Category: Clash

I’ve no idea how long the record industry has been peddling the idea of box-sets which offer a wide perspective on the career of a band or performer. I certainly know that when I was younger, I had no intention of ever buying such a thing, partly because they were too expensive, and partly because I would usually have most of the stuff I really wanted in any event.

But 20 years or so ago, I did give in and buy my first ever box set – Clash On Broadway. I did so because I only had Clash stuff on vinyl or tape, and the former had been put in a cupboard with little prospect of ever being played again (or so I thought).

So I splashed out on this bit of luxury. And I’m real glad that I did.

There are 64 tracks spread out over 3 discs (there are only 63 listed, but there’s one additional, uncredited song at the end of disc 3.), spread out over the history of the band from some early demos in 1976 through to the release of Combat Rock in 1982.

There is also a book of lyrics for the songs. But best of all, there was a 64-page book inside the box which contains a couple of essays by Lenny Kaye and Lester Bangs, and a potted history of the period in question as told by Strummer/Jones/Simonen/Headon/Chimes, as well as other members of the band’s entourage, through all of the songs on the 3 discs.

I was probably more excited by the books than the discs mind you, because very few of the songs were new or different recordings – a couple of early demos, three unreleased songs and live versions of two singles were about it. But I didn’t feel cheated. It was a really good summary of that five year period for The Clash, and of course it could be argued that some great, and possibly essential songs, were missed out at the expense of some weaker tracks, but overall, it remains an essential purchase for any serious fan of the band.

And here’s one song from each of the CDs:-

mp3 : The Clash – I’m So Bored With The U.S.A.
mp3 : The Clash – Stay Free
mp3 : The Clash – Straight To Hell (unedited version)

I’ve gone for three of the better-known tracks rather than the more obscure or unreleased stuff, simply because these are among my favourites that the band ever did.

Clash on Broadway is still widely available, but my advice is to try and track down the more expensive version that comes in the 10″ box rather than just the CD-size box, as it’s only the former that comes with the hugely entertaining and illuminating 64-page book.

Try amazon, e-bay or old record shops. Happy hunting.

Black Market Clash was  a 10″ mini-LP originally released only in North America in late 1980.

The nine songs were, in the main, b-sides of old singles released by The Clash and was targeted at those fans who had come to the band via the previous year’s release of London Calling.   The inclusion of a previously unreleased cover version of a Booker T & the MGs track, as well as Robber Dub, which had been intended for the what proved to be the unreleased 12″ version of the single Bankrobber, meant there was a demand for the record here in the UK despite the expense involved in paying for an import.

My own copy of Black Market Clash is a later re-release in standard 12 ” form.  I can’t recall actually buying this particular record and I don’t remember receiving it as a birthday or Christmas present.  I’ve a very funny feeling that one day, when someone was tidying up the various record that were strewn carelessly around the living-room of the large student flat occupied in 84/85 in the south side of Glasgow (six officially shared the space with the same again not registered at the address) this record found its way into one of the boxes that held my vinyl rather than in the box of its rightful owner.  All of us over the course of the ten months in that space lost and gained singles, LPs and cassettes unwittingly and by the time we had all moved on to our next separate places of abode (mine was in Edinburgh), it was too late.  For instance, would discover that I had lost a couple of Orange Juice singles that I was later able to replace…I’m hoping that whichever flatmate originally owned Black Market Clash was able to do likewise.

Enough ramblings.  Here’s three tracks from the record:-

mp3 : The Clash – Time Is Tight

mp3 : The Clash – Bankrobber/Robber Dub

mp3 : The Clash – Justice Tonight/Kick It Over

The last of these is a slightly shorter edit of the dub version of Armagideon Time originally released as the b-side to the 12″ single of London Calling.

Enjoy 

I’ve repeatedly said that I was never a punk, but just someone who loved an awful lot of the punk-sounding records. However, the early singles and debut LP by The Clash weren’t things that I was initially fond of – they were just too raw and raucous for my tastes, which at that time were still evolving.

