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.
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