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.

1159. The Clash / Combat Rock. 1982. 1.5/5

The Clash had been on an existential high for a number of years, following on the success of their eponymous debut album on to ”Give Em Enough Rope”, then the hoped-for breakthrough into the American market with the double LP ”London Calling” before releasing the overblown triple LP 36 song epic of ”Sandinista!” And as the band had risen, so had begun the tangents of its eventual demise.
Through 1981, a number of flash points came to not only dictate what would happen with the next album, but also the future of the band beyond its recording and release. After the extravagance of “Sandinista!”, Joe Stummer and Paul Simonon pushed to have their previous manager reinstated over their current management, suggestively in order to try and recaptured the punk roots of the band rather than the continuing progressiveness to commerciality and new wave. On the back of this, original band manager Bernie Rhoads indeed regained this position, though it left Mick Jones offside as he had not been overly in favour of the move. This may not have been the first step towards the tension beginning to be felt amongst the bands members, but it was a strong one.
The working title for the new album was “Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg”, and after some preliminary work in London the album was recorded in New York. The band then went on tour to Australia, New Zealand and Japan, before returning to complete the new album for release. With 18 songs recorded, the band debated whether or not to release another double LP or whether it should be edited down to a single LP. While Mick Jones, who had done the initial mix, was in favour of the double LP, the rest of the band wanted to bring it back to a single album. Another difference of opinion. Jones was then probably also unimpressed by newly reinstated manager Rhoads suggesting the band bring in Glyn Johns, who had produced and engineered great albums by bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Eagles, to try and do this for their album. Over the course of three days, Johns, Strummer and Jones managed to edit the 77 minute initial album down to its final length of 46 minutes, both through shortening some songs and also deleting six altogether. It was this version of “Combat Rock” that hit the shelves 40 years ago today, having been preceded two weeks earlier by the first single from the album, “Know Your Rights”

The thing that I have always found with this album is that is just feels long. And that’s the released version, not the initial Mick Jones mix. Because while the subject matter of the songs lyrically may equate to a punk album, the music pretty much has had all punk tendencies washed out completely. Lyrically the album has plenty of politically motivated songs. The opening two tracks deal with this, with “Know Your Rights” pointedly discussing the knowing of your rights as a middle or lower class person, but then showing how those rights are skewed to benefit to rich and upper class, and “Car Jamming” discusses the impact and aftermath of the Vietnam War in particular. "Red Angel Dragnet" was inspired by the January 1982 shooting death of a New York member of the Guardian Angels, and quotes several lines of dialogue from the movie “Taxi Driver”. "Straight to Hell" describes the children fathered by American soldiers to Vietnamese mothers and then abandoned, while "Sean Flynn" is about the photojournalist son of actor Errol Flynn who disappeared in 1970 after being captured by the Vietcong in Cambodia.
The album has several guests coming on and providing vocals or at least readings, performing on songs such as “Red Angel Dragnet”, “Overpowered by Funk” and “Ghetto Defendant”.
So here is where we have to come clean on just what kind of album “Combat Rock” is. Because although you may have been led to believe that The Clash is a punk band, there is very little to none of that on this album. I have spoken before of my problem with punk bands heavily infusing reggae into their music, mainly because of my dislike for reggae, but also because from a punk band I want power and vitality and anger and feeling. And what we get on this album generally has none of those things. “Red Angel Dragnet” and “Straight to Hell”, which close out the first side of the album, are listenable enough, but they stretch out forever, and are slow and desolate. Then we move on the second side of the album, with “Overpowered by Funk” absolutely just being a funky R&B song which, it may surprise you, is not what I come to this band for. Though I really shouldn’t have been surprised at it all. “Sean Flynn” has the saxophone implemented, like all new wave music of the era. “Ghetto Defendant” has the harmonica and the mournful vocals of Joe over both of those songs and the dreary pace really makes it a punish to get through. And the closing track “Death is a Star” not only feels as though it goes for 20 minutes it can send you to sleep in the process.
The two obvious counter points on this album are the two big singles, that to be honest have been well overplayed over the years to the point of overexposure. “Should I Stay or Should I Go” has been used in ads and movies and probably became more popular ten years after the albums release than when it came out as a single. “Rock the Casbah” though was the breakthrough for the band in the US and charted around the world. And perhaps what makes it stand out from all of the other tracks on the album is that it was almost completely written and recorded by drummer Topper Headon, on a day when there was no one else in the studio. He lay down the piano riff that he had been toying with, did the drums and added the bass guitar. Joe Strummer wrote the lyrics that featured on the track. But it is the completely different vibe of the music here compared to every other track on the album that is perhaps the most damning part about it.

