While mostly remembered for his time fronting The Clash, Joe Strummer had a long solo career with a number of terrific records. A new retrospective album, “Assembly”, highlights that and will be out March 26th via Dark Horse Records. The Carefully curated singles, fan favourites and rarities will comprise the 16-track Assembly, a best-of collection from The Clash legend arrives via George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records (which is now led by his son Dhani Harrison and manager David Zonshine)
The compilation includes “Love Kills” from the docu-movie Sid & Nancy, Mescaleros songs “Coma Girl,” “Forbidden City” and “Johnny Appleseed,” a few live performances of “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “I Fought The Law”, the latter two recorded by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros at London’s Brixton Academy on November. 24th, 2001 a never-before-heard acoustic version of “Junco Partner” and Other iconic cuts include “Coma Girl,” “Johnny Appleseed,” and “Yalla Yalla” (with The Mescaleros), Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”. It does not have, however, any of the Joe Strummer & The Latino Rockabilly War tracks, like “Trash City,” he recorded for the soundtrack of Permanent Record (the 1988 drama which starred Beastie Boys’ Adam Horowitz).
In addition, Assembly includes liner notes written especially for this collection by lifelong Strummer fan Jakob Dylan.
Strummer’s politically charged lyrics struck a chord with legions of fans and peers, and in 2020, his life and music were commemorated with “A Song For Joe: Celebrating the Birthday of Joe Strummer.” The star-studded global live stream featured performances and testimonials from Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Tweedy, Bob Weir, Lucinda Williams, Josh Homme, Tom Morello, Jim Jarmusch, members of The Strokes, Brian Fallon, Steve Buscemi, and many more.
“Assembly” is an all-new Joe Strummer retrospective covering The Clash frontman’s whole career, including Mescaleros numbers and unexpected, buried treasures. This 16-track compilation features three previously unreleased versions of classic Clash tracks, including the never-before-heard “Junco Partner (Acoustic)” and electrifying live performances of “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “I Fought The Law,” the latter two of which were recorded by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros at London’s Brixton Academy on November 24th, 2001.
Joe Strummer was one of those essential artists whose reputation far exceeded the widespread recognition he achieved in life. When he passed away from a congenital heart defect at age 50, he was known mainly for his roles he played in the Clash, Big Audio Dynamite, the 101ers and his solo band the Mescaleros, and yet despite having established an insurgent attitude and a musical palette that spanned punk, dub, funk, and rockabilly, his solo catalogue always seemed to take second place to the iconic outfits with which he’s been forever identified. There’s a clear irony in that distinction, given that Strummer was an outspoken individual who continued to channel social and political causes fearlessly and tirelessly throughout his career.
It’s apt then that Strummer’s solo career should finally get the focus it deserves with “Assembly”, a long-overdue compilation that boasts both career highlights — three live unreleased Clash recordings are, on their own, well worth the price of admission — film score contributions, three tracks recorded with the Mescaleros, a moving take on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” and, of special note to collectors, a heretofore unreleased version of “Junco Partner,” a song that dates back to Strummer’s initial efforts with the 101ers and rendered here as an earnest acoustic home recording.
‘Assembly’ is the first new Joe Strummer title to be released on Dark Horse Records. Designed as a new starting point to Joe Strummer’s back catalogue, it includes 13 tracks from Strummer’s solo career, along with two live versions of the classic Clash songs “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “I Fought The Law” and a previously unreleased acoustic version of Junco Partner – making a total of 16 tracks. Other tracks come from Strummer’s extensive solo catalogue including tracks from his three albums with ‘The Mescaleros’.
The late Clash frontman Joe Strummer is getting new solo best of, Assembly, on March 26th via Dark Horse Records that collects his work with The Mescaleros and more. One of the rarities included on the album is a never-before-released acoustic version of “Junco Partner,” a blues song first recorded in 1951 by James Waynes, that Strummer played with his first band, The 101ers, was recorded by The Clash for Sandinista! and he continued to play through his days with The Mescaleros.
This acoustic version, just Joe and his guitar, was discovered on a hand-labelled cassette tape in the Strummer archives.
Founded in 1974 by George Harrison Dark Horse Records has long been a home for Storytellers and Troubadour’s, words that can be used to describe Joe Strummer, making Dark Horse Records to perfect home to appreciate and expand Strummer’s incredible legacy across, music, politics, and culture.
Package includes new written forward by Jacob Dylan
Tracklist: 1. Coma Girl 2. Johnny Appleseed 3. I Fought The Law (Live) 4. Tony Adams 5. Sleepwalk 6. Love Kills 7. Get Down Moses 8. X-Ray Style 9. Mondo Bongo 10. Rudie Can’t Fail (Live) 11. At The Border, Guy 12. The Long Shadow 13. Forbidden City 14. Yalla, Yalla 15. Redemption Song 16. Junco Partner (Acoustic)
It all began with Marty Robbins, whose cowboy ballads entranced and inspired Clash co-founder and vocalist Joe Strummer from across the Atlantic for years. When Amarillo-native Joe Ely toured London in ’78, Strummer went backstage to introduce himself and the band. They were huge Ely fans, and while he had never heard of them, they bonded over shared interests in rockabilly, movies, and poetry. They spent the next few days showing Ely around London, even taking him to their studio.
“It was like the West Texas hell raisers meet the London hell raisers,” Ely said. In Ely, the Clash finally had a direct connection to the world they’d only heard on records and seen on television.
“To them,” Ely said, “Texas was a mythical place that they only knew about in old Marty Robbins gunfighter ballads and Westerns and stuff.”
