is there only me in the world who thinks THE CLASH were sh*t?

[Hidden By Rags]

I love the Clash. Poor band, forever branded because of when they came on the scene.

Does no one like 'Train in Vain'? And to those who mock the Clash for their 'reggae' attempts, Strummer was influenced by world music from all the travels in his youth.

 

[speedfreaks ball]

I love the Clash. Poor band, forever branded because of when they came on the scene.

Does no one like 'Train in Vain'? And to those who mock the Clash for their 'reggae' attempts, Strummer was influenced by world music from all the travels in his youth.

all the travels in his youth, from his priveladged background ?
the nearest we got to any "travels" was the school trip to batley museum!

 

[ummagumma]

the clash is the only band that matters.

 

[Wozzer]

the clash is the only band that matters.

Well, there might two or three other bands that count too..

I like some of the Clash-songs, but it never blew my mind like it seems to have done to many people here on solo.

 

[Worm]

the clash is the only band that matters.

I've always adored that phrase, but according to Wiki it was a marketing slogan thought up by CBS.

 

[marred]

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?

retarded.

 

[Qvist]

I don't much like their early material, but I have no dispute with the greatness of London Calling. My favorite however is Combat Rock. OK, the singles (Should I stay or should I go, Rock the Casbah) have long since worn out, but everything after track 4 of that record is of epic quality. The best of it, such as "Sean Flynn", "Straight to Hell" and the eerily strange "Death is a Star" sounds as fresh and brilliant today as it did in 1982. It also it sums up pretty much everything great about early 80s post-punk. Gang of Four is in there (Well, on what else can you pin Overpowered by Funk?", so is echoes of The Fall (Red Angel Dragnet). As they did their whole career, they steal relentlessly, and do it well enough to make it their own. Hell, even the much-maligned "Sandinista" has its moments.

cheers

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

I've always adored that phrase, but according to Wiki it was a marketing slogan thought up by CBS.

sometimes marketing can be brilliant then who knew?

 

[nogodsnomasters85]

Your missing the facts to be honest.

They were not manufactured and their gear was actually home made /designed by Paul Simonon in the early years.

The Pistols were manufactured.

Nonsense. This is a commonly repeated falsity, like Nietzsche being a proto-Nazi. The evolution of the band that became the Sex Pistols began when three kids from London, Paul Cook, Steve Jones, and Wally Nightingale approached Malcolm McLaren to manage them. They had virtually no songs and could scarcely play, not to mention they lacked a bassist. At that point Steve fancied himself as a lead singer, Wally wasn't really working out for the band and Steve didn't really have the makings of a frontman. Then, they found Glen, who worked retail in McLaren's shop, played bass, and was by far the most musically talented of the group. They were looking for candidates for a lead singer and asked a young John Lydon , who frequented McLaren's shop usually accompanied by his friends John Wardle (Later of the fantastic Public Image Ltd.) John Ritchie AKA Sid Vicious as he would come to be known, and a John Gray, as memory serves, to audition. John Lydon was already a colorful character, having already dyed his hair a rancid green, and was fond of wearing shredded, discarded, and pinned-together clothes, which became the signature Pistols look and became a staple of english punk. Lydon was already dressing in this style BEFORE joining the Pistols and they're management, not the other way around. By his own admission McLaren was essentially ambivalent about the Pistols music, the closest he ever came to contributing is when he asked them to write a song about BDSM, to which John and Glen responsed by writing "Sub-Mission", basically making fun of Malcolm. If anything McLaren's mis-management undoubtedly hastened the groups' demise. In summation, the idea that the Pistols were "manufactured" is simply untrue.

They were not about ' catchy hits' and some of the covers were very good.

Best band of all time equal footing with The Smiths.

Now we're essentially in total agreement, The Clash were absolutely incredible, lyrically, musically, stylistically, etc. Of course it bears mentioning there would be no Clash without the Sex Pistols, or a Smiths, most likely.

 

[nogodsnomasters85]

retarded.

Amen.

 

[bagface]

The Pistols were manufactured.

this. and the clash are awesome.

 

[Morning Star]

I may be in the minority, but I much prefer the 1977 debut LP over 'London Calling', although I originally had the US version, which contained a few songs that the Uk version didn't.

