The Clash: Cut The Crap - 1985
"Cut The Crap suffers from an incessant drone of sound effects, popping electronic programmed beats, poor, unintelligible lyrics and badly conceived 'terrace chant' choruses" - Sputnik Music
This, then, is The Clash's last sad chapter. Three years after their split, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon* re-convened with two "gun-for-hire" guitarists, a keyboard player and a new drummer to produce an album which has been all but airbrushed, Gary Glitter-style, from Clash history. I remember buying it on cassette and playing it on new new Sony Walkman back in 1985, feeling really disappointed, having expected so much more. Does it deserve a re-assessment? Possibly, from a completist point of view, but not in order to grant it anything like a reasonable amount of kudos.
* Simonon didn't appear on the final recordings, being replaced by The Blockheads' excellent Norman Watt-Roy. ( I have never been truly convinced that Simonon played on the band's debut album either, whisper it quietly)
The problem with the album is that, while it contains some reasonable Strummer songs -including one absolute classic and one 9/10 one - it is a victim of the eighties. Mick Jones' clarion call guitar has been replaced by deafening synthesiser riffs which all but drown out Strummer's typically garbled vocals and furthermore, the guitarists leant some terrace-style chanted backing vocals to most of the songs too. Were the songs kept as bass/guitar/drum and Strummer ones, it may have been a much better album. In many cases, it is the production as opposed to the songs which sees it fall down so lamely.
Anyway, let's take a listen, shall we? For the first time in thirty-five years.
Dictator starts well, with some radio frequency sampling and a fine bit of attacking percussion but then the synths, synth drums and the backing vocals kick in, Strummer's incoherent at best vocals can barely be picked out and the whole thing becomes a synth-dominated mess. Oh for no keyboards and some proper drums because the song does have some potential, somewhere. as it stands, though, it is a sad postscript to the career of "the only band that matters".
Dirty Punk starts with some debut album-style grinding riffery but then the multi-voice oik-ish backing vocals arrive, as I said, drowning out Strummer. It is lively enough, however.
We Are The Clash is an absolute nadir for the reconstructed band as they become Sham 69 with keyboards, full of football crowd chanting, telling us that "we don't want to be treated like trash, we got one thing, 'cos we are The Clash". Oh dear. Try not releasing stuff like this, then. The song sounds a bit like The Ruts too, and once more, Strummer's voice is far too low down in the mix - always indistinct, it is now barely discernable.
A programmed but catchy beat backs Are You Red...y (not sure about the title). Again, it is ok, but is blighted by synths and more too-loud, boorish, braying backing vocals. Cool Under Heat is a riffy number that closes what was a pretty lamentable 'side one' and is probably the best of a bad lot, but guess what? You got it - it is ruined by the chorus vocals.
Oh, I forgot about Movers And Shakers - this is one that follows the same blueprint, I'm afraid - a good song spoilt by the instrumentation of the time. Give it some classic Jones riffs, ditch those accursed synths and it wouldn't be half so bad.
Now the standard ups considerably. This Is England is a stonker of a Clash classic. It is the only one from this era to be acknowledged, appearing as it does in the Singles Box Set. It is anthemic in its ambience - Strummer spitting out his 'does it mean everything/does it mean nothing?' perplexing invective that gets one all self-righteous whether you know what he is going on about or not. For once, the keyboard backing is most effective, as are the programmed drums. "This is England, this knife's from Sheffield steel. This is England, this is how we feel.." slurs Joe, effectively. It's bloody great - one million times the superior of Should I Stay Or Should I Go. Stick it on Combat Rock and it would improve that album considerably.
That goes for the next one too - a spine-tingling Clash reggae rock groove in Three Card Trick - a track that wouldn't have sounded out of place on London Calling. Strummer's voice has that pathos in his growl that I so loved and so dearly miss. Great track. End of.
Play To Win has echoes of Big Audio Dynamite in its sampling and airs of some of Sandinista! too. It contains a feel of detached mystery that serves it well. For once you can hear Watt-Roy's dubby bass - just. Fingerpoppin' is not the Ike & Tina Turner song but a half decent Strummer semi-funky groove. North And South isn't too bad either, beneath the murk. Life Is Wild is sort of Strummer by numbers, with that awful chorus vocal featuring again. Not a great end to not a great album.
Look, there are clear and obvious faults in this album's entire conception, but, beneath that, some of the songs are better than the worst, laziest ones on Combat Rock so there is a tiny positive to go away with. I have written much more about this than that album so that has to say something - maybe it is my frustration pouring out though.
