Great music, poor choice of tracks. (From Here To Eternity: Live - The Clash)

Member Name: himynameistriss

Product:	From Here To Eternity: Live - The Clash
Date:	08/11/01 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: show's some of there best live performances, excelent production

Disadvantages: too disjointed, topper headon is badly missed on some tracks, missing vital tracks.

Although The Clash have gone down as one of the greatest live acts in history, this live album doesn't really show off their talents to the full.

This album, in my mind, would have worked much better as a double, maybe even a triple album. It has some really wonderful tracks on it such as 'Complete Control', 'Capital Radio', '(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais' and 'Straight to Hell' but is missing some of the truly great tracks, especially tracks off of 'Sandinista' (1980). It seems to be more about taking live tracks from the first album instead of a live album spanning their entire carer.

It has some great tracks on it, such as 'Armagedion Time' in Lewisham, London, where they are joined on stage with Mikey Dread, but only has one track from there famous set of gigs in 1981 in the Bonds International Casino in New York City which is 'The Magnificent Seven' which, incidentally, is the only track taken from 'Sandinista!'.

On some of the tracks, 'City of the Dead' and 'I Fought the Law', for example, they sound far too polished, very much unlike The Clash really were on stage, it sounds more like hours of tampering went on in the studio afterwards to make the gig sound better than it was, but, my feeling is, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

This album lacks a lot of between track speech. In time, if this compilation of live tracks is all we have to go on The Clash's live performances by, then we can forget Mick Jones', Joe Strummer's and Paul Simonon's political, and sometimes comical rants at the audience. The only intro that has any merit on this album is the opening of 'Know Your Rights' when Joe Strummer says;

"...And its quite nice to be in a human kid of situation for a change...And we're hoping to enjoy ourselves by making this public service announcement, with guitar!'


Some of the ad-libs on this album are just fantastic, like when every member of the band seems to have their own agenda on 'Capital R
adio' but then wrap it up with such a definite ending, it leaves you gasping for breath.

Unfortunately, the drummer throughout the album isn't always Topper Headon, on tracks like 'Carer Opportunities' it was played live in 1982 with Terry Chimes, which, for me, once Headon was sacked from the band in 1982, The Clash were over, so when you have tracks from the American gigs in '82, it saddens you.

This album needs tracks such as 'Stay Free' from 'Give 'em Enough Rope' (from which not one track is taken), 'Lightening Strikes (Not Once but Twice)' (where, to get a live version of, you have to buy an unbelievably marked up triple CD compilation, called 'The Clash on Broadway') and 'Somebody Got Murdered' from 'Sandinista!', and some B-sides, possible 'Pressure Drop' or '1977'. Maybe if Epic Records release 'Live From Here to Eternity, Volume 2', it could support this album and make it really great. This is obviously a marketing ploy by the record company that went wrong. They, quite obviously, had no consultation with the band or the fans.

The production on this album is wonderful, even though it is performed from 11 different venues, it could have been one gig with the way the tracks are pieced together seamlessly, but personally, I would have preferred one gig on an album.

If you own all of the clash's studio albums, this is a must, but, buy the others first.

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