The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope - 1978

 

"Straight English punk with a grip on the future" - Greil Marcus - Rolling Stone

In what was a great month for "punk" albums, November 1978, after The Jam's All Mod Cons, came this, The Clash's long-awaited second album. Their first one had an earthquake-level effect on contemporary music and many expected more of the same - two minute long frantic punk songs. What they got was far more "rock" than "punk" in many. 

The Clash, in many respects, had turned a bit more Mott The Hoople-ish than Sex Pistols. The tracks were longer, musically more intricate, lyrically more astute, showing that although the punk explosion had taken place, but now, progress must be made or else stagnation would occur. Why, even The Ramones were diversifying slightly, on the odd track, at least. This, and All Mod Cons, were the albums which took "punk rock" to a different level. In fact they conclusively sounded its death knell. To work on this album, The Clash hired Sandy Pearlman, the American producer of Blue Öyster Cult and, although, some have criticised the results, it is still a good album and, at times, a little underrated. 

What was the odd rear cover all about though? A gaudy, red, blue and yellow image of a cowboy being feasted on by a couple of vultures while a communist-era Chinese horseman watches on. It somehow suited the idea that The Clash had something to say about world politics - communism, red China, Americana and so on. I liked the cover at the time and still do, although I'm not sure why, really. It just goes with my memories of buying the album upon release and listening to it, looking at the cover lying on my bed and wondering about it. 

They're coming by bus or underground....    

Safe European Home was simply a fantastic, barnstorming opening to the album with a stunning guitar riff to begin things and then a frenetic, almost incomprehensible Strummer vocal about his experiences as a disconcerted white guy in downtown Kingston, Jamaica. Apparently Pearlman objected to Strummer's slurred voice and mixed the drums higher than his voice throughout the album. It certainly sounds as if that is the case here. I saw the band live in December 1978 and they opened with this. It was one of the greatest moments from one of the greatest gigs of my life. 

A rousing, contemporary update here on the old, traditional US Civil War song, When Johnny Comes Marching Home - retitled here as English Civil War - featuring a throbbing bass intro and contemporary urban-inspired lyrics such as "he's coming by bus or underground..". Again, though, it sounds more of a rock song than a punk one.

Now - that rat-a-tat drum intro. Wow. Fucking wow. The morse code guitar part too. Tommy Gun is a magnificent piece of ebullient Clashery - about Middle-Eastern terrorism, arms sales and hijacking aircraft. Atmospheric and cutting. Best track on the album? Maybe. By the way - has there ever been a better three-pronged opening to an album than the trio we get here? 

A surprisingly bouncy number, Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad opens with another excellent rolling drum intro from new drummer Topper Headon and it launches us into a tale based on Operation Julie, a British police drug bust in the late 70s. Some rather tongue in cheek lyrics render this a wryly amusing number. Beneath all their supposed sloganeering The Clash always had a bit of a sense of humour hidden away somewhere, didn't they? Oh, and they used a rollicking, bar-room piano on here too - how things were changing. 

This is truly a "rock" song. Bags of Stones-style riffery and some Duane Eddy-inspired twangy guitar parts as well in places, even some rockabilly hints under the surface. It has several verses as well, and is over five rambling, murky minutes long in a tale loosely involving street gangs (rockabilly rebels and skinheads) in various parts of London's suburbs. As if punk never happened. Those two minute thrashes seem a long time ago. 

A slightly punkier number, Guns On The Roof was apparently based on a rather puerile incident involving bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon shooting pigeons with an air rifle from the roof of  their London flat, resulting in their arrest and eventual fine for criminal damage. The lyrics diversify to cover terrorist incidents, assassins and global corruption as well as the "roof" affair. The opening riff pretty much re-uses the guitar part from an earlier non-album single, Clash City Rockers. There's a nice big heavy bass sound throughout the track and thumping drums too. Otherwise, it's just a tad ordinary. 

Drug-Stabbing Time is a lively number that has a punky guitar opening and a fast punky pace as it sings about, as you would imagine, drugs. Again, there are rockabilly hints in the bass backing. It used a blaring rock 'n' roll saxophone too, something that would have been unheard of on the debut album. Once more, the length of the song turns it from punk to rock as with most of the other numbers. It is another of the album's slightly more run-of-the-mill tracks, however. 

Stay Free was Mick Jones' mildly reggae-influenced mid-paced rock reminiscence of the exploits of an old mate who went "on a nicking spree" and ended up with "three years in Brixton". Despite the questionable criminal morality of the guy in question, there is a touching side to Jones' loyalty to his mate. As well as singing lead vocals, Mick adds a killer guitar solo at the track's end as well. 

Probably the "forgotten" song on the album, Cheapskates is muffled in its sound and a bit directionless, the current remaster has improved things a little, but it is basically something of a lazy throwaway. Oh, ok, it's alright, I don't mind it, it's just not up to the standard of the rest of the album. Jones hits the spot with a mid-song solo, though. 

Punk rock had by now mutated into something that allowed for more traditional rock anthems to close albums and this was what we got here. All The Young Punks (New Boots And Contracts) had clear hints of the way The Clash's brand of rock would be carried over into the next album. Quite a few verses, harmonised vocals and, of course, that trademark Jones guitar solo (quite superb here, by the way) and a lyric that railed against the money-making and exploitation of the music industry. The incomprehensible vocal blathering from Strummer backed by the others in the fade out was like a punk choir saying goodbye to it all, preparing to face the new, with confidence. 

This album was The Clash's Diamond Dogs. Changes were afoot. Big ones.

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The non-album material from the months either side of this album's release contains some copper-bottomed Clash classics.

One of THE songs that instantly makes me remember the summer of 1978 and subsequent gigs over the next few years, indeed the whole punk/new wave era was the mighty (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais - a wonderful slice of white punky reggae introduced by Jones’s “one, two free, four” and Strummer’s classic first verse bemoaning the lack of crucial dub and rebel music being played at a reggae gig he attended at Hammersmith Palais. The track is full of atmosphere and some classic lines  - “if Adolf Hitler flew in today, they’d send a limousine anyway…” and “they think it’s funny, turning rebellion into money…” to name just two. Top, top track. 

Its 'b' side was a corker too - The Prisoner is a breakneck punk romp with garbled, almost incomprehensible lyrics - “the prisoner meets the muppet hi-fi north of Watford Junction…”; ”Johnny Too Bad meets Johnny B. Goode on the Charing Cross Road…”. Despite not knowing what the hell it was about, there is a real vibe to it and one hell of an atmosphere. I have always loved this one.

Mick Jones’ rare thing, a Clash love song in 1-2 Crush On You, which appeared as the b side to Tommy Gun, is not his best song, to be honest, and the covers of Booker T. & The MGs’ Time Is Tight and Toots & The Maytals’ Pressure Drop (which was the b side to English Civil War) are not convincing, it has to be said. 

Also dating from the sessions for this album was One Emotion, written in Jamaica while they were watching a James Bond film and Mick Jones said "Roger Moore's only got one emotion..". It is a song that is clumsy in parts with a harsh vocal from Jones and equally raucous one from Strummer. It is ok in places but doesn't quite make it for me. Nice drums on it, though.

In the summer of 1979 we got the release of a four track EP entitled The Cost Of Living. Both Groovy Times and Gates Of The West start to show that the move away from punk to a broader sphere of influence was coming. I Fought The Law speaks for itself. Clash power at its very best. For more of the same check out the crashing, aural assault of Capital Radio Two. Magnificent.