When Strummer brought up an upcoming American tour, the only places he wanted to play were those he’d heard about in songs—El Paso, Laredo, Wichita Falls. Ely returned home to Lubbock, and soon enough, the Clash called to book several Texas dates with Joe Ely Band as opening act. They played their first Texas show at the Armadillo World Headquarters, the 1970s venue that propelled Austin’s music scene to national attention and forever shaped the city’s image.
The night was October 4th, 1979, and Michael Corcoran’s in-depth article, “25 Most Significant Nights in Austin Music History,” features it at number twelve. Corcoran quotes the oft-cited description of the performance as “Ely and his band pouring gasoline all over the stage and then the Clash coming out and lighting a match.” The all-night jam session that followed, with Ely and the Clash joining local punk band the Skunks on stage at the Continental Club, turned an unforgettable night into one of true, incendiary fame.
When the Clash returned in June of 1982 to film “Rock the Casbah,” the Armadillo had been closed a year and a half. Perhaps in homage to the venue that hosted that first Texas performance, the video features a recurring armadillo running through various shots. Maybe it was just a funny thing to include, but a photo from that show did end up on the back of the London Calling album, suggesting the ‘Dillo’s significance to the band. The song was released as the second single from their fifth album, Combat Rock. “Rock the Casbah” was musically written by the band’s drummer Topper Headon, based on a piano part that he had been toying with. Finding himself in the studio without his three bandmates, Headon progressively taped the drum, piano and bass parts, recording the bulk of the song’s musical instrumentation himself. This origin makes “Rock the Casbah” different from the majority of Clash songs, which tended to originate with music written by the Strummer–Jones song writing partnership. Upon entering the studio to hear Headon’s recording, the other Clash members were impressed with his creation, stating that they felt the musical track was essentially complete, relatively minor overdubs were added, such as guitars and percussion
Joe Strummer was not impressed by the page of suggested lyrics that Headon gave him. According to Clash guitar technician Digby Cleaver, they were “a soppy set of lyrics about how much he missed his girlfriend”. Strummer 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. Strummer had been developing a set of lyrical ideas that he was looking to match with an appropriate tune. Before hearing Headon’s music, Strummer had already come up with the phrases “rock the casbah” and “you’ll have to let that raga drop” as lyrical ideas that he was considering for future songs. After hearing Headon’s music, Strummer went into the studio’s toilets and wrote lyrics to match the song’s melody. This phrase had originated during a jam session with Strummer’s violinist friend Tymon Dogg. Dogg began playing Eastern scales with his violin and Strummer started shouting “rock the casbah!”
Further inspiration for the lyrics of “Rock the Casbah” originated from Strummer observing the band’s manager Bernie Rhodes moaning about The Clash’s increasing tendency to perform lengthy songs. Rhodes asked the band facetiously “does everything have to be as long as this rāga?” (referring to the Indian musical style known for its length and complexity).
Strummer later returned to his room at the Iroquois Hotel in New York City and wrote the opening lines to the song: “The King told the boogie-men ‘you have to let that rāga drop.’ The song gives a fabulist account of a ban on Western rock music by an Arab king. The lyrics describe the king’s efforts to stop his population from listening to this music, such as ordering his military’s jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The population then proceed to “rock the casbah” by dancing to the music. This scenario was inspired by the ban on Western music in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution
To watch the video now is to see glimpses of the Austin that long time natives speak of wistfully, reverently. As much as I wanted to believe in Austin Motel’s place in punk rock history after learning about the Clash’s Texas connection, I am sorry to report that the shots of a motel swimming pool were not taken at the Austin Motel. After a deep dive into obscure internet wormholes about the video, my best guess for the pool featured at 2:05 and 2:08 is the Sheraton Hotel near Interstate 35 and 11th Street. According to Songfacts.com, the actor who played the Rabbi, Dennis Razze, said auditions were held at the Sheraton, and pictures of that hotel pool do look like those in the video.
At fifty-four seconds, the two main characters, The Sheik and The Rabbi, drive in to Austin with the Capitol Building in the background. That skyline sure looks different, though, doesn’t it? Other noteworthy shots of 1982 Austin are fun to spot, and often difficult to discern. The Winchell’s Donuts is now a Subway. A close examination of this location, and a trove of trivia about the video, can be found in Adam Norwood’s delightfully obsessive blog.
The Burger King 27th and Guadalupe didn’t change too much—it’s now a Whataburger. Texans love Whataburger, if you don’t know, so this is one change that old-timers probably aren’t mad at. The Alamo Hotel at the corner of 6th and Guadalupe appears to now be the Extended Stay America. Fun fact: scenes from the music video for Willie Nelson’s “Panchoand Lefty” were filmed at the hotel’s bar. It was knocked down in 1984. The planes are flying into Bergstrom Air Force Base, which is now Austin Bergstrom International Airport.
The City Coliseum, which is now the Palmer Events center, was originally an aircraft hangar. Footage from inside The Coliseum was, according to Razze, “absolutely crazy, because they just worked us into the audience in front of the stage and shot us and the band in real time during the concert.”
The legend of the Clash lounging poolside at our motel may be debunked, but if you want to walk the same path as the armadillo featured in the video, it’s tough to find a better starting point. Plus, the former site of the Armadillo is only a ten-minute walk away, and located next door is Threadgill’s World Headquarters, a restaurant dedicated to honouring the renowned venue. Memorabilia covers the walls, and the juke box features one hundred albums by artists who played the ‘Dillo. In the spirit of two worlds colliding—Texas’ Joe Ely and London’s definitive punks—you can chow down on chicken fried steak while listening to that “crazy Casbah sound.”
