1229. The Clash / Give 'Em Enough Rope. 1978. 3/5

On the back of their self titled debut album in 1977, The Clash had begun their rise in the punk scene of the UK in particular. In and amongst the plethora of bands that seemed to crop up one day and be gone the next, The Clash and contemporaries the Buzzcocks were the driving force of the movement where it wasn’t necessarily the shock of the music and lyric topics that caught the attention, but the maturity of it. Touring behind that first album The Clash played on their own ‘Out of Control’ tour, which apart from a small riot when their first gig in Belfast was cancelled at the last minute due to the insurance being pulled from the venue, created a storm of the music kind. They also played at the ‘Rock Against Racism’ carnival in London later that year, which was attended by 100,000 people. In between this they released two non-album singles to great acclaim. “Clash City Rockers” was played on a BBC children's morning show after its release, alongside the unreleased (at that time) “Tommy Gun”, while “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais” became a favourite with Clash fans and was voted single of the year in the 1978 NME Readers' Poll.
Before the Clash began recording their second album, their American based record company asked if they could produce an album with a 'cleaner’ sound than their debut, in order to reach American audiences. Sandy Pearlman, known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult, was hired to produce the record. Bass guitarist Paul Simonon later recalled, "Recording that album was just the most boring situation ever. It was just so nitpicking, such a contrast to the first album ... it ruined any spontaneity."
When the album arrived, it received mixed reviews in the UK music press, where some complained about its relatively mainstream production style in comparison to that debut album. Despite the backlash from sections of the music press, NME readers voted it the second best album of 1978 and The Clash were voted the best group in the same end of year poll.

"Give 'Em Enough Rope” is often overlooked in the band’s discography. It opens with the track “Safe European Home,” which is a fast-paced punk rock song that features Mick Jones’ guitar work and Joe Strummer’s vocals. The song describes Strummer's and Jones uneasy writing trip to Jamaica and their experiences with racism and violence. Jones later commented on the trip by saying, "we went down to the docks, and I think we only survived because they mistook us for sailors”. The song also contains references of Jamaican culture and buildings like the Sheraton hotel in Kingston. This is followed by “English Civil War,” which is a slower song that features a catchy chorus, and which is derived from an American Civil War song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", that was popular among both sides of the conflict. Guitarist and vocalist Joe Strummer had learned the song at school and suggested to his bandmates that they should update it. The Clash’s version is about the state of politics in the UK at that time and warns against what things may come.
“Tommy Gun” is one of the most well-known songs from the album and from The Clash’s entire catalogue. The song features a driving beat and lyrics about gun violence. The lyrics especially deal with Middle Eastern terrorism, specifically the hi-jacking of aircraft. It is an especially interesting beginning to the album, with the band not shying away from what was going on in the world at home and abroad at this time, and not afraid to exhort their opinions on those matters. Listening to it today is just as revealing and important as it was when these songs were written all those years ago.
Continuing in this vein is “Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad”, a fast-paced punk rock song that features lyrics about drug enforcement, and acts as a commentary on the infamous "Operation Julie" drug bust that saw the largest LSD production ring in the world, based in Wales, dismantled by an undercover police operation. Side one is then closed out by “Last Gang in Town,” which is a more mid-paced song about gang violence.
Side two opens up with “Guns on the Roof,” a great song that is set up beautifully by Mick Jones and his excellent guitar riffs and solo work, as well as the rumbling bass of Simonon and terrific drumming from Headon. It is a song that talks about global terrorism, war and corruption, which in part was inspired by an incident that resulted in the Metropolitan Police's armed counterterrorist squad raiding The Clash's Camden Market base. Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon were arrested and charged with criminal damage for shooting racing pigeons with an air-gun from the roof of their rehearsal building. Strummer’s vocals here leave no doubt as to the band’s feelings about the whole incident.
“Drug-Stabbing Time” is strongly anti-drug lyrically with another great riff through the song and combined vocals that describes the paranoia of being caught in the act, which is somewhat ironic given the band's (specifically Mick Jones's) drug usage at this time. “Stay Free” moves back in style, and feels like a song that was written for that American market the band’s record company was looking for. “Cheapskates” is dominated by Strummer’s chanting thoughts firing out of the speakers, and the album then concludes with "All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)" to round out the band’s second LP.

The Clash came to me, like many of my generation, through the radio hit “Rock the Casbah”, and the splash it made with one of my oldest school friends at that time, who then chased down every release by the band, which in time then found its way into my hands as well. And this all occurred at around the time that I was beginning to move away from just radio singles, and taping them off Kasey Kasem’s American Top 40 every Sunday arvo, and looking to move into whole albums by bands. Compilation tapes were still important in that, because it was a way of discovering multiple bands. So The Clash was a band that I listened to when I went around to this particular mate’s house, but were still some way away from me having a huge interest in them. That is a long winded way of saying that while I enjoyed The Clash, I didn’t really listen to their albums often or a lot.
In many ways, that is still the case, but the order I would choose to listen to them would be from first release to last release, meaning “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” rates very highly for me as a The Clash album. It is the punk sound I enjoy from them most rather than the reggae or rockabilly or straight rock they utilised in pieces later in their career. And while the producer of this album apparently felt so little about Joe Strummer’s vocals that he tried to have the drums drown them out on this record, I actually think they are quite good here. In fact the whole band sounds great. Mick Jones on guitar is wonderful once again, while I am still extremely impressed at how the bass and drums of both Paul Simonon and Topper Headon still hold up today. To me they often get overlooked for their contributions to the band, and certainly on this album I believe they are excellent and an important part of the success of this album. The reviews of the day were generally critical of the more produced sound of the album, and it is obviously a difference between the first two albums by the band. I have been listening to it now for a couple of weeks, and it still sounds great each time it comes up in my rotation. I enjoy the music, but it is the lyrics that I enjoy the most, the shaking of the fist at authority, and the standing up and telling it as they see it. Whatever else this album may be, its commentary on the era it was released is as fascinating today as it must have been on its release.