This is a CLASH POLL service announcement...WITH RESULTS!!!!!! ILX Artist Poll #41

I left them as discrete versions, which I think was an oversight really. I was going to have everything separate but people nominated both versions of certain songs as one track so I just combined those and then wound up mixing the dub versions with the regulars on those. I should have done it for all, as "The Cool Out" had 3 votes including a number 1 for a total of 53 points. I'll try to explain my scattered through process in later entries.

xposts

On the spur of the moment I said 'I'm going to do the backing vocals in Spanish,' ... We needed a translator so Eddie Garcia, the tape operator, called his mother in Brooklyn Heights and read her the lyrics over the phone and she translated them. But Eddie and his mum are Ecuadorian, so it's Ecuadorian Spanish that me and Joe Ely are singing on the backing vocals. -Joe Strummer, 1991

This is also the only track that I didn't combine with another version that would have affected its placing, so I'll make a note when we get to where it would have placed.

Thanks for the clarification on Call Out/ Cool Out.

Call Up/Cool Out, obv.

29. Tommy Gun - 291 pts - 17 votes - 2 #1

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3761/z98o.jpg

I remember hearing or reading (but can't substantiate it now) that the whole Spanish-vocals thing started with Mick not wanting to record the song at all because it was too pop, and he said he'd only do it if Joe did a call and response with him, and Joe said he'd only do the call and response in Spanish.

Also, Tommy Gun is great. I probably should have voted for it, but ...

28. Hateful - 298 pts - 15 votes

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3889/6u3o.jpg

There's my no.3. Too low.

I don't know if its my favourite Topper jam, but it's definitely one of them. The way he switches into the '...and I'm so grateful' bit.

He was so great, imagine playing with him

So many great bits in this short song

omg two of my favorite Clashes right there

tooooooooooooooooooommmmy guuuuuuun and the staccato guitar <3

hateful is the fucking BEST EVER EVER EVER god I can't even put into words how much I love this song it makes me want to dance forever

Yeah, I was in a band in college that did "Hateful" and I never really nailed that transition in the drum part. Hard to make it flow so seamlessly. Just a great, great tune. So lively for such a dark, dank lyric. (Could basically have been written about Topper just a few years later.)

those bright horns are really something

And the way they all nail the ending -- bam bam -- and then it's right into "Rudie Can't Fail." The comment about sequencing earlier was otm, their albums are full of great timing and lead-ins from one song to another.

I never really though about it, but really Joe did write most of everything, didn't he? Haven't read the books, but what was the division of labor, generally? Did they write together?

I like this story re: Rock the Casbah:

Digby Cleaver (Mick Jones' guitar technician): "I just remember [Topper Headon] sitting at the piano and playing that riff. [...] He put bass and drums on it, and it sounded brilliant. He did the whole thing himself. He presented it to Joe with this soppy set of lyrics abou how much he missed his girlfriend. Joe just took one look at these words and said 'How incredibly interesting!', screwed the piece of paper into a ball and chucked it backwards over his head. Topper's face! Joe said 'Look, I write the bloody words. I've got a set of lyrics that will fit this already.' And that was what became 'Rock The Casbah'."

lol poor Top

27. Stay Free - 299 pts - 17 votes - 1 #1

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/8114/d4eq.jpg

Haha

But to Joe's credit, he'd had a pretty good track record of replacing the original writer's intent with his own ("Mick said, 'It's called "I'm So Bored With You"! It's about my girlfriend!' I said, 'Never mind all that!'")

xp

Stay Free was the first song I ever played with my first real band. That my first real band would go on to invent emo is probably not a coincidence.

I tried to get my band back in the day to cover it, but the bass player couldn't handle it.

Also GIS suggests the lyrics are a favourite among tattoo enthusiasts and graffiti artists.

I almost always wrote my own basslines to Clash stuff, being unable to hack Simonon's parts -- but this one fell right under my baby fingers for some reason.

I love Joe's antiromantic tyranny, imagine what a bunch of sops they'd be without him rampaging over their broken hearts, lol

26. Know Your Rights - 310 pts - 19 votes

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6168/x58v.jpg

"It's called 'Lovely Call Me' about a girl I broke up with and I want her to call me"
"RAGH. Sod that. London Calling."

xpost nooooooooooo too low

THIS IS A PUBLIC
SERVICE
ANNOUNCEMENT

WITH

GUITAAARS

"Stay Free" quoted on The Wire:

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

ha. never noticed that.

"Stay Free" is the first one that makes me really wanna yell TOO LOW. My favorite Mick vocal.

I didn't vote for "Know Your Rights" but two things: One of my favorite Youtube sights is seeing Paul play bass on it; and it's the only Clash song I've ever seen a high-school student of mine (Mexican American sophomore) get excited about.

I cited Know Your Rights in a law school exam once. The class was called Law In Society and when I got into the exam there was an essay question about depictions of law in popular culture. We hadn't studied that in the class at all but I thought 'fuck it, I'm doing that one', and Know Your Rights was one of the things I wrote about.

I had never heard Know Your Rights at the time, I just knew the title.

Really not an obvious cover choice:

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

voted for "Stay Free." Jones is rather fey on it, no?

Jones is Guy to Strummer's Ian MacKaye.

xpost I really dig the PJ version

25. Somebody Got Murdered - 325 pts - 24 votes

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3830/2mxf.jpg

OH SHITE
SOUNDS LIKE MURDER

Know Your Rights was my #2. Bummed that it just missed the top 25.

Too good for the movie Scarface

24. Armagideon Time/Justice Tonight/Kick It Over - 339 pts - 17 votes - 3 #1

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4104/uags.jpg

woooh

I don't know why my expectations when I started this had this in the top 5.

By "this" I mean Armagideon Time.

Oh, and this is where "The Call Up" would have placed if I had added "The Cool Out".

Gotcha. I do wish the combination policy was clear before voting, but at the same time my two votes for a few songs & dubs pushed them higher. 6 of one, half dozen of another.

Yeah, that's my bad.