Thursday 2 October 2008

The Clash.

Someone stuck The Clash on during my last week of full time work. Cool, I thought. I haven't listened to The Clash in ages. In fact, I bought 'London Calling' years ago and never got round to listening to it. It was dirt cheap and I figured it was one of those albums I'm just supposed to own, so I bought it. I've somehow only ever really heard the odd song here and there. The Clash just seemed to be one of those bands that just passed me by, so this was probably the first time I had ever properly heard them.

Good God, they're dull.

I've heard that they have some sort of cultural importance or something, something to do with being seminal because they're a punk band who used reggae tones and structures creating a cross cultural style of music. Important to their time they may have been, I don't know enough about them to say one way or another. What I do know is that listening to them today, they just sound dull. As tired as the myriad of 'Punk' bands that regularly infuse their music with ska and reggae. Personally, I think The Specials are the only band who have ever managed to pull this off. Maybe it's because they were a genuinely cross cultural band, so that sound came sort of naturally to them as a group.

Dammit! I wrote that lot earlier this afternoon and now I've completely forgotten what the rest of it was meant to be. Altogether now, Ooooooooooooold maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan Aaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxxlllllllllllllllllllllllllll....................

1 comment:

The Purple Gooroo said...

It seems to me that a lot of wanky-crit types installed The Clash in some sort of "essential bands" pantheon and it just stuck. I do like some of their stuff, but yeah--I think a lot of their punk status was just a pose, created by their first manager, Bernie Rhodes.

"London Calling" seems to be an interesting mess--it's pretty much all over the place--but it's like the "Sgt. Pepper.." of punk. It's one of those albums you think you're supposed to own because it's usually tops of one list or another. (I do like "Sgt. Pepper..", though--the Beatles record, not the shit 70s film they made of it)

I suppose it's also because they were the only UK punk band to have any impact in the US (ironic--as one of their tunes is "I'm So Bored With The U.S.A.")--so they're revered for that.

To sum up: The Clash, O.K. band...wanky-crit types looooooove them---I like some of their stuff (and Joe Strummer seemed like a decent bloke). "London Calling": interesting sprawling mess. I'll take Wire over The Clash any day.