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

There's very little from this band I would not rep for.

But I will rep for "Know Your Rights."

And I will also for The Prisoner. Johnny Too Bad meets Johnny B. Goode in the Charing Cross Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLxM47cCTFc

^^ yep good'un

And "Groovy Times"!

Since I've already turned in my ballot, I feel good about people mentioning tracks I've voted for.

"White Man in the Hammersmith Palais"/"The Prisoner" might be my favorite A-B sides of any single ever.

"Groovy Times" is good, too. Best part is when Joe yelps "Hey, groovy!"

Don't get me wrong, they wrote some great songs, but some of their covers were even better. Police on My Back, Brand New Cadillac, Armigideon Time, Police and Thieves, I Fought the Law....

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Thursday, June 27, 2013 10:06 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyv16mZakVE

live version but i love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8XziO7L78I

That Amsterdam 81 bootleg is a beast--surprisingly, it only entered circulation pretty recently. Sony has proper masters for it and considered it for release but decided on the tedious Shea Stadium thing instead, which still annoys me.

ctrl+F "Train In Vain" no results found >:-(

More and more these days all I need to hear is "I'm So Bored" or "Straight To Hell."

pressure drop is the only clash cover I can think of that doesn't beat the original. but, hey, it's Toots and the Maytals ffs!

xxpost

surprisingly, it only entered circulation pretty recently. Sony has proper masters for it and considered it for release but decided on the tedious Shea Stadium thing instead, which still annoys me

a LOT of full shows in great quality started circulating after the From Here To Eternity live compilation was put together. if you want to conclude that a band member who was remastering that album, and all the records, at the time may have decided to release them into the wild since Sony didn't want to do a box set as well as the comp, I can't stop you

"Time Is Tight" too? (xpost) The Clash's cover is very good, though. I had "The Prisoner" high on my ballot.

Overexposure's never the song's fault, WC, but I do think it's a fact of life, and "London Calling" and "Rock the Casbah" are the only Clash songs that ever get played on the radio. Anyway, I've always really disliked "Casbah," so the overplay there doesn't much matter with me.

but decided on the tedious Shea Stadium thing instead

That and the '82 tracks on Eternity are unlistenable, entirely due to the ham-footed Terry Chimes.

"London Calling" and "Rock the Casbah" are the only Clash songs that ever get played on the radio.

And "I Fought he Law" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go." And "Train In Vain."

Forgot about "Should I Stay"--of course. "I Fought the Law" never gets played here, in any format. "Train in Vain" very occasionally on the classic-rock station.

I hear "Should I Stay" and "Casbah" fairly regularly on the "classic rock" station, and "London Calling" during the "alternative" station's "retro lunch."

Heard "Train In Vain" all the time on top 40 AM in 1980. Didn't know it was the Clash until five years later.

"Train In Vain" got a second life after Garbage sampled it for the basis of "Stupid Girl", which probably led to a lot of "turn it up!" fakeouts when listeners heard those opening beats.

got bollocked by my girlfriend for leaving Pressure Drop and The Prisoner off my ballot

The Terry Chimes' version of "Casbah" is wrong.

I don't blame him though

pressure drop is the only clash cover I can think of that doesn't beat the original

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/shaking-my-head-picture_zps9f7939cc.gif

Listening to a lot of live tracks the last few days, reminds me that they always played everything so fast. If there was ever a band that needed a little less amphetamine, it was these guys.

I'll give some love to "One More Time."

The Terry Chimes' version of "Casbah" is wrong.

I don't blame him though

― Mark G, Sunday, June 30, 2013 5:16 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They are definitely in the lineage of Who/Zep in that losing their drummer effectively killed their groove.

I hope Ellen Foley gets her due in the poll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opFyTAA0DiI

Also makes me think there should be a whole poll sometime of pop songs about the music biz.

There wasn't much wrong with Terry, otherwise, apart from 'not being Topper'..

If Mick had still been on board, they could have carried on being almost as great..

Yeah, emphasis on almost. I think their run ended in a good place. Speaking of which, I did vote for "This Is England" but I know its status as a Clash song is pretty suspect.

They are definitely in the lineage of Who/Zep in that losing their drummer effectively killed their groove.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, June 30, 2013 2:41 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely, but if they'd been able to get along with Mick, Pete Howard could've been their salvation. His playing on the US Festival show trounces anything they did with Chimes in the 80s (granted, not too difficult), but also nips at Topper's heels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2keV-mx14jc

Strong drummer, but more a rock than funk guy. Sounds almost Grohl-ish.

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.