FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
The Clash – London Calling
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ONE would imagine there is not a lot to celebrate…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Clash in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
in December apart from Christmas. That would be a ridiculous and, frankly, insulting assumption! This edition of Vinyl Corner is timely as, last Friday(15th November), The Clash’s London Calling was released on vinyl to mark the fortieth anniversary. The album turns forty on 14th December and, as I have not covered The Clash’s masterpiece in this feature yet, I thought I would do. Following the successful and near-career-best Give ‘Em Enough Rope in 1978, The Clash were about the end the 1970s with one of the best albums ever released. Their third studio album took them to new heights and was a slight sonic departure. They would release some good albums in the 1980s but, aside from 1980’s Sandinista!, they never hit the peaks they did in the 1970s – maybe their music did not fit into a music scene where Punk was dying and things were changing. In many ways, London Calling was the end of the 1970s and the Punk movement. That may sound like an exaggeration…but think about the early-1980s and the sounds that were coming through. Recorded at Wessex Sound Studios, London between September and November of 1979, London Calling was recorded just after a period of writer’s block from Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The songwriters, perhaps, were struggling to make an impact and find inspiration in their usual style. As such, London Calling is a different-sounding Clash record.
There is this knowing that Punk was changing and dying away slightly. Bridging the divide between Punk and Post-Punk, there is Reggae, Jazz and Rockabilly (and other genres) to be found in an eclectic yet focused album. I have heard some dismiss London Calling because it is not pure Punk and it is not as hard-hitting and raw as The Clash’s debut of 1977. It was no shock to hear London Calling branch away from the core Punk sound The Clash executed on their debut. From 1978, they were employing new sounds and influences into the mix. I think this is what makes London Calling so enduring: it is charged and raw, yet it is nuanced because of all the sounds and tastes. The Clash were intrigued by Rock ‘n’ Roll and its evolution; how it took in other genres and combined all these different elements. There were not many British-made Rock ‘n’ Roll record prior to 1979, so London Calling claimed another honour. It is a phenomenal record, and one that sound superb when played on vinyl. There is still this division between the loyal Clash core who felt the band sold out when they went in a different direction. There are those who felt The Clash truly evolved and strengthened when they released London Calling. At nineteen tracks – most of which are over three minutes long –, London Calling is longer and more expansive than any Punk album of the era.
If Jones and Strummer were struggling to find new creative juice prior to London Calling, the decision to spread their sonic wings like never before proved fruitful. From the iconic and immortal title track to Spanish Bombs, The Guns of Brixton; Lover’s Rock and Train in Vain, The Clash were mixing important, Punk-true lyrics with a broader musical palette, thus bringing their music to a wider audience. London Calling is the perfect balance between the tough and street-pounding sound of The Clash (1977) and something deeper, more varied and accessible. If some were reserved in December 1979, the majority of critics raved! London Calling has received sensationally positive reviews since its release and, in this AllMusic review, they talked about the transformation from Give ‘Em Enopugh Rope in 1978 to London Calling:
“Give 'Em Enough Rope, for all of its many attributes, was essentially a holding pattern for the Clash, but the double-album London Calling is a remarkable leap forward, incorporating the punk aesthetic into rock & roll mythology and roots music. Before, the Clash had experimented with reggae, but that was no preparation for the dizzying array of styles on London Calling. There's punk and reggae, but there's also rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock; and while the record isn't tied together by a specific theme, its eclecticism and anthemic punk function as a rallying call. While many of the songs -- particularly "London Calling," "Spanish Bombs," and "The Guns of Brixton" -- are explicitly political, by acknowledging no boundaries the music itself is political and revolutionary.
But it is also invigorating, rocking harder and with more purpose than most albums, let alone double albums. Over the course of the record, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones (and Paul Simonon, who wrote "The Guns of Brixton") explore their familiar themes of working-class rebellion and antiestablishment rants, but they also tie them in to old rock & roll traditions and myths, whether it's rockabilly greasers or "Stagger Lee," as well as mavericks like doomed actor Montgomery Clift. The result is a stunning statement of purpose and one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever recorded.
