London Calling - The Clash

WHO WERE THE CLASH? ------------------------------------- The Sex Pistols invented punk. The Clash developed it, rode it and then killed it. And thank goodness they did, otherwise we'd still all be walking around with safety pins on our jackets, green mohicans and gobbing at everyone over 25. They were made up of MIck Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon. Mick and Joe shared the vocals duties on most Clash tracks, but it's Joe who sings on their better known tracks: Bankrobber, London Calling. However, Mick does sing on their only number one (the reissued Levi's ad song Should I Stay Or Should I Go?). Paul sung a bit and played bass ...

Between 1976 and 1978, Punk had turned from a genuinely interesting social movement into a depressing commercial sell-out. By 1979, the Sex Pistols had imploded and punk was turning into a mainstream fashion phenomenon, and the second generation of bands were punching out identikit music. Punk was dead. Or so it seemed. You see, most people had forgotten about the Clash by now. They'd always been the poor man's Pistols, competent enough, but apparently lacking the energy of Rotten et al. However, most people forgot that Mick Jones and Joe Strummer weren't the type of people to just fade away like some fashion trend. Maybe in 1977 all they ...

'No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones,' bawled Joe Strummer in '1977', but two years later that vow was shattered by The Clash. Their 1979 album, 'London Calling', showed them to be very much the inheritors of the torch carried by all three of those talents. The rockabilly sounds of the 79 vintage band were rooted deep in the Sun recordings produced by the King and the cover of the album paid startling homage to one of Presley's earliest LP's. Similarly, the Strummer-Jones writing partnership was proving to be the new wave version of Lennon and McCartney and just as the Scousers started going their separate ways and ...