As for the negative reaction to the reggae influences, why wouldn't have The Clash picked up influences from reggae and dub? In the mid-1970s, reggae was, from all my research (unfortunately not firsthand experience), one of the most exciting music forms in Britain and Strummer et al would've heard it within their local communities, where white and black people mixed. Music has always crossed over between "white" and "black", especially so in the early days of punk. It's where Rock Against Racism starts.

 

[speedfreaks ball]

interesting to see most of the "clash lovers" are NOT british, making me think the clash must have created a false image of late 70s britain and these people may not even know what a public schoolboy actually is! and have no idea about english punk or music, probrably never even heard of oi! just bought london calling in a swanky mall on sunset strip while mummy waited in the parking lot in her gas guzzler, which leads me to think that if you have no experience of late 70s britain at first hand thats where you can be conned by the clash thing, suppose its like me trying to sound like an expert on dutch clog music of the 50s just cos i saw a documentary about it.

 

[Worm]

interesting to see most of the "clash lovers" are NOT british, making me think the clash must have created a false image of late 70s britain and these people may not even know what a public schoolboy actually is! and have no idea about english punk or music, probrably never even heard of oi! just bought london calling in a swanky mall on sunset strip while mummy waited in the parking lot in her gas guzzler, which leads me to think that if you have no experience of late 70s britain at first hand thats where you can be conned by the clash thing, suppose its like me trying to sound like an expert on dutch clog music of the 50s just cos i saw a documentary about it.

"Conned by the clash thing".

Another interpretation of the phenomenon you're describing is that people outside of England don't get hung up on petty class resentment and judge the music on its merits alone. Could that be the case? I know it would take away the chance to insult Americans but my take seems somewhat plausible, don't you think?

 

[speedfreaks ball]

"Conned by the clash thing".

Another interpretation of the phenomenon you're describing is that people outside of England don't get hung up on petty class resentment and judge the music on its merits alone. Could that be the case? I know it would take away the chance to insult Americans but my take seems somewhat plausible, don't you think?

the "petty class resentment" you speak of was a major fuel to the punk fire (had to laugh WORM in one of the other threads you said you wish you could hear snap by the jam for the 1st time again, thats actually a compilation album of singles, try all mod cons or sound affects)

 

[nogodsnomasters85]

this. and the clash are awesome.

The Clash are awesome, but the Pistols, STILL, were NOT "manufactured."

 

[ringrosso]

I do not like them.

I remember playing '1977' a lot when that came out & wrecking to 'Should I Stay...', apart from those memories I feel that they are really quite shoddy.

Mrs Ringrosso is a bit of a fan in fairness but I dictate the music choices in my house because I am a chauvinist pig - so we rarely listen to them. It helps that Mrs Ringrosso can't work the system properly too.

 

[This charming man.]

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?

The first two albums were excellent, but when London Calling came out, they soon lost their street cred. Rolling Stone album of the 80's!!



This is certainly an all time classic though, imo.

 

[Qvist]

interesting to see most of the "clash lovers" are NOT british, making me think the clash must have created a false image of late 70s britain and these people may not even know what a public schoolboy actually is! and have no idea about english punk or music, probrably never even heard of oi! just bought london calling in a swanky mall on sunset strip while mummy waited in the parking lot in her gas guzzler, which leads me to think that if you have no experience of late 70s britain at first hand thats where you can be conned by the clash thing, suppose its like me trying to sound like an expert on dutch clog music of the 50s just cos i saw a documentary about it.

That seems to suggest that you can only appreciate music if you have personal experience with the context it arose in, which would mean that not only would The Clash be a fading concern of middle-aged britons, so would The Smiths. As a Norwegian, I would hardly qualify as a Smiths fan myself since I have spent a grand total of 3 days in Manchester (and that well after the band was dissolved), despite the fact that I discovered them when this charming man was released and have invested countless hours in them since.

For a brit who experienced the Clash in 1978, the context of the time is of course inseparable from the experience of the music. But good music isn't limited to its original context - it has the capacity to mean something also to other people, elsewhere and at other times, who live entirely different lives in entirely different circumstances. It will not mean the same thing, but what it means to them is every bit as important and real as what it meant to you.

Besides which you supplement this rather absurd theory with quite a lot of weak assumptions and generalisations about the millions of people who have purschased their albums worldwide and who are more than a little unlikely to constitute a homogenous group.

cheers

 

[This charming man.]

all the travels in his youth, from his priveladged background ?
the nearest we got to any "travels" was the school trip to batley museum!

How's the RL team doing these days?