The Magnificent Seven(teen +1) (The Singles - The Clash)

Member Name: Wolfzilla

Product:	The Singles - The Clash
Date:	21/11/06 (144 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent music, almost achieves what it sets out to do

Disadvantages: This Is England is missing,the band weren't all that good at picking singles

One of the earliest Clash CD's released, before the albums themselves had been issued on what was then the newfangled medium of Compact Discs, The Singles is actually at an advantage over every other attempt at a Clash compilation, purely on the basis it limits itself to what it's goal is. In their 10 year career which brought forth 6, 7 if you count the alternate version of the debut, albums, The Clash amassed a huge amount of tracks in a variety of styles and genres, and trying to condense a career like that into a single package is always going to turn out flawed, purely because it's impossible to compile any sort of comprehensive overlook of the band's career without just packaging everything they ever released into one box, because something important will always be left out otherwise.
By actually signalling the intent of the compilation to begin with, this gave this release an advantage over all the other Clash compilations, and while Columbia still managed to make a slight hash of it, on the whole, the compilation comes accross as less confused than Clash On Broadway, more purposeful than The Story of The Clash, and generally less of a cynical cash in on the press the band gained due to Joe Strummer's death than The Essential Clash.

In case you were wondering what I meant when I said that Columbia managed to make a slight hash of the release, I'm referring to the fact that they didn't include This Is England on the compilation, despite the fact it was a single. For those who don't know, the song was the lead, and only, single from the group first and only release post-Mick Jones departure from the band,Cut the Crap. This is an album that singer/guitarist Joe Strummer disowned later, and subsequently, it has been ignored by every piece of Clash merchandise barring,ironically enough the Strummer 'tribute' The Essential Clash. This doesn't change the fact that This Is England was a single, and actually in fact better than a few of the singles released from the band proper. It's a shame that this was done, as it has lead to many fans totally writing off the record without every actually listening to it, and while not very good, it does have it's moments, and the good songs are easily as good, if not better, than anything Strummer did afterwards.

So yes, The Singles only covers the band's singles from 1977 to 1982, and within these lines it does exactly what it says on the tin, it presents the buyer with all the singles released between those years. While this may seem like a cynical cash in as well, it has to be kept in mind that upon the release of this, the albums themselves weren't available on CD, so this must have seemed like a great idea at the time.
You may be wondering then, in this day and age, what worth could a Clash fan, who owns every other official record, as well as some unofficial ones, find in this release? While the compilation didn't profoundly affect my view of the band in any way, it did enlighten me further in two things about the Clash: The Magnificent Seven's single release has a slightly longer drum intro, and that the band couldn't pick singles to save themselves.

The compilation presents the 18 singles released between those aforementioned years, in chronological order of release. This means that the record kicks off with White Riot, the single version of course, and the one situation where I will let a compilation away with doing so, and finishes on what proved to be the band's biggest hit Should I Stay Or Should I Go.

The Clash began life at the heart of the Punk scene in 1976, when the remnants of the group the London SS, lead guitarist and singer Mick Jones and bass player Paul Simonon took on a singer from a former pub-rock band named the 101'ers as their singer and rythm guitarist. The man was known to his mother as John Mellor, but to the world he would become known as Joe Strummer. At this point the group had another guitarist in the form of Keith Levene, later of PiL, and drums were being bashed by Terry Chimes, later of Generation X, and shortly after Levene's departure, the group built up a huge following in the UK, releasing their self titled debut record in 1977, and while it never proved to be all that successful sales wise, the record has proven to be one of the true classics of the punk era.

The hurried follow up,Give ‘em Enough Rope, released a year later, proved to be nowhere near as good, although it did boast the first appearance of the man who would be the drummer on the next few records, Nicky 'Topper' Headon. Around this time, the group had started to build up an American following, and their next record, London Calling, a double album, proved to be their biggest hit yet, and is regarded by many, most of whom fitting into the American fanbase, as the group's best work. The record didn't do too well in terms of critical praise at the time, and it's main focal point for me is the singing and songwriting debut of Simonon in the form of The Guns Of Brixton. It wasn't until 1981 when the group released the follow up, the hugely underappreciated triple album Sandinista!, and the group's next album the following year,Combat Rock, would boast the most commercially successful singles, but it would be the last album to see the famous Jones/Strummer songwriting collaberations, as Jones would leave to form Big Audio Dynamite shortly afterwards. He wasn't first to leave though, with Headon getting the boot shortly after the album was finished, and Terry Chimes returned for the subsequent tour. Headon released one solo record before getting himself into all sorts of drug related problems, which he seems to have cleared up now.
These days Jones has recently cropped up touring with his old friend Tony James, of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Generation X fame, under the guise of Carbon/Silicon, and his most notable recent actions in music have been producing the two albums by The Libertines.

For reasons unknown to anyone but theirselves, Strummer and Simonon decided to carry on without Jones, and in turn Chimes who would leave the group for a second time before work began on a new record. Drummer Pete Howard and guitarists Vince White and Nick Shepherd were drafted in to play on Cut the Crap, which proved a flop in terms of sales and critical reception. The only significant things to come out of the post-Mick Clash years would be when the group toured the UK busking.