Just be sure to wait thirty minutes before jumping back in the pool to avoid any cramping.
The music video for “Rock the Casbah” was filmed in Austin, Texas by director Don Letts on 8th and 9th June 1982.
On this day in 1977, The Clash dropped their self-titled debut album on CBS Records, and it still stands up as one of punk’s most essential releases. With their speedy and reckless yet musically adept political punk rock, The Clash arguably became the most influential punk band of their era. On their debut LP, frontman Joe Strummer took on uncomfortable topics like class warfare and imperialism, and their gritty songs exuded a frantic rage and the spirit of alienated youth.
Released on 8th April 1977 .Written and recorded over just three weeks in February 1977 for a paltry £4,000, Most of the album was conceived on the 18th floor of a council high rise on London’s Harrow Road, in a flat that was rented by Mick Jones’s grandmother, who frequently went to see their live concerts, it would go on to reach No. 12 on the UK charts, and has been included on many retrospective rankings as one of the greatest punk albums of all time.
Songs on the album were composed by guitarists Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, with the notable exception of the reggae cover “Police and Thieves”. Several songs from these sessions, including “Janie Jones”, “White Riot”, and “London’s Burning” became classics of the punk genre and were among the first punk songs to see significant presence on singles charts. The album featured Jones and Strummer sharing guitar and vocal duties, with Paul Simonon on bass and Terry Chimes on drums. The subject of the opening track, “Janie Jones”, was a famous brothel keeper in London during the 1970s. “Remote Control” was written by Mick Jones after the Anarchy Tour and contains pointed observations about the civic hall bureaucrats who had cancelled concerts, the police, big business and especially record companies.
“Career Opportunities”, the opening track of the second side of the album, attacks the political and economic situation in England at the time, citing the lack of jobs available, and the dreariness and lack of appeal of those that were available. “Protex Blue”, sung by Mick Jones, is about a 1970s brand of condom. It was inspired by the contraceptive vending machine in the Windsor Castle’s toilets.
The version of “White Riot” featured on the album was not recorded for the album; the original demo (recorded at Beaconsfield Studios before the band signed to CBS) was used instead.
“Police & Thieves” was added to the album when the group realised that the track listing was too short. Another cover the band played at these sessions was The Wailer’s “Dancing Shoes”. “Garageland” was written in response to music critic Charles Shaar Murray’s damning review of the Clash’s early appearance at the Sex Pistols Screen on the Green concert – “The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running”
The Clash’s first official recording was the single for “White Riot”, that was released by CBS Records in March 1977. Then in April, CBS released their self-titled debut album, The Clash, in the United Kingdom, but refused to release it in the United States, saying that the sound was not “radio friendly”. A US version of the album with a modified track listing four songs from the original version were replaced with five non-album singles and B-sides—was released by Epic Records in 1979, after the UK original became the best-selling import album of all time in the United States. Terry Chimes left the band for the second time soon after the recording, so only Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon were featured on the album’s cover, The album’s front cover photo, shot by Kate Simon, was taken in the alleyway directly opposite the front door of the band’s ‘Rehearsal Rehearsals’ building in Camden Market. Chimes was credited as “Tory Crimes”.
In the same month, the band also released an EP single, Capital Radio, which was given away to NME‘s readers. In May, CBS released the single “Remote Control” without asking them first, and, in September, “Complete Control“, produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry, was Topper Headon’s first recording with the band.
Martin Scorsese once described “Janie Jones” by The Clash as the greatest British rock’n’roll song. One of the many wonderful things about that statement, not lost on Clash fans, is that however charged-up-and-ready-to-blow the opening track of the band’s eponymous 1977 debut album is, it’s not even the greatest Clash song; hell, it’s not even the greatest opening track on a Clash album. There’s serious competition for that accolade on each of their studio albums, but the title track of London Calling fights off all comers. Its ringing apocalyptic alarm announced the most extraordinary album of the late Seventies, which, almost unbelievably, was released 40 years ago next month on 14th December. It’s even being celebrated in its own exhibition at the Museum of London.
London Calling landed at the close of an extraordinary year in Britain. In 1979, Margaret Thatcher had won her first Tory majority, ending the era of post-war consensus politics, and replacing it with a no-compromise, anti-protectionist, monetarist regime that would preside over denationalisation and the decimation of Britain’s traditional industries. The class warfare that had simmered below the surface of British society since 1945 would be openly waged by the Thatcher government, which would mobilise the state against its people and let free-market economics do what it would. The echo of its mantra – “a price to be paid” (three million unemployed) – can still be heard today in talk of “short-term pain” (watch this space). In 1977, The Clash had demanded “a riot of our own”; Thatcher was ready to respond with mounted police, truncheons, and the army if necessary. “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony” indeed.
But all that was still to come (as was The Clash’s musical response to it): 1979 was aberrant in other ways. A sitting MP – Airey Neave – was blown up and killed by an Irish republican bomb as he drove out of the Houses of Parliament; another, the former leader of the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe, was on trial for incitement to murder. The Yorkshire Ripper was at large. Sid Vicious, on bail awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, died of a heroin overdose. Had punk’s promise come to this?
