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

First time I've ever heard the original--excellent. Had the Clash #2.

7. Rudie Can't Fail - 564 pts - 28 votes - 2 #1

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6285/hrd5.jpg

Gah! My no.1

Total jam.

What a track, it's as good as rock gets, so many hooks

So many nutty vocal/lyrical asides in this.

no way is the Clash "I Fought The Law" better than the Bobby Fuller version

I thought I was alone about RDF.

Then you people and your Grosse Pointe Blank discovered it.

When I was in high school I entered some Daughters of Democracy contest or something, because I knew there was an open slot so I was guaranteed to win something. And I wrote a boilerplate speech about democracy and patriotism and sent in a tape of myself reciting it. And I made sure to have, for some reason, "Rudie Can't Fail" playing faintly in the background. I came in second. Won $50.

magnificent

i think i had this 4th but it could easily have been higher. joyous.

Topper is brilliant on this again, switching between beats, and those little double-snares before each verse and chorus are a lovely touch

Is it just coincidence that both The Clash and The Specials had Rudi(e) songs?

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

6. Train in Vain - 568 pts - 27 votes - 2 #1

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3228/ukv9.jpg

confession: first version I hears was Annie Lennox's.

Ouch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcs3iEhWX3c

I like Dwight's version.

yeah me too, i only heard it recently but i was pleasantly surprised

Was talking about the fad for hidden tracks on CDs the other day, and how they are mostly rubbish. Clash 'hide' a track on vinyl and it is an absolute gem

Someone recently posted a link to their review of Train In Vain, presumably somewhere on the voting thread. I liked the piece, I forgot to say.

love the sound of the bass

I like that Lennox version! Never heard that, and dig that she didn't switch the gender.

I'll rep for Lennox's covers of "No More 'I Love You's'" and "Waiting in Vain" off of the same album, but her "Train in Vain" cover is just...yuck!

Also, with 5 slots to go, I can only think of 2 sure things. Weird...

I can think of 4.

Wait, 3...

I think I have to shed a tear here for my #s 1, 4 & 7.

Xpost Clash didn't hide "Train in Vain," it was added after the art was done!

Would "Train in Vain" be considered a hidden track? I was under the impression it was written and recorded in a few days after the London Calling sessions had ended, and the artwork had already gone to the printers so they couldn't add it on.

whoops xpost

I'll rep for Lennox's covers of "No More 'I Love You's'" and "Waiting in Vain" off of the same album,

and "Something So Right."

Aw, Police on my Back was my #2.

5. Safe European Home - 658 pts - 29 votes - 3 #1

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/2474/ejd9.jpg

too low

Starting to think Protex Blue might not make it.

BOOOOOOOOOO

TOO LOW

Y'All SUCK

the only one to fall where I ranked it thus far.

(was my number 1)

i think i have worked out the remaining 4. 3 obvious and 1 which would be a top 4 surprise but more of a surprise not to make it at all.

my #1

See, Al knows what's up.

Drums on "Safe European Home" up there with opening snare hit in "Like a Rolling Stone."

I can't remember what's been and what's not been, I'm awash in an endless sea of Clash. Bring it on.

Good place to link to a blog with the isolated tracks:

http://news.theclashblog.com/the-clash-songs-stripped/

Something else I love about the Clash is how they were a band that most certainly did not simply replicate the studio versions live. I totally love that they knew how to shape up in the studio, but when they played they were ragged, sloppy and raw in all the best ways.

Next one has the lowest number of votes in the Top 10, but curiously, no #1s.

4. Janie Jones - 662 pts - 23 votes

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/234/hilz.jpg

xxxxxxetcpost

That wasn't one of the ones I was thinking of--didn't even know it was that beloved. Then again, Give 'em Enough Rope was always the one (proper) Clash record I could never fully embrace.