The Clash: London Calling - 1979
"Whether the Clash completely abandoned their punk roots or pushed punk's musical eclecticism and diversity into new terrain remains a controversial issue" - Jack Sargeant
The front cover visually references Elvis Presley's debut album with the pink and green writing along the front bottom and left side and shows Paul Simonon - whatever the original intention - smashing his guitar, as if to symbolically destroy the "old music" of the likes of Elvis.
"No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones in 1977" growled Strummer a couple of years earlier. Now, they were diversifying as dramatically as The Beatles, pushing punk's boundaries or maybe just turning their backs on punk completely. There is a convincing argument that says they were doing the latter, only two and a half years after the raw punk of their debut.
This album killed "punk" and even "new wave" stone dead. It was as seismic as all those groups going "weird" in 1967-68. Genres like roots reggae, ska, bluebeat, rockabilly were creeping in as influences everywhere in the early 1980s. No coincidence. This album opened many doors. For many, it is seen as one of the greatest albums of all time.
Veteran producer Guy Stevens, of Mott The Hoople producing fame in the late sixties-early seventies pre-Bowie days was somehow talked out of drinking his days away to do it one more time. Guitarist Mick Jones was a big Mott fan so it was possibly his idea to approach Stevens, although his lunatic genius probably appealed to Joe Strummer and Topper Headon as well. Stevens encouraged the group to diversify, to rock fast and ad hoc, such as on Brand New Cadillac, but all the band members contributed their own ideas in this loose, creative methodic madness.
What is certainly not in doubt was that The Clash were now taking all sorts of musical chances. In the following year, they would take even more - to the nth degree. On to the album. Personally, Sgt Pepper, Pet Sounds, Born To Run, A Night At The Opera, Brothers In Arms, Thriller, Led Zeppelin IV, Exile On Main Street are not my favourite albums by those particular artists-groups, although they are popularly accepted as such. Similarly with London Calling. I prefer Give 'Em Enough Rope, The Clash and parts of Sandinista!. That is not to overlook this album's undoubted quality and influence at the time. A "punk" group doing a double album? Wow! It worked too - a chocolate box of styles made for an always interesting listen and you are taken from one feel to another, track by track.
Here we go then, down to the river....
In Brand New Cadillac, we had a frantic, rockabilly cover of a little-known sixties rocker by Vince Taylor that kept the energy levels up. It's a great track, actually and highlighted the group's love for rockabilly. Its pace kept the punks happy too.
Now we got the first evidence of The Clash's considerable musical diversification as we were served up a mid-pace mix of rock with late night jazzy tinges in Jimmy Jazz. It is far more of a shuffling rock grind than jazz, but punk it most definitely ain't. It is the first of many numbers on this album that I find extremely difficult to pigeonhole, musically. That had to be a good thing, didn't it? I remember hearing it at the time and thinking that it was really different to anything I've come across before. It wasn't punk, rock, glam, reggae, soul. What was it? You know, I'm still not sure. What I know is that is what the first Sandinista!-ish Clash track.
A punky energy was present on a short and breezy number, Hateful, but it is more pop meets rock 'n' roll than punk. Once more, punks were kept happy by its energy even if they were disappointed by its lack of fist-punching aggression. I love the guitar chops and throbbing bassline.
A calypso-ish bluebeat vibe was introduced on Rudie Can't Fail as Joe exhorts Jones (possibly) in his "sing Michael sing" introductory line to tell us all about the 19 bus route. Several Jamaican cultural references occur throughout the song, delivered by Strummer in a slightly embarrassing cod-Jamaican accent - Rudie, sky juice, pork pie hat. The Clash loved their Jamaican stuff, much of which was relevant to West London as well, of course. The track has a real joie de vivre about it, you feel they enjoyed recording it.
Now we get a side made up of mostly un-punk and diverse material, starting with Spanish Bombs, a mainly acoustic and light lead guitar-backed somewhat confusing song about the Spanish Civil War in places and Basque separatism in others, a very Strummer-ish subject. Apparently he was influenced by George Orwell's Homage To Catalonia. The song has an appealing catchiness to it. Strummer also sings in a garbled schoolboy Spanish that doesn't make much sense in parts of the song. Even less punky was the bluesy, slightly jazzy The Right Profile with a drunken-sounding and typically Strummer-slurred singalong chorus. It is full of saxophone too. All very different and surprising. Its subject matter was the sad downfall of an almost-forgotten fifties movie star Montgomery Clift - maybe Strummer's vocal was meant to mimic the actor's legendary drunkenness and drug addiction.