The Clash, meanwhile, had lost their standing as the movement’s most resolutely anti-commercialistic band when they had Blue Öyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman drape their second album Give ‘Em Enough Rope in the power-chord sheen of American rock. Whether or not it was an attempt to crack America, it was a long way from “we’re a garage band” and “I’m so bored with the USA”. The band felt “bruised by the experience” and by the criticism they had faced, says filmmaker Don Letts, who documented what happened next in his compelling The Last Testament – The Making of London Calling (2004). Singer Joe Strummer himself said “We’ve had our fill of bullshit, and now we’re back to the drawing board. We’re really f***ed, but I don’t think we’re f***ed enough to quit. We’re way beyond that!”.
“Their backs were against the wall,” says Letts. There was a sense, he adds, that they needed to “hunker down” and redefine what The Clash should sound like. The result was “London Calling” which would prove beyond doubt that trying to sound like a big US rock band was a waste of time, because, in 1979, the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world sounded like The Clash.c
“London Calling” celebrates the romance of rock’n’roll rebellion in grand, epic terms…” wrote Rolling Stone, “…it digs deeply into rock legend, history, politics and myth for its images and themes. Everything has been brought together into a single, vast, stirring story.”
It was a double album: 19 tracks. Not all were classics (does anyone really love “Lover’s Rock” or “Wrong ’em Boyo”?), but almost all demanded to be included. And from track two, the deranged psychobilly cover of Fifties British rock’n’roller Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac”, it was clear that London Calling wasn’t going to be quite like anything else. By the time you reached the jazz guitar and whistling that leads into track three, “Jimmy Jazz”, all bets were off. That side one ended with the exuberant ska pop of “Rudie Can’t Fail” showed that this wasn’t an album that opened with its one great song; they were just going to keep on coming.
Side two signalled a step change in Strummer’s lyrical concerns. “Spanish Bombs” introduced spotty teenagers across the world to the Spanish Civil War: “The freedom fighters died upon the hill/ They sang the red flag/ They wore the black one”. “Lost in the Supermarket”, sung by guitarist Mick Jones, showcased one of The Clash’s secret weapons, that high, girlish, heartfelt voice of Jones, which mixes ardour with the pang of something lost. It gave The Clash a soulful instrument other punk bands didn’t have. And, ironically, it helped The Clash break America, when it was put to use on “Train in Vain” – not listed on the album, except for where it was scratched on the run-off groove – which had a run at the US Billboard chart.
For Letts, though, the album isn’t about the greatness of individual tracks, though he has a place in his heart for “London Calling” and bassist Paul Simonon’s “The Guns of Brixton”. It’s about the juxtaposition of musical styles from far and wide.
Letts had first come into contact with the band in west London in the mid Seventies, when he noticed two lone skinny white boys [Simonon and Strummer] in a basement reggae club. He recalls thinking it was pretty brave at the time. He recognised them later when they wandered into the clothes shop he ran on the King’s Road in Chelsea, Acme Attractions, but it was his then girlfriend Jeanette Lee – later to join PiL – who first took him to see them play at an out-of-the-way venue in northwest London. The energy of the band on stage was like nothing he had ever seen before.
From then on, their careers would be intertwined. Letts was the DJ at the Roxy in Covent Garden, where The Clash played on New Year’s Day 1977, and was an early chronicler of the band on Super-8. He shot the videos for “White Riot”, “Tommy Gun” and, in 1979, the famous promo for the “London Calling” single (which went to No 11 in the UK).
The album, Letts notes, was a rejection of what other people thought the band should play or sound like, and signalled they were just going to play what they liked, whether that was rock or reggae, pop or blues. This was no three-chord wonder. There was piano, acoustic guitar, many different drum signatures. “They couldn’t have made that album without [drummer] Topper Headon,” says Letts. “He could play anything.”
White shirt and leather jacket worn by The Clash, on display at the Museum of London (The Clash)
In some ways, London Calling was not even the most radical UK album of 1979. The Slits released Cut, PiL’s experimental Metal Box ,The Pop Group set off a post-punk chain reaction with Y, while Joy Division subtly tilted rock on its axis with Unknown Pleasures. London Calling only just made the top 10 albums of the year, at number eight. Meanwhile, in Coventry, the 2-Tone movement was producing multiracial bands that did more than just pay homage to Jamaican music like the punks.
But London Calling had something unique. It was lightning in a bottle. All the shades of The Clash’s music – anger, passion, swagger, political fury, romantic heroism, anguish, dread, hope, innocence, humour and exhilaration – had been caught by producer Guy Stevens. It had street smarts and grandeur. In The Last Testament, Clash guitarist Mick Jones was at pains to point out that the songs had already been written, the arrangements already worked out, during a sustained period of intense writing and rehearsing at Vanilla Studios, behind a garage in Pimlico, before Stevens arrived on the scene. But the producer, a famously erratic alcoholic, whose techniques, as Letts’ film shows, were unconventional to say the least, wanted something more. Smashing chairs, pouring wine over a piano as Strummer played, swinging a ladder violently around his head, Stevens captured the spirit of The Clash. As the band’s former manager Kosmo Vinyl puts it in a quote from the Museum of London exhibition: “Guy Stevens wanted to make a record that sounded like scoring a goal at a Wembley Cup Final.”
The curator of The Clash: London Calling exhibition, Robert Gordon McHarg III, remembers hearing the album as a teenager growing up in Canada. The track that spoke loudest to him then was “Clampdown”, with its anti-establishment, anti-nine-to-five ethos, although these days, he says, he is drawn to “The Card Cheat” from side three. McHarg moved to London in 1983, met Simonon at the Notting Hill Carnival in 1989, and Strummer shortly after. He now looks after the 20,000 items in the Joe Strummer archive, from which treasures such as the original lyrics written for “Ice Age” before it became “London Calling” will be on display, alongside items such as Simonon’s smashed bass from the album cover shot by Pennie Smith. The cover’s graphic design, incidentally, based on Elvis’s debut album from 1956 was the last straw for some punks, who had taken the “no Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones” line from the B-side of “White Riot” to heart.