As with most teenagers, I got some money from my mum and dad and aunties and uncles for my 15th birthday, and so I traipsed up the road to the record shop. I can’t actually remember everything that was bought…there’s every chance I bought a bundle of disco stuff as Saturday Night Fever was all the rage and all the girls wanted someone who danced like John Travolta.

I do distinctly remember buying my first ever single by The Clash with some of the money – it was on prominent display in the shop having just been released a couple of days previously. The reason I remember all this is down to a sort of hero-worship of a guy called Mick. Not only did he work in a record shop, he also had his own mobile disco with lights and everything….and Mick said that day that if I wanted to buy something special for my birthday then it should be this new single called (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.

When I told him that I didn’t really like The Clash, he asked me if I had ever really listened to them. I had to admit that I hadn’t other than what I had sometimes heard on the radio. He then offered to play the single for me there and then. Of course in order to retain any degree of coolness, I was always going to say it was fantastic…..

So I took the record home, but I was nowhere near convinced. This certainly was nothing like love at first sight. But like all new records, it continued to get spins on the turntable all the time, and within a week or so, after a number of listens, I realised, in a sort of Road To Damascus conversion moment, the song was something really different and special. And with that I felt I could classify myself as a Clash fan – one of the best decisions I ever made as the band and their music became a sort of secret password for getting on so well with people in the years to come.

The first example of this was a year later when I took on my first ever summer job, over a period of six weeks or so, at the age of 16. It was in a city-centre store that sold car accessories. I was easily the youngest member of staff – the rest of them were dead old being at least 19, while the store manager was ancient at the age of 25. I wasn’t able to do the sort of things they did, such as go out to the pub after work on a Friday night. But one other worker was interested in the fact I bought Melody Maker every week – although his own preference was for the NME.

That’s when I learned his taste was for punk/new wave, his favourite being The Clash. The fact that I liked the band was a big factor in me being accepted in the workplace.

A few years later, the time had come to move out of the family home and into a student flat. It was a case of trying to find folk you would be compatible with, and the deal with the two lads who I was eventually to move in beside was sealed when we all said that White Man…was our favourite Clash single. So much so in my case, that by this time (1983) I had learned to play it note-for-note on a Casio keyboard which I demonstrated one evening in a drunken stupor while another of the flat mates played bass and the other sang. The girls we had back that night were far from impressed.

I always thought I was in a minority with my love for this single over all others by The Clash. I was certain that White Riot, London Calling or even the cover of I Fought The Law would win out in any popularity contest. But no, there was some sort of poll a few years back which revealed that the most popular and enduring song was the one released in June 1978:-

mp3 : The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
mp3 : The Clash – The Prisoner

It was unusually slow and melodic for a punk/new wave band. You could even make out a whole lot of the words without the need for a lyric sheet. It was also a song that lended itself to the use of your badminton racquet masquerading as your guitar….and it’s a song that has aged magnificently, sounding every bit as fresh, exciting and vibrant today as it did 30 years ago.

It’s hard to recall that all those years ago, the release of White Man… caused a bit of an uproar among the hardcore fans of the band. It was a radical departure from the short, sharp, loud and angry songs that had symbolised everything punk/new wave was supposed to be. It was, looking back, the earliest indication (notwithstanding Police & Thieves) that The Clash were no one-trick pony but in fact a quite extraordinary band capable of producing top-quality songs influenced by all sorts of genres.

I no longer have this single in the collection – another victim of the Edinburgh debacle of 1986, but by then it wasn’t a bit of vinyl that could have safely gone on the record player.

It was a record that had been played to within an inch of its life – it was worn out, full of scratches and jumps courtesy of it being shoved on more than once in a drunken stupor in which I bumped against the turntable. And because I imagine that’s how everyone who ever owned the single behaved with it, I’ve never pursued a copy via e-bay as the vinyl will be in a far from pristine condition. Instead, I’ve relied on an antiseptically clean copy that I have within the 3-CD box-set of Clash on Broadway.

2013 Update

I’ve since picked up a 7″ copy of the single and I’ve also got my hands on alternative recording of White Man as made available on a compilation LP for Rock Against Racism.

mp3 : The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (alt version)

Tune in tomorrow for a reminder of my all time #1 45