The Clash: Classic or Dud

This is strangely true. My opinions on these two bands have totally reversed. At the time the Clash were, for a period, virtually gods to me (but I was rather indifferent to the Sex Pistols who seemed musically conservative). Now the Sex Pistols seem the more god-like, and the Clash a contrived mix of political posturing and repellent, ugly music

FUCKING CLASSIC

And the Ruts doing white reggae better? "Jah War" versus "The Guns of Brixton" or "One More Time"? Come on, there's no contest.

As for comments about Strummer's voice - who do you fuckin' want singing then? Neil Hannon? Mr. Belle and Sebastian? Kiri Te Kanawa?

Anyhow, yeah, what the hell? How can the existance of Rancid make the Clash's music good or bad? This gets perilously into the territory of a previous thread about holding the bands inspired by someone against the original band - an idea pretty much everyone disowned because it would mean every band ever would be labelled crap because someone out there who is talentless is inspired by them. It's unfair.

And Rancid aren't that bad - they could be, like, the Levellers.

Anyway, both the Clash and Rancid come across as patent bores who can't do anything interesting to save their lives. On that level they're equally culpable. ;-)

Also a double lp was a bit of a bad idea, but a triple!?

Tanya: Well, if you are such a fan of Marillion, then you should be happy that they have aged well and nobody has surpassed them in recent years and made them look bad! ;)

Oh yes, and you can chalk me up as one who thinks both the Pistols (all 1 albums of them) and the Clash are brilliant.

Therefore, the Smiths are the worst band of all time because Gene suck.

Wire = Elastica = Crap. Madonna = Christina Aguilera = Crap. Clash = Rancid = Crap.

"we're middle class - yeah, yeah, yeah ----we come from public school - yeah, yeah, yeah" ;-)

"they told us to release complete control - so we DID!" x0x0

x0x0

I think I'd be fine with that, actually.

See, that sounds cool.

All those digs at the Clash: venomous hogwash. SCORIA. ALL OF IT!!!!!! TAKE IT BACK, SUCKAZ!

I love them so much,
always did and always will,
fun and cool and smart

I do prefer "London Calling", but their debut is also nice enough due to its great melodies and choruses.

Yeah, this = true, but at the same time, if you think a band sucks (like the clash, who i still think are totally dud) and there are a load of shit bands who copy them, then you can't help but hate them all the more!

(gier - the buzzcocks and the stranglers wrote better tunes than the clash or the pistols, as you must surely know!)

NB if you are near a branch of hmv, you can get the ruts' "the crack" c/w loads of bonus cuts for 4.99

However, in the UK, the previous CD was the UK version, and in the US, their previous CD's were always the US version.

I don't think this is right, I have the US edition on CD, which I bought in the UK in the late 90s, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't an import, although Discogs just lists it as "Europe".

Mark - the US version has the band name in the top right (and reddish), the proper version has the band name in the lower right, and more orange.

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Thursday, August 5, 2021 3:00 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

can't rely on that unfortunately:

https://www.discogs.com/The-Clash-The-Clash/release/16033574

actually, that's the cd edition i have.
will keep eye out in the charity shop bins for UK version from hereon though.

When they remastered and reissued them all back in the late '90s or whenever, they definitely re-released both the US and UK versions in the US.

indeed -- I own both.

When they remastered and reissued them all back in the late '90s or whenever, they definitely re-released both the US and UK versions in the US.

Yes, that's what I was referring to, but those came out in 2000 in the U.S. They were issued in 1999 elsewhere, so they may have been imported until they were formally released in the U.S. the following year.

I don't think this is right, I have the US edition on CD, which I bought in the UK in the late 90s, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't an import, although Discogs just lists it as "Europe".