Is Combat Rock the most boring album in the universe? Or perhaps just from 1982. Take two songs out – no, really, take ONE song out, and it would certainly have to be in the running for such an award.
Because of the success of the radio single in Australia, and the subsequent championing of the band by several of my friend group in high school, I have listened to “Combat Rock” for a long time. Not consistently, not every month or year, but consistently through those years. And for me, it really has never been an album that I’ve cottoned on to. I’ve said it before on the previous episode when I retrospectively reviewed their debut album, what I love about The Clash is their punk songs, the ones with energy and bounce and an ability to strike out hard. But by this album a lot of that had been gently slid to one side, as their music if not their lyrics had taken on a more commercial aspect, and that slower, less immediate style of song that dominates this album just doesn’t interest me at all. And I know there are millions of people out there who think very differently than I do, but “Combat Rock” has disappointed me for decades. I’ve always hoped I would come back to it, and find something that hooked me in, that changed my entire feelings about this album, but it never has.

Topper Headon was sacked from the band when the album was released due to his spiralling drug problem, and Mick Jones was dismissed after the tour that followed. The Clash was fast coming to its conclusion, and though I am anything but an expert on the band, I’ve always felt that the withdrawal from the scene that made them who they were was the major contributing factor to their demise.

1156. The Clash / The Clash. 1977. 4/5

Whenever you mention the name The Clash, the eyes of people may open up, and straight away come out and say ‘Rock the casbah!’ or ‘London calling!’ but overall, certainly in this day and age, there may not be a lot of recognition of the name of the band. And yet they became one of the most influential leaders of the punk movement in the UK in the mid-to-late 1970’s. Indeed, it is amazing just how quickly everything seemed to come together for the band, and band that didn’t play its first live gig until July 1976, as support to the rising force that was the Sex Pistols. The band had multiple revolving doors of musicians coming in and out of the group, but once Joe Strummer came on board to perform lead vocals the group seemed to settle. In fact, they even eschewed live gigs for some time in order to practice themselves to the point of exhaustion, to make sure that they were as tight as they could be before returning to the stage.

Over the course of that six months, the band played a total of under 30 gigs, but each one seemed to be drawing wide fame. Indeed, by January 1977 they had been signed by CBS Records for 100,000 pounds - a remarkable amount of money, considering that to that point in time, they had never headlined their own show, they had always been the support act. It was later revealed that the deal still meant they had to pay for their own gigs, their own recordings, their own gear, so the money invested was not as extravagant to the band as people may believe. It did however allow them to get together and write and record what would be their debut album, one that somewhat amazingly predated the Sex Pistols album, a band that had been on the scene much longer than The Clash had been.

