Ooh Ooh Ooh, Complete CLASH POLL (that's a laugh) - ILX Artist Poll #41 (?) - Voting Ends July 9th at Midnight (EST)

"Clash City Rockers" is the only song appended to the U.S. version that pales besides the others. As for the britishes version, I don't "Protex Blue" or "Deny" tbh.

Man, the piano on "Clash City Rockers" alone ... I just love that song.

Also one of Joe's greatest vocals, pure snarl.

tipsy's story reminds me of the whole year of high school I spent with the only thing in my walkman being a cassette dub of the US s/t on one side and Too Much Joy's ...finally on the other.

Love these dudes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/23/the-clash-mick-jones-paul-simonon

Great piece, but I found this part weirdly infuriating:

At least you managed to repair your friendships quickly after Mick was sacked.

MJ: Oh, very soon. That was the amazing thing. There was only a short time when we weren't really talking to each other.

PS: When me and Joe came and got involved in your video [for the 1985 single The Medicine Show by Jones's post-Clash group Big Audio Dynamite], in some ways that was a visual statement saying: "We're friends. We're OK."

THEN DO A FUCKING CLASH RECORD! YOU'RE RIGHT THERE! THE CLASH! DO MORE CLASH!

I don't know, it sounds like they needed to get out of the band to not hate each other.

I think it's interesting how the big rift seems to have been Paul-Mick more than Joe-Mick. It's like if George had broken up the Beatles.

What up?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdEt9EuDQhE

tarfumes/tipsy mothra otm re clash city rockers feel so bad for alfred and vg had no idea they were so broken inside ;_;

>:(

spare me yr pity

irl lol :D

just sent mine.

i am kinda flummoxed by the idea that 'janie jones' is a better song than 'clash city rockers,' or that CCR is a bad song at all!

When I first got into The Clash the one song that bothered me was "Clash City Rockers". Struck me as corny to use your name in a song name. I have since come around though.

there is something slightly monkees-esque about that, i'll admit.

wtf? Janie Jones should win this

What's the over under on number of fights that will happen in the rollout thread?

Realising I didn't really ask if we should count "Capital Radio" and "Capital Radio Two" as the same song. I would say "no", but I realise I didn't set out any parameters for it when I started.

No-one has mentioned Safe European Home, probably the greatest album opener ever by anyone. Make sure you don't forget it folks.

don't worry, it is unforgettable

xxxxxp I'm Not Down was the only London Calling track on my ballot (apart from Train In Vain which is top 5 forever)

Johnny Fever, surely you mean clashes?

There will be gobbing. Watch your screens.

I'm also down with I'm Not Down. Am already regretting things that fell off the bottom of my ballot, like Death or Glory, Pressure Drop (I know, insane, isn't it?), Gates of the West

I voted for two songs with "Clash" in the title. Their mythmaking seems more cheeky than corny to me.

"Safe European Home" is one of my faves, musically and lyrically. Hard to imagine anyone else making a balls-out self-deprecating anthem about white liberal racial anxiety. And that song makes the best use of Pearlman, or vice-versa -- it sounds like it was shot out of a cannon.

Love that song, was high in my ballot.

Didn't vote "Pressure Drop" because it's the rare Clash cover that I don't think bests the original. They got to remake it again in a Clash stylie as "Revolution Rock."

"Safe European Home" is very high on my ballot; that''s all I say.

i am kinda flummoxed by the idea that 'janie jones' is a better song than 'clash city rockers,' or that CCR is a bad song at all!

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.),

not once did I say it was a bad song! I said it was my least favorite of the added songs.

Yeah, really, there are only a spare handful of Clash songs one could argue are actually bad, and most of them are goofs.

...or that CCR is a bad song at all!

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.)

Disorienting acronym.