The photos chosen by designer Ray Lowry for the sheet inside the original sleeve have been blown up so they can be viewed properly for the first time – they were sourced, says McHarg, from the negatives of nearly 40 rolls of film. “Those alone, I think, would make it worth coming to the exhibition,” agrees senior curator Beatrice Behlen. There are 150 artefacts, she tells me, confiding that it was a stipulation that none of the labelling could be construed as bragging, as “The Clash don’t brag”.
A 1979 preliminary sketch by Ray Lowry for the ‘London Calling’ album art, on display at the Museum of London (Samuel Lowry)
The exhibition, McHarg adds, “is a pretty fun experience”, and includes a mixing desk where you can listen to the individual guitar, bass, drum and vocal tracks that make up the songs.
Does he feel that punk became restrictive for the band – and Strummer in particular, who adopted its speech mannerisms and attitude in a way that completely belied his son-of-a-diplomat, boarding-school upbringing, and even his years as a hippie squatter? “I’ve worked so much with Joe’s archives,” he says, “that [I can tell] there was never a change in attitude within his spirit. His sense of integrity was [the same] throughout, whatever music he was into. If you listen to his lyrics throughout his lifetime, he was always a passionate rebel.
I ask Letts if he thinks Strummer, who died in 2002 at the age of 50, had a sense of his own musical legacy and whether he had a favourite album. “Joe was very hard on himself,” he says, softly. “I don’t think he was ever satisfied with anything he’d done.”
The Clash: London Calling, Museum of London, 15th November – 19th April 2020, admission free. The London Calling Scrapbook, released to mark the 40th Anniversary of the album, is available now
4CD digipack set that includes shows from the Palladium New York, 21st Sepetember 1979, the Capitol Theatre, Passaic NJ, 8th March 1980, the Nakano Sun Plaza, 28th January 1982, and the US Festival San Bernadino, 28th May 1983. One of the greatest live bands ever at the peak of their powers. These are live broadcasts from the time so quality is variable.
Disc 1-New York, 1979 Safe European Home I’m So Bored With The U.S.A. Complete Control London Calling (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais Koka Kola I Fought The Law Jail Guitar Doors The Guns Of Brixton English Civil War Clash City Rockers Stay Free Clampdown Police And Thieves Capital Radio Tommy Gun Wrong ‘Em Boyo Janie Jones Garageland Armagideon Time Career Opportunities What’s My Name White Riot
Arguably among the most famous concert in the history of The Clash; the night of the ‘ultimate rock photo’ and cover of London Calling and the source of probably the most widely circulated Clash bootleg from the FM radio broadcast. Critical acclaim following the gig was also significant in pushing further the band’s profile in the US. WNEW FM recorded the complete concert and this high quality stereo broadcast is the source of all the recordings in circulation. This was the second of the two concerts at the seated and sold out Palladium on New York’s 14th Street.
The 3,800 seater Palladium was an old converted theatre, as ornate as London’s Lyceum but sleazier with drug pushers plying their trade outside.
Disc 2-Passaic NJ, 1980 Clash City Rockers Brand New Cadillac Safe European Home Jimmy Jazz London Calling Guns Of Brixton Train In Vain White Man Koka Kola/I Fought The Law Spanish Bombs Police and Thieves Stay Free Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad Wrong ‘Em Boyo Janie Jones Complete Control Armagideon Time English Civil War Garageland Bank Robber Tommy Gun
Disc 3-Tokyo, 1982 London Calling Safe European Home (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais Brand New Cadillac Charlie Don’t Surf Clampdown This is Radio Clash Armagideon Time Jimmy Jazz Tommy Gun Fujiyama Mama (w/ Pearl Harbour) Police On My Back White Riot
Disc 4-San Bernadino, 1983 Somebody Got Murdered Rock The Casbah Guns Of Brixton Know Your Rights Koka Kola Hate & War Armagideon Time The Sound Of Sinners Safe European Home Police On My Back Brand New Cadillac I Fought The Law I’m So Bored With The U.S.A. Train In Vain The Magnificent Seven Straight To Hell Should I Stay Or Should I Go Clampdown
Bored With The USA
The final concert the Clash played with Mick Jones, and just after Combat Rock had made them into platinum selling world stars. Recorded on 28th May, 1983 at San Bernadino’s US Festival. Tracks include Rock The Casbah, Magnificent 7, I’m So Bored With The USA (you gotta love them!), and plenty more.
The Clash came to a rather sad ending in May 1983. The group had every reason to be on the top of the world by this point: their previous LP, Combat Rock, was an enormous hit and their singles “Rock the Casbah” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” were all over radio and MTV. But drummer Topper Headon was kicked out of the group for drug abuse in 1982, and Mick Jones and Joe Strummer were barely speaking.
They took a six-month break after the Combat Rock tour ended in November 1982, but a $500,000 offer from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to headline New Wave Day of the US Festival proved impossible to turn down. To warm up for the huge festival, the group went on a four-date tour of Texas and Arizona. Founding drummer Terry Chimes (who rejoined the band in 1982 after Headon got the boot) was once again out of the group by this point, so they took out an ad in Melody Maker and recruited 23-year-old Pete Howard.
