London Calling - The Clash (1979)

ideated from: My birthday looms, so I’m just serving up some comfort food this week. All stuff that lives rent-controlled in my head.

I don’t know what I’d have to add about one of the greatest rock albums in history, but I’ll give it a go.

Two things that were both awesome and ridiculous about the early punk movement in the UK: that they wanted to tear down everything, and that they didn’t think they needed to understand how any of it worked before picking up the sledgehammer. I’ve complained about the Sex Pistols as being without skill or talent before, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of bands came and went without leaving much impression because they weren’t good enough to get noticed.

Then there was The Clash. Musically gifted like few of their peers, and more interested than most in connecting punk energy to existing traditions of rebel music like Rockabilly, ska, and R&B. These guys were outsiders but they were outsiders who knew how to play the game. They could produce angry lyrics but also wrap that anger in sing-along tunes and flashy, theatrical musical gestures. Even the band’s brand of anger was different from the typical early punk aesthetic. It focused on real outrage, real struggle, real cases for real people who had a beef against the status quo.

Tracks I Liked

London Calling - one of the greatest

Brand New Cadillac - One of those songs that I can never seem to get turned up loud enough

Rudie Can’t Fail - staring down the barrel of conformity and grinning.