Lost In The Supermarket is a classic piece of Mick Jones poppy rock full of his trademark wry, observational humour - "I wasn't born so much as I fell out". Its light, melodious and unthreatening ambience was light years away from White Riot, London's Burning or Janie Jones although it still managed to criticise suburban society in classic punk fashion. Musically, some punks were no doubt hugely underwhelmed and shocked by this seismic change in style but I recall that, at the time, the band took most of their fans with them. Gigs sold out and venues became larger. Now this was more like it.
The Clash, and bassist Paul Simonon in particular, loved their reggae and he came up with a fine and authentic piece of dubby stuff with The Guns Of Brixton that featured a classic bassline - later sampled by Beats International on their Dub Be Good For Me big hit single in the nineties. Back to this one, it has a gritty, scratchy sound to it although I have never been too convinced by Simonon's vocals and his slightly odd enunciation that always sounded as if he had a terrible cold.
Wrong ' Em Boyo is a totally irresistible, upbeat ska number perpetuating the old Wild West Stagger Lee gambling character and his mythology - all about cheating at cards and shooting those who do so. Ska was the thing in 1979-80, too, and this was seen as doing something right up to the minute.
We got a chunky, fist-pumping piece of heroic Clash-rock in Death Or Glory with a classic Strummer line in "I believe in this, it's been tested by research - he who fucks nuns will later join the church". It's a big, riffy and mightily appealing number. Proper Clash. As I have stated many time in reviewing this album, it is another song that is rock as opposed to punk, it is almost like something Mott The Hoople may have done five or six years earlier. There's something retro about it, which was fine by me.
Koka-Kola is not a favourite of many, it would seem, but I have always really liked this short, breathless and lyric-laden little beauty. Although I haven't got the slightest idea what it's about (advertising, I'm told), I don't know why particularly, but I've always loved it. "Elevator - going up!".
A grandiose and dramatic piano-powered number containing multiple historical references to military things, battles and the British Empire - all courtesy of Strummer, no doubt - The Card Cheat is a bit of an odd track that is once more totally impossible to categorise, musically. What is in no doubt is that The Clash hadn't done anything that sounded like this thus far.
Also slightly incongruous was Lovers Rock, a slow-paced and quiet-ish, tuneful song that defied analysis again, other to note that Joe is annoyed that his girl hasn't taken her contraceptive pill. It is pretty much a mid-pace, laid-back rock song with no hints of the melodious reggae sub-genre that lends it its title, and is full of attractive, light rhythm. A slightly punky rocker is next in Four Horsemen - riffy, barnstorming and vibrant. Otherwise, for some reason, it is not particularly notable - look, it's not bad at all, I've always enjoyed its verve and energy, but it's just not a "wow" song.
We're back on Mick Jones Lost In The Supermarket-style pop territory in I'm Not Down with a groovy and rhythmic little serving of Jones-rock. Pleasant and enjoyable, it features nice reverb-y classic Jones guitar, followed by some rockabilly-ish stuff and some inspired percussion.
Revolution Rock is a fine and hooky reggae cover, embellished by some really winning organ from guest organist Mickey Gallagher. It is another one that I have seen receiving some negative comments from reviewers but again, I have always really loved it. "The organ plays! And we're dancing to a brand new beat!". Indeed. Not forgetting also the "hidden track", Train In Vain, which was not credited on the original album cover. It is an upbeat, harmonica-driven bluesy romp, sung by Mick, which again, is nothing like anything else on the album, or indeed anything else The Clash had done previously.
There is a real diversity of styles here that makes this quite a cornucopia. The Clash had laid down a marker that showed they were just as willing to change as "old Bowie". They would continue to do so for the rest of their comparatively short career.
The non-album material from this period includes one of the group's most convincing stabs at genuinely authentic reggae in the 'b' side to London Calling, Willie Williams' Armagideon Time. It is full of excellent dub rhythms and a haunting vocal. Also included are two extended, infectious dub variants of the track in Justice Tonight and Kick It Over.