By the time they got to San Bernardino, California for the festival, they were in complete disarray. Things got worse when they learned fans were paying $25 to attend the show. They had been told previously that prices would be set at $17, and shortly before they went onstage, they held a press conference. The band announced they wouldn’t go on unless Apple gave $100,000 to charity. It was chaos. Some later claimed the real cause of their rage was the knowledge that Van Halen were getting a million dollars for their set.
The band eventually went onstage two hours late and played a sloppy, 80-minute set in front of a banner that read “The Clash Not for Sale.” Joe Strummer taunted the audience from the stage and afterward, the band got into a brawl with security. The group still walked away with a half-million dollars; four months later, they announced that Mick Jones was leaving the group. The chaotic US Festival was his final appearance with the band.
Guns From Brixton
Legendary cable broadcast recorded at the Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ on March 8th 1980, and featuring the classic line up of Strummer, Jones, Simonon, Headon. Tracks include London Calling, Guns of Brixton, Police and Thieves, Complete Control etc.
We can be very grateful that this very enjoyable Clash 16 Tons performance is unusually well documented by not only a good audience recording, but an excellent soundboard source too and even complete black and white video recording of the whole show.
This documentary evidence reveals a typically of this tour, super-tight and professional show. Although, inspired in places it does not really catch fire until Clampdown through to the encores. The Clash tired no doubt after their high profile Palladium show the night before (TV crews, New York press and glitterati) needed the feedback of energy from the audience, but that was not going to happen from this all seated venue. The result as can be seen from the video is that The Clash this night are largely on auto-pilot and real inspiration is only there on certain songs.
The Only Band That Matters
Compilation of live broadcast tracks dating from 1977 to 1983. Tracks include all the favourites – White Man, Tommy Gun, Train In Vain, Should I Stay and more.
Radio Clash From Tokyo
Legendary live broadcast from Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo recorded on 28th January 1982, and around the time of the release of Sandinista. Tracks include London Calling, White Man, Brand New Cadillac, Armagideon Time, White Riot etc.
The Clash were burning down the Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo as part of their Far East tour in early 1982, playing some pre-release versions of songs that would eventually appear on “Combat Rock” three months later. In terms of quality, this set is hit and miss . . . But even in its muddied glory, you can still hear the power and musicianship of the band shining through. You can even sense some remaining rapport between the band members here – probably the last of it, as the band was touring in the midst of the contentious recording of that album. Mick Jones was unhappy with the rest of the band rejecting his Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg mix, and Glyn Johns was about to be brought in at the end of the tour to remix the album in London. Jones was especially pissed at Joe Strummer; their acrimony would lead to Jones leaving the group less than eighteen months later .
White Riots In New York: Broadcast Live From The Palladium, NYC, 1979
The classic line up of The Clash lasted for five years from 1977 to 1982 and featured lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Nicky “Topper” Headon. Give ‘Em Enough Rope, the second studio album, was released on 10th November 1978. The album was a huge success and by 1979 The Clash had begun to make serious inroads into the US market.
White Riots in New York City is the legendary Clash broadcast from The Palladium NYC on 21st September 1979. This powerful recording captures The Clash at the peak of their form performing material from Give ‘Em Enough Rope and The Clash and their soon to be released third album, London Calling.
Featuring cover illustrations by Ray Lowry, the official Clash “War Artist”, who toured with The Clash and sketched them on stage and in rehearsal.
In 1977, The Clash dropped their hugely influential self-titled debut album on CBS Records, and it still stands up as one of punk’s most essential releases. With their speedy and reckless yet musically adept political punk rock, The Clash arguably became the most influential punk band of their era. On their debut LP, frontman Joe Strummer took on uncomfortable topics like class warfare and imperialism, and their gritty songs exuded a frantic rage and the spirit of alienated youth.
On March 8th, 1980, The Clash performed at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J. following the release of London Calling a few months prior . That night, the band performed amongst others three cuts from their debut record”Janie Jones,” “Police and Thieves” and “Garageland.” Something strange happened at this show there was a bomb-scare that resulted in a delay while police checked underneath the seats to confirm there was not a problem [Joe adlibs about the bomb scare in Police & Thieves]. The supporting acts included the B-Girls, Mikey Dread and Lee Dorsey. The B-Girls were an all girl new wave band. “In Passaic New Jersey they had an in house video set up. Result: Paul and Topper pointed the onstage camera onto the audience who were arriving and finding their seats. Topper beats out the intro to Janie Jones then a single spot picks out Joe then all the lights come on as the song kicks in and Joe throws his guitar behind him, without looking, presumably Johnny waiting! Joe grabs the mic shouting out the lyrics with Mick and Paul running around the stage, switching sides. It’s electric visually (and aurally) and the highlight certainly of the video.
The Clash performed a rumbling, slightly sped-up rendition of “Janie Jones,” their cover of Junior Murvin’s reggae classic “Police and Thieves” and a mashup of “Garageland” with “English Civil War” from their 1978 album Give ‘Em Enough Rope. “This particular show has been widely circulated in various formats over the last 20+ years… but there’s a damn good reason for that! This show just plain ROCKS!”
This is a superlative example of the Clash’s ‘16 Tons’ tour. The band is at a peak here, even with a hobbled Topper Headon. Mickey Gallagher’s organ playing added a lot of dimension to the band’s sound, especially on the London Calling numbers, and the band is tight and together. Mick’s guitar sound is particularly impressive here.