I didn't want to confuse things further because it's really complicated, but to go into greater detail, both the US and UK version had been available on CD in the UK prior to the 1999 remastering campaign. I even remember thinking the UK version had never been issued on CD in the UK. But several years later I found out about the stock UK version that pre-dates the 1999 remaster. It looks like this:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8JE6nroVJG4/YGcmCmtvVzI/AAAAAAAABME/l4ltideIyR8DQWYCMbi9WRvbgKjo4Lh9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_20210402_1505214%257E2.jpg

ta all - I remember the orange-bottom red-top thing being codified with the 1999 remasters (which are good!). iirc they also say "remastered by Bill Price" or "Mick Jones and Bill Price" on the back, if mark's flipping.

(Mick did remaster them that round, but he might not have taken a credit.)

Two more "missing" tracks are "Do It Now" and "Sex Mad Roar" which are on cd in the singles box set, and nowhere else.

I know that's into "Clash II" territory, but as "Cut the Crap" is on cd, thought I'd mention.

Oh, and "Pouring Rain" on the Joe Strummer "The future is unwritten" but

I actually like all the songs on the This Is England single. But I've still never listened to Cut The Crap.

i never cared for english pop punk but dont rob the cash box and lydon calling are ok and didnt they do a rap song and a reggae song?!

This made me laugh:

"Mick Jones has joked that they were the kind of band that would record thirty songs and release thirty-one."

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-clash-think-inside-the-box+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

https://trouserpress.com/letsagetabitarockin/

That's incredible.

Cool. Haven't really read it myself yet /pvmic.

that looks amazing, thanks. just skimmed a bit for now.

yeah it's a great read.

Bloody good, that. Seemed a little soft at first, but bears down more and more on particulars of the sound and how it got that way. I remember (in a Trouser Press ad) a 101ers LP or EP[, Elgin Avenue Breakdown w some of the songs mentioned here; an expanded reissue came out after Strummer died, but I never heard either version. Although I think there may have been excerpts in Julian Temple's good Strummer doc, The Future Is Unwritten.

yep it was released in 1981

https://www.discogs.com/The-101ers-Elgin-Avenue-Breakdown/master/193698

Post today (Saturday) by Glen Matlock.

Cool!

Mick's been keeping a very low profile for quite a while now.

?

Except for the Combat Rock reissue, I didn't think Mick had been very active, but apparently he's popped up in a few places in the past few years (recording with the Avalanches in 2020, the Flaming Lips in 2019, etc.) I think he just took a break after producing Kitty, Daisy & Lewis in 2014 - he did a ton of stuff in the first half of the '10s, so he probably needed it.

I just came across a book about The Clash in America that I hadn’t know about but feel like I will have to read right now.

What's the name?

I just learned that Elvis Costello's This Year's Model master tape had Costello and Mick Jones of The Clash playing tandem rhythm guitar on a coda to “Pump It Up,” that got edited out of the album release (but can now be be heard on Costello's Spanish Model version of the album with the guest vocalists ) and that Mick Jones played on the Costello song "Big Tears"

I knew the latter fact but not the former.

Stealing All Transmissions: A Secret History of The Clash, by Randal Doane.

https://artsfuse.org/117329/fuse-book-review-stealing-all-transmissions-how-the-clash-conquered-america/

Thanks---btw did I mention my Voice coverage of The Sandinista! Project, archived here w link to more TSP comments on my Nashville Scene ballot: https://myvil.blogspot.com/2016/06/clash-stash-actually-cuts-crap.html
Also, did yall see this?

The new Joe Strummer boxset, Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years, will be released on September 16th, 2022, as part of the celebrations honouring Joe’s 70th birthday year. The first-ever comprehensive collection highlighting Joe’s work with his post-Clash band, The Mescaleros, the collection includes remastered editions of all three of the band’s studio albums, plus 15 rare and unreleased tracks spanning the first demos Joe wrote for the Mescaleros, and outtakes of several tracks of Joe’s final recordings with the band...

Cool.

That book starts off talking about this, of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyuGLHnZhOI

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

toss up whether to put it here or on the kevin ayers thread.

Wow, guess I have to click to see.

Viz. Costello thing: yes! That Spanish This Year Model is super great. You also get to hear how No Action and I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea were recorded basically as one track. I was fearful of that project but it's so good. Now if we could only get the real Rat Patrol (which I know we won't).