The subject matter of the songs on the album would be pretty much as you would expect from a band in those days of 1977. From a famous brothel owner in “Janie Jones”, to raging against bureaucrats and the police in “Remote Control”, and the political and economic situation ravaging the UK, The Clash delved into their own lives and situation to come up with songs that spoke from their hearts. And while they were classified as a punk band at the beginning of that era, they were of a wider genre and influence than that. Not always for the better, but it was still the case.
“Janie Jones” opens the album well, while “Remote Control” was released by the record company as the second single without consulting the band, something they were furious about. Joe Strummer indeed thought it was one of the weakest songs on the album. I love how “I’m So Bored with the USA” was developed, given it was originally a song by Mick Jones called “I’m so Bored with You” about his then girlfriend, but Joe misheard the title and felt it was the USA, at which point the song was changed to reference what they felt was the Americanisation of the UK. The best song on the album is still the first single, “White Riot”, the perfect exemplification of a punk rock song. Short, sharp, fast, angry. Awesome.
The slower songs on the album (which I can only assume were played much faster at their live gigs) still come across great, with lyrics that spit and sting but without the real fast pace that for me makes the best punk songs. “Hate & War” certainly fits this description. Then there is “London’s Burning”, sung in full cockney mode chanting away, preaching in fact to the listener, and followed by “Career Opportunities” in a similar vein. Great stuff.
Still, the faster songs are the ones that I love the best. “What’s My name?”, “Deny”, “Cheat”, “Protex Blue”, “48 Hours” and “Garageland”. “Garageland” came from when a journalist wrote a review of a gig that The Clash played, and suggested, and I quote “The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running". And from that the song comes. Excellent.
However.... and here is the one bone of contention I have... I have never understood the fascination that many punk or punk-inspired bands from the UK had with reggae, and not only covering reggae songs in their live sets and on their albums, but then writing songs that were infused with reggae overtones as well. To me it has always been a difficult thing to come to terms with – probably because I generally like early punk music but have almost zero love for reggae music! Case in point is here on their debut album. The band realised that their album was quite short in length and they needed to find a way to increase that. So instead of coming up with a whole new slew of songs, they decided to cover “Police & Thieves”. Originally written by Junior Murvin, the song became an anthem in the UK in 1976 as the Notting Hill Carnival erupted into a riot. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon were involved in the rioting, which inspired them to cover the song on the album, in a style that they called 'punk reggae', not 'white reggae'. I just call it ’crap reggae’. It goes for six minutes which is twice as long as the next longest song on the album. And given the amount of time I have spent on this, I guess you know where I stand.

My first experience with The Clash was when the radio single “Rock the Casbah” made the airwaves in Australia and was played incessantly for a six month period. From here a few of my friends became obsessed with the band, got all of their material, and began to share it around. And for me, I enjoyed parts of their music, and then not so much with other parts. Towards the end of 1985 I was passed on a copy of a punk mixed tape, collated by the older brother of one of my mates, that became a rite of passage for our group, introducing us to so many brilliant bands and songs. Far out I wish I still had it, or could at least remember all of the songs on it. I know for a fact “White Riot” was one of them, and that Stiff Little Fingers “Go For It” immediately followed it. Even now, I still expect “Go For It” to come on every time I hear “White Riot” play.
In regards to this album though, I honestly only listened to it the whole way through for the first time during the covid lockdowns that started two years ago. Now that may seem like madness, but for years and years the only Clash I had was a best of CD, and I listened to that a fair bit, and never really felt the urge to go out and check out the albums themselves. And then came lockdown, and with time to burn, I went back and checked them out. And this is the one that I have actually played the most of all of them. We even had a ‘vinyl listening day’ with my mates at the end of that first lockdown at my house, and one of my best mates brought his vinyl copy of this album to put on – and it made it just all the better hearing it on vinyl, and holding that cover in my hands. It felt right then.

And what I have discovered is just how good this album is. Perhaps if I HAD discovered it earlier, I may not have thought that. Right album for the right time – the world falling into chaos, political strife everywhere, corruption in politics, rioters and protestors in the street... maybe this album is the perfect soundtrack for the Covid pandemic after all.

333. The Clash / The Collection. 1991. 2/5

How The Clash were ever labelled a punk band I'll never know. There is more reggae in their music than pure punk.

Anyway, this album has a multitude of their hits and rare tracks. Personally, I like a few of their tracks, and find most of them fairly uninteresting. If you enjoy The Clash you'll still only find this average. Better off just listening to London Calling than this.

Rating: A few good tracks and the rest is still filler, even on a best-of package. 2/5.