Joe addresses the audience throughout the gig! The opening chords of Clash City Rockers then ring out. Joe intense; belts out the words and his Telecaster as Mick handkerchief hanging out of his shirt pocket (sartorially influenced no doubt by one Ian Dury, who gave Mick one of his trademark jackets – Ian was guest vocalist on Janie Jones the two previous nights when the Clash played the PalladiumMick gives his best detached guitar hero impression. He spends a lot of time throughout with his back to audience adjusting his guitar effects,
The Clash perform “Janie Jones,” “Police and Thieves” and “Garageland” “Wrong Em Boyo” 8th March Capitol Theatre Passiac New Jersey live in 1980, Plus Blockhead Mick Gallagher on keyboards. dub legend Mikey Dread and two encores.
Full setlist:
Clash City Rockers- Brand New Cadillac – Safe European Home – Jimmy Jazz – London Calling- Guns of Brixton – Train In Vain – White Man – Koka Kola / I Fought The Law – Spanish Bombs – Police And Thieves – Stay Free – Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad- Wrong Em Boyo – Clampdown (incomplete) – Janie Jones – Complete Control – Armageddon Time – English Civil War / Garageland – Bank Robber – Tommy Gun
If Joe Strummer had never done anything outside of the Clash, that would’ve been enough. That band, they’re one of the absolute Greats, one of those groups that is so iconic and influential that Strummer’s legend in rock history was easily solidified by that alone. But though his releases were more sporadic after the Clash fell apart, he still recorded a lot of other great music before his untimely death in 2002. He is getting an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink treatment for the many reels of unreleased tape he had archived in his barn.
In 2013, The Clash Sound System box set compiled everything of that band’s varied and sundry discography, with the standard live sets, first-, out- and mis-takes, in a package designed like a boom box. A new book, available in the box set and deluxe editions, is filled with “rarely seen and previously unpublished memorabilia from Joe’s personal collection as well as historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums,” according to a news release.
Joe Strummer 001 looks to be a more modest affair than that package in every way except the actual music it contains, covering the complete cross-section of Strummer’s solo musical development, inextricable as it is from his work with The Clash; the dead-standard early bar band material, his late-’80s hip-hop-influenced four-on-the-floor slams, bonfire-and-whiskey folk globe-trotters and the weed-smokey collage-pop of The Mescaleros, stretching back to 1975. Among the gems inside are rare soundtrack songs (including an outtake of “Crying on 23rd,” from Sid & Nancy), collaborations with artists like Johnny Cash and a particularly rare unreleased cassette demo from the mid-’70s called “Letsagetabitarockin.”
An incomplete list of the various projects included here should make it clear: The 101ers, The Astro-Physicians,Radar, Electric Dog House, The Soothsayers, Pearl Harbour, Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros, collaborations with Jimmy Cliff and Johnny Cash and post-Clash work with Mick Jones and Paul Simonon.
Below, find a sample single from it, titled “London Is Burning” — a song that was reworked into the (better) Mescaleros‘ song “Burning Streets (London Is Burning).” “London Is Burning,” recorded with the Mescaleros, was later issued as “Burning Streets” on Streetcore, a 2003 posthumous release. The cassette edition of Joe Strummer 001 is where you’ll find the “U.S. North Basement Demo,” recorded by Strummer and Jones in 1986.
Joe Strummer 001 will be released September. 28th on Ignition Records.
This day in 1979, I walked home from Virgin Records exactly 38 years ago today with a plastic bag containing the double album by The Clash. It was priced as a single LP but had two vinyl records tucked inside. The inner sleeves had “hand written” lyrics and it has to be the lyrics I’ve read most often. Both historically and personally The Clash, London Calling had a huge profound impact.
The Punk-Rock legends’ third album was released in 1979 by CBS Records. Like so many great albums included on the Best Of’s lists: genres switch and there is an ambitious mix of sounds and musical ideas. London Calling addresses social displacement, unemployment and racial conflict – drug use and responsibility was also touched upon. From Lover’s Rock’s messages of safe sex to the anthemic rally of the title track; it is an album that has defined the decade and continues to influence bands. It has sold over five-million copies and is thought of as one of the defining records of the Punk era. London Calling captured The Clash’s energy and primal urges; their loud and vital voice and social consciousness. If previous albums (from the band) focused on British sounds and ideas: London Calling incorporated more American sounds and suggestions. Rebellious, romantic and exhilarating: a true one-of-a-kind treasure from one of Britain’s greatest bands of all time.
It was released in the United Kingdom on 14th December 1979 through CBS Records, and in the United States in January 1980 through Epic Records. The album represented a change in The Clash’s musical style, featuring elements of ska, funk, pop, soul, jazz, rockabilly, and reggae more prominently than in their previous two albums.
London Calling was widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1987, it was ranked on RollingStone magazine’s “100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years”. In 1993, NME ranked the album at number six on its list of The Greatest Albums of the ’70s. Vibe magazine included the double album on its list of the 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century. Q magazine ranked London Calling at number four on its 1999 list of the 100 Greatest British Albums, and, in 2002, included the album in its list of the 100 Best Punk Albums
This fantastic catchy song was not listed on the cover of the original album so it was my first experience with so called bonus tracks that is so common these days. The Lyrics was however printed on the inner sleeve.
This album has been in my top ten since it was released, it is a classic rock’n roll album that everyone should own. I do not concider it a punk rock album musically but the attitude that reeks off this album is quintessential punk. The styles and genres are excitingly mixed and woven together, but laid on top of a punk rock foundation.