The first five tracks on the record were recorded in or around 1977, and only one of which appears on the original version of the debut album, as the group wanted all their singles to be unique, hence two versions of White Riot existing. This was the band at their peak, as the epitome of angry young men out to change the world via Rock and Roll. The second song, Remote Control was released against the band's wishes, and is another track disowned by the band due to this. It's on the third song, the group's retaliation to these events,Complete Control, where the group lampoon manager Bernard Rhodes and the record label CBS for trying to control them, that things really pick up. Penned entirely by Jones, Complete Control is one of the masterpieces of the punk era, and song so stupid on paper, a band whining about getting told what to do, yet so wonderful in execution, that you really have to raise your glass to the band for not only managing to get away with it, but do so in such a classy manner.
The next song,(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais is one of the group's most legendary, one of the few examples of a classic reggae track performed by not only a white band,but a punk one at that, that garnered the group a following of reggae fans. Lyrically the song is brilliant, beggining with Joe simply complaning about a reggae gig he was at being rubbish, but derailing itself to talk about the increasing number of bandwagon jumping punk groups, as well as racism perpetrated against him at the gig. This is another of the group's epic songs, and another that you cannot go wrong with.

For the next three tracks, the record bases itself on songs recorded during the Give ‘em Enough Rope sessions, and two of the tracks come from that album. Tommy Gun, with it's famous drumming intro, and English Civil War were probably two of the best choices from that album to have as singles, given that they are really the best the record has to offer, aside from the Mick Jones song Stay Free, which the band probably saw as being 'too soft' to release.
Also in here is the band's cover of the Sonny Curtis track I Fought The Law, which was recorded during the sessions for that album, but not put on it. This is one of those few covers that may actually be better, both in terms of quality, and in public awareness than the original, and it's another of the band's most famous songs, for good reason.

The London Calling years are represented by another three tracks, the excellent title track from the album,as well as the closer, the rock n' roll lovesong Train in Vain, both of which were natural choices for singles. But I really don't see why the band stopped at this for the singles from the record. Surely The Guns of Brixton was a natural choice for a single?
Also thrown on is Bankrobber, a rather flimsy track that CBS initially refused to release on the grounds that it "sounded like David Bowie played backwards". While I can't say if that is true, Bankrobber, which wasn't an album track, really wasn't single material, and would have been more suited to the middle of an album.

The Sandinista! era sees a further 3 songs,all from the album, which really do highlight how poor the group were at choosing singles. While Hitsville UK is a great song, it isn't really single material, and The Call Up just generally isn't up to the standard of a lot of the album songs. Surely Washington Bullets or Police On My Back would have been far more sensible single choices? or maybe the group were so caught up with releasing songs that showcased that they were more than just a punk band that they didn't think about what would actually make for good singles.
Out of the Sandinista! tracks, only The Magnificent Seven is really worthy of it's place as a single. From nifty new drum intro, to Paul's funk-tastic bassline, there is plently to love about the song, which sees Joe essentially rapping the lyrics, about the tiresome nature of a 9 to 5 job.

The group's final years and Combat Rock show in the presence of This Is Radio Clash, a single only release,Know Your Rights, the album's angry opener,Rock The Casbah, the group's pop hit and Should I Stay Or Should I Go, the group's most famous song, and posthumous number 1 after it was used in a Levi's advert.
Out of these, I feel only Know Your Rights can be faulted as a single, given that the record had a far more catchy and radio friendly record in Innoculated City, and the song is almost too reminiscent of the band's 1977 work to have possibly have been a success in 1982.

On the whole, the quality of the songs cannot be faulted, and this is one of the only Clash compilations that almost comes with the exclusion of criticisms of it's tracklisting, given that it intended to bring people the group's singles, and it comes close to succeeding in doing exactly that. It's a shame they left off This Is England, as it's a good song, and then I actually couldn't have made any complaints against the record itself, and only my pointers that the group could have been a bit more wise in their selection of singles.

Given that this can now be picked up for as little as ?5, I find it hard to be nasty about this release. For casual fans of the band who just want the singles, this is definitely the best bet, and for those looking to get into the band, it's a cheap and cheery way of introducing yourself to them and their many forms and sounds without shelling out for all their albums.
Clash fans...well, chances are you already own all the albums anyway, so there really isn't much purpose in this record. Although if you are looking for a decent compilation of the band's work for listening to in a personal CD player or something, then The Singles is probably your best bet.

Im going to hand the singles 4 stars. It could have been pushing 5, had the final single not been omitted, but as it is, the album is almost exactly what it sets out to be, and contains some awesome music by one of the great bands of the last century, and one of the most influential bands ever, so giving it any less than a 3 would be blasphemy, and it does contain enough classics to warrant 4.


Review also posted on Epinions.com

Summary: A great low budget option for those looking to get into the band