22 minutes ago)

Well liked in certain corners. I'm in that corner, obv.

― Gukbe, Tuesday, July 16, 2013 12:03 PM (19 minutes ago)

i suspected there would be a good spread of #1s. this is great. right profile and street parade near misses for me.

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, July 16, 2013 12:05 PM (17 minutes ago)

It wouldn't surprise me if the Clash get the highest # of different #1s of these artist polls. (Fewest -- probably Led Zeppelin?)

"The Right Profile" was on my shortlist of things that didn't quite make the cut, but I love it to pieces. Especially the breakdown where the song is sort of falling apart the same way Monty is, but then Topper and the horns pull it all back together and lurch unsteadily toward the exit.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, July 16, 2013 1:07 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's got my favorite Joe noise: ughgg...ugghghgchhgyughbugh...grrrblblbrlbrlbrl

otm

36. Brand New Cadillac - 190 pts - 8 votes

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/1371/00rl.jpg

By the way, Gukbe, GREAT photos!

Brand New Cadillac YESSSS

opening riff kills me

Never one of my favorites, but appearing right after "London Calling" is brilliant because it lets in the fun/tradition/rock and roll after the uber-serious (and great in a very different way) lead cut.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who learned to play this very early on.

Amazed at anything from LC only picking up eight votes

xp hahaha, it was the first (or second) song I learned to play on guitar!

I dropped "Brand New Cadillac" at the end and stuck with "Jimmy Jazz" instead. It's hard for me too separate them; side 1 of that LP 1 is a continuous epic jam in my head.

one of the best rockabilly performances of all time, that

35. London's Burning - 220 pts - 14 votes

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6561/6gep.jpg

xpost see that's what chafes me about 'Hitsville' -- the Clash can interpret all KINDS of musical styles, and they can do it really well. They could have pulled off that Motown sound in their own way and been fucking awesome at it. But that pastiche or homage to Motown or whatever it was that Mick seemed to be trying for just was not. good. It didn't *need* all those fkn horns and layered sounds and bullshit.

imo

xpost LALALALALA

I dropped "Brand New Cadillac" at the end and stuck with "Jimmy Jazz" instead. It's hard for me too separate them; side 1 of that LP 1 is a continuous epic jam in my head

lol, just realised I shifted those an extra place apart on ballot, the reason for which can only be so that Gukbe doesn't think I can't tell the difference

they are such a perfect pair!

yeah they're almost like part 1 and part 2 of a larger song, they slot so well together

London's Burning was on and off my ballot a few times. Ended up cutting it, but what a song.

EVERYBODY'S SITTING ROUND, WATCHING TELEVISION!!!

34. I'm Not Down - 226 pts - 15 votes

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8442/hre7.jpg

Gah! Love this, was hoping for a surprise top ten slot

literally the last song cut from my ballot. If I had known dub versions would be combined with the originals I would have had room for it, but I wanted to acknowledge the awesome dubs.

I ranked it fairly high on my ballot, but like was said about "Brand New Cadillac"/"Jimmy Jazz", the awesomeness of "I'm Not Down" is best appreciated paired with "Four Horsemen"