Depending on the source, the working title for what would become London Calling was either The New Testament or The Last Testament. The story works better if you believe Kosmo Vinyl’s argument for The Last Testament—thatThe Clash intended London Callingto be the last rock ‘n’ roll album, the paired bookend to Elvis’ first album, right down to the pink-and-green lettering.
Since The Clash continued to make rock music afterLondon Calling, it’s silly to take the “last rock ‘n’ roll album” assertion literally or as evidence of a collective ego gone mad. I think it’s more accurate to say that The Clash approached London Calling from the perspective of “What if this were the last rock ‘n’ roll record—what would that sound like, feel like, be like?” Given their concern about impending world doom expressed so clearly in the title track, they may well have felt on a subconscious level that London Calling could very well be the last rock ‘n’ roll record.
I can’t think of any other album that triggers as many different emotions, ignites so much passion and authenticates so many deeply held personal values. A work of tremendous energy, London Calling is also extraordinarily energizing. At the end of the record you may not be any clearer than Joe Strummer was about what we can do to change this fucked-up world of ours, but you leave with more confidence that somehow we’ll figure it out. More than any other record in my collection, London Calling can pick me up when I’m down, and give me hope whenever I feel all is hopeless.
On January. 1st, 1977, Joe Strummer took center stage at London’s burgeoning punk rock refuge, the Roxy. As if presciently ordaining himself the harbinger of what was in store for the pivotal year, “1977” was scrawled boldly across the frontman’s tattered white collared shirt as he and his fellow band members The Clash stormed through two back-to-back sets, officiating both the launch of the Roxy as a cultural touchstone and the explosion of the U.K. punk movement as a whole. The Roxy was a fashionable nightclub located at 41-43 Neal Street in London Covent Garden known for hosting the flowering British Punk Music scene in its infancy. The premises had formerly been used as a warehouse to serve the Covent Garden wholesale fruit and vegetable market.
After an unsuccessful run as an “alternative” nightclub called Chaguaramas, situated in the Covent Garden neighborhood of London, Andrew Czezowski, who was then manager of the Damned and the bands Chelsea, Generation X, took ownership of the building. Initially intended as a place for his client acts to rehearse, he along with partners BarryJones and Susan Carrington pawned a number of their personal possessions, furnished the venue, and stocked the bar, reviving the haunt as the Roxy, hoping to do for London’s punk scene what CBGB did for New York. By the time the club opened Chelsea had split with members Idol and James and Towe forming Generation X and it was they who played on closely followed by the Heartbreakers fresh off the aborted Anarchy Tour.
Don Letts was the resident DJ at the club and he was instrumental in encouraging punk rockers to embrace reggae.
The music scene within which the Clash had been slowly ingratiating themselves had begun years before the fabled New Year’s gig, but it had been trammeled by censorship, and poor luck. 1976’s Anarchy Tour, wherein the band, accompanied by Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, supported the Sex Pistols on a string of ill-fated dates, the majority of booked appearances had been canceled due the pressure of local political interests or the volume of protest demonstrators. By the time the tour had dissolved in scandal on Christmas Eve, as retold in Nick Crossley’sNetworks of Sound, Style and Subversion: The Punk and Post-Punk Worlds of Manchester, London, Liverpool and Sheffield, 1975-80, almost two-thirds of the 20-odd scheduled dates were cancelled before a note had been played.
The ill-repute earned by the failed Anarchy Tour mostly plagued the Sex Pistols, however, as they headlined the bill while the Clash occupied the most modest slot, below that of the Heartbreakers. With hardly a reputation visible enough to damage, they were best positioned to recover. Sex Pistols documentarian Julian Temple, whose forgotten footage of the Roxy evening was finally unearthed for the 2015 BBC Four documentary, The Clash: New Year’s Day ’77, told the network at the time of the release, “The Clash weren’t known at all outside a very small circle, but I thought they were an incredible band in the making.”
Armed with a sharpened assortment of politically militant punk anthems-in-waiting, most of which would eventually appear on their eponymous debut three months following the Roxy gala, Temple recorded subterranean Clash rehearsals, capturing now-familiar numbers in their embryonic form. Where the Sex Pistols expressed their subversive proclivities with sneering confrontation and a manic public image (and in a sense, establishing the “punker” archetype), the Clash honed more melodic and informed song structures and envisaged a more focused and clear-cut ideological vision.
But it wasn’t the Clash’s brand of more organized and presentable subversion that was originally slated to break in the newly rebranded Roxy. As Marcus Gray put it, in his book The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town, “The Clash agreed to headline the 1st January 1977 Roxy opening night, thus beginning the new year with a highly symbolic act.
It was the Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, in his characteristically mercurial fashion, who pulled his clients out of the gig at the last minute as a result of the fallout following the Pistols infamous TV appearance on the Today show. Still, the symbolism of the turn of events is not exaggerated. The memorably turbulent, not to mention capacity-defying, performance was the first of a series of overtures that would propel the Clash past the perpetually embattled Sex Pistols as the U.K. punk rock hierarchy.
The Roxy’s reign, on the other hand, would be tragically short-lived: it shuttered its doors in April 1978, little over a year after its grand opening. But not before cementing its legacy by cycling through the gambit of prominent English punk acts of the era, from street-punk squatters like Crass and Slaughter and the Dogs to art-school post-punks Wire and Siouxsie and the Banshees . Despite the brevity of the Roxy’s run, the bands it hosted and movement it helped launch proved bigger and more lastingly influential than the Clash and their contemporaries could have ever predicted.
The Fat Angel Sings 