To say that I’m a fan of The Clash would be an understatement.
For as long as I can remember, they have been one of my favorite bands. Anytime they came on in the car when I was little, my dad recalls noticing me bopping along to the fast-paced rhythms and catchy hooks that the majority of their songs contain. When I first got a phone, and with it the ability to create my own playlists, the first 10 or so songs were all by The Clash.
The reason I like them, I think, has to do with their unique sound: a mixture of styles that helped inspire a whole new genre of music. Start with a large helping of British punk rock from their early days, mix in layers of ska music and reggae, and end it with a few dashes of 1950s rockabilly and some R&B to finish it off. Let it sit, and you’re left with the 19 infectious tunes residing on the 1979 hit album, “London Calling.”
And boy is the album filled to the brim with some of The Clash’s best! There’s the namesake of the album, “London Calling,” a song about the apocalyptic atmosphere of the 20th century, with events such as WW2 and the Three Mile Island nuclear incident, which happened around the time of the song’s writing. There’s “Rudie Can’t Fail,” about a young man who refuses to work and would rather party instead. “The Card Cheat” is about a gambler who gets caught with something up his sleeve and is murdered as a result, while “Lost in the Supermarket” deals with the struggles of depression and consumerism.
As difficult as it is for me to pick a favorite, no song on this album hits the same as “Spanish Bombs,” an incredibly catchy retelling of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and ‘40s, and the increase in British tourists to Spain after the end of fascism in the mid ‘70s. It’s a wonderfully written piece of music, and one of my all-time favorite songs to listen to.
And that concludes what is hopefully the first of many album reviews I’d like to write this year. If you’re looking for a band with something for everyone, a band who can write elaborate lyrics without losing catchyness, and a band who’s music still influences well-known bands today such as Green Day or the Arctic Monkeys, then pop in those earbuds and crank up the volume listening to one of the greatest bands ever to be.