I think, oddly, London Calling sounds more relevant and powerful in 2019 than it did back in 1979! Maybe it is Brexit and growing discontent; maybe it is the fact people weren’t quite prepared in 1979. I don’t know. What I do know is that London Calling is an album that will never fade and will always resonate. I want to bring in a review from Billboard, where they highlighted the brilliance of London Calling:
“Any punk band worth its leather and studs can do dystopian, apocalyptic angst. The world is always ending, and after garbage men and plumbers, angry young guitar players have some of the best job security around. The trick is to rage in your own unique way.
On the opening title track of its third album, London Calling -- a rock'n'roll landmark released 35 years ago this week, on Dec. 14, 1979 -- The Clash approached doomsday as only it could. Instead of lamenting the end of days or fantasizing about some anarchic future, like their peers The Sex Pistols did, these ice-cold Londoners slicked back their hair and stood tall in the face of World War III, environmental collapse and whatever else loomed on the horizon.
Over the course of 19 tracks, The Clash goes careening through rockabilly, reggae, soul, R&B, ska and Phil Spector pop. There’s even a love song, “Train In Vain,” which the group cut on its final day at Wessex Studio in London. Because it was recorded at the last second, “Train In Vain” wasn’t listed on the back of the original sleeve, but that didn’t stop the single from reaching No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving The Clash its first U.S. hit.
The album itself climbed No. 27, and while The Clash would achieve greater commercial success three years and two records later with Combat Rock -- the one that spawned “Rock the Casbah” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” -- London Calling is the band’s artistic pinnacle. The record dropped stateside in early January 1980, which is why Rolling Stone named it the best album of the '80s, and should the world survive long enough for critics in 2480 to list the finest records of the preceding 500 years, London Calling will be a strong contender for top honors. It’s a stunning show of musical growth fed by respect for the past, and it’s played with all the confidence, joy, aggression and passion essential to rock'n'roll”.
A lot of weird and wonderful things happened in 1979. There was the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. The U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan and Sony released the Walkman. It was a big year and, with politics and music shifting, The Clash released this stunning album that they would never top. I will end things in a minute, but I want to bring in an article from Ultimate Classic Rock that pays tribute to this remarkable work:
“From the opening charge of the title track and the reggae-spiked "The Guns of Brixton" (penned and sung by bassist Paul Simonon) to "Death or Glory," a middle finger to leftover '60s rockers, and the closing pop rush of "Train in Vain," the album doesn't let up. There may not be a more perfect and exciting hour-long listen in rock history. Even side four, traditionally the wasteland of double records, barely weakens its case. It helps that "Train in Vain," which was tacked on at the very end of the album at the last second (it wasn't even listed on original copies of the LP), is one of the band's very best songs and became its first chart hit.
If the Clash were musically in a brand new place on London Calling, lyrically they were expanding on themes for which they were already well known. The album is as politically agitated as its predecessors, but culture itself is stirred, too, on songs like "Lost in the Supermarket" and "Clampdown." And "Train in Vain" is nothing more than a love song. They even included a handful of mostly obscure covers among the Joe Strummer and Mick Jones originals.
And then there's the album's celebrated cover art, a stark black-and-white photo of Simonon smashing his instrument onstage framed by pink and green letters that echo the famous artwork of Elvis Presley's debut album 23 years earlier. Like the music, the cover has become an integral part of rock's landscape”.
Ahead of its fortieth anniversary in December, I am sure most critics can appreciate that London Calling led the way for Post-Punk and remains hugely important today. Let’s hope those critics who turned their noses up at London Calling in 1979 – if they are still with us – can understand how The Clash were moving and why their third album changed the game. Although London Calling hugely influenced what was to come regarding Post-Punk in the 1980s, I wonder whether modern artists are taking London Calling to heart as much as they should regarding genres and mixing sounds – I think modern Post-Punk lacks the variety and depth of London Calling. As we end the 2010s in a similarly tense and unsure situation as the world did in the 1979, I think London Calling will peak the interest of new bands and have an impact in 2020. After all of these years, The Clash’s London Calling remains…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Clash on their London Calling Tour/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
SUCH a mighty and mesmeric statement.