Immediately imagined Fogerty singing it ("boin down the suburbs with the half closed eyes")

thinking about the Clash-named songs as being like the Monkees makes me happier with Clash mythology. unlike the Stones & their "greatest rock & roll band in the world" (cf. http://ethanrussell.com/americanstory/?p=407) I've never picked up on any tounge-in-cheek-ness re. the bullshit of that mythology on the band's part...but I also haven't read deeply on the band or maybe even listened close enough.

love the clash but let's not pretend they weren't deeply corny or awash in bullshit mythology, there's a reason this happened: http://youtu.be/5tjAQSxWdhM?t=3m20s

When I first got into The Clash the one song that bothered me was "Clash City Rockers". Struck me as corny to use your name in a song name. I have since come around though.

― Gukbe, Wednesday, July 10, 2013 2:49 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there is something slightly monkees-esque about that, i'll admit.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, July 10, 2013 2:50 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The first song on Black Sabbath's first album is called "Black Sabbath" wtf is wrong with you people

kinda 'eh' on 'clash city rockers' but having the name of yr band in the title of yr most who-like song is just good form i think

They had their whole sense of mission and purpose and whatever, but it always had a goofy, cartoony side. For every Lorca namedrop there's Lauren Bacall in a car jam.

And "Clash City Rockers" itself is pretty goofy, the Bowie and Gary Glitter shout-outs and all.

I put "Clash City Rockers" in the same category many put Sandinista!: a failure that shows how great they were. It's awkward musically, lyrically insider, badly recorded, and never quite pulls its parts together. It's also awesome. I loved watching a local band kill on it this year.

"Revolution Rock" is a Danny Ray cover. The (great) original was a retooling of Jackie Edwards's "Get Up." I love the Clash instrumental version from the Vanilla Tapes and Rude Boy too.

Found this piece on Topper from a few years ago:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/i-forgive-you-the-clashs-drummer-topper-headon-makes-peace-with-the-man-who-sacked-him-1717627.html

Months after being in one of the world's biggest rock'n'roll bands, Headon was living in a freezing, windowless squat in Fulham, while The Clash were performing stadium shows in the US in support of the single "Rock the Casbah", a song largely written by Headon and on which he played drums, bass and piano. He made various attempts to continue his musical career. His friendship with Pete Townshend nearly landed him the job of drumming for The Who. At the time, The Clash were supporting the British supergroup at Shea Stadium and Headon admits he would have relished playing for the headlining band, lording it over The Clash.

I love 'Clash City Rockers', best bit is the sarcastic "YEAH YEAH" before the guitar solo.

The Topper story is pretty brutal, but I love him sitting up all night with Bo Diddley, doing coke and watching porn.

I was pretty surprised to read that he didn't kick his addiction until the early 00s; I thought he'd kicked it by '99 at the very latest (as he seems to allude to in WttW).

The Who thing, though, I dunno. On the '82 tour they didn't bring their regular (heavy-drinking) keyboardist because Townshend was drying out. I can't imagine Pete, who had also just kicked heroin, would willingly/knowingly bring a heroin addict/cokehead on tour.

Jeez, that Topper piece. So many black laughs though:

By 1989, when the mini-cabbing work became too much for him, he had taken to the London Underground, busking with a set of bongos. "Every hundred people who passed, there'd be one who'd stop and ask, 'Are you Topper Headon from The Clash?'" He shrugs, "I'd have to say, 'Yeah, this is what I do now.' It was so humiliating."

:/

It was so weird to learn about his addiction/firing (which I didn't know anything about until I saw WttW), because I'd assumed that he was some kind of health/fitness nut (pretty much just based on his workout scene in Rude Boy).

I love 'Clash City Rockers', best bit is the sarcastic "YEAH YEAH" before the guitar solo.

― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, July 10, 2013 10:10 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Such a Mott The Hoople* moment...

*Who also certainly taught Strummer & co. a thing or two about self-mythologizing.

Jones was big on Mott if i recall correctly

hell, everyone should be big on Mott

otm

GODDAMMIT I FORGOT TO VOTE FOR LISTEN. Entire poll is therefore invalid.

re: mott/clash connection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Stevens

Guy Stevens produced Brain Capers which is essential listening for ny Mott fan.

love the clash but let's not pretend they weren't deeply corny or awash in bullshit mythology

Well, what are we talking about here? The politics? Because if the politics fail, that's one thing, but I don't blame the mythology.