...All well and good but to some of us in the grime of salford it spoke nothing to me and my life, Politically the country was in a mess riots unemployment, electricity going of all the time crap building up in the streets because bin men are on strike again, even the dead not getting buried, why go to school you'd never get a job when you'd done....but i NEEDED the Clash in my life...
...the music is as pretty as pissed on concrete. I appreciate that at the time such brutality was completely necessary but that doesn't mean that listening to it thirty years on has to be anything other than torture.
Me ? Never.joe frady, I thought you were cool
You mean...I could have become cool just by pretending to like The Clash? I didn't have to waste innumerable hours thorougly enjoying their records in a sad attempt to be cool? Damn, I feel cheated.
Well that's not actually what I said though is it? Of course some people actually like them, but they are without a doubt a band that people will claim to like in order to appear 'cool'. The fact they made as someone said 'political music' sort of tells me that certain people care less about the music they created, and a lot more about the image and reputation that the band had.
They sort of strike me as being like The Ramones in the aspect that you see plenty of people wearing t-shirts of these bands, and I'd imagine the ratio of these that actually know very few songs by the band is quite high in comparison to other bands, if you catch my drift?
cant see them for anything more than a punk version of ub40, manufactured punk band who had their outfits designed for them, public schoolboy frontman with handful of catchy hits and some poor covers, what am i missing?
I misunderstood, I'm sorry. You said The Clash were "poseur", which I took to be a comment on the band itself. You are right, The Clash are one of those bands like the Ramones that people use to establish 'cool' cred.
However, of all such bands, I think The Clash have the most substance. I tend to believe most people who say they like The Clash actually like them. But that's just my experience.
yes i am a mere whippersnapper at just 41, may be been a little on the harsh side to call them sh*t, suppose they have their place in the history books but wildly over rated even "ifought the law" was a cover , just think they were not even as good as THE BOOMTOWN RATS (im gonna cop for it now!) looking at my itunes library i see 6 clash songs (which i never listen to) and around 25 rats songs which i think are brilliant and under rated - "when the night comes" "someones lookin at ya" "diamond smiles" "looking after no1" "rat trap" and the list goes on.......
I have never really been at all that into The Clash, they do nothing for me.
The Clash are very poseur. You automatically become 'cool' if you say you like The Clash, regardless of whether you actually like them.