This is Radio Clash
I’m still in the Cs in my never-ending CD uploading project and recently I listened to all of my CLASH records again. Thus, this week’s list will consist of ten of my favorite Clash songs. Of course, this list could be very different if I wrote it on a different day as it’s very hard to pick my ten favorites amongst many other great songs. I will focus on lesser-known songs.
“Hate and War”
Although this song contains some regrettable ethnic slurs towards Greeks and Italians, it’s among the most incendiary songs that JOE STRUMMER ever wrote and that’s in a catalog full of such songs. I’ve always liked the line “when I get aggression, I give it two times back” as well, at least if viewed as a sign of determination instead of macho bluster.
“48 Hours”
This is a song that can be found on the UK version of their self-titled first album as well as on the Clash on Broadway box set. I’m still amazed that they left it off the U.S. version of the album (which wasn’t released until 1979, almost a full two years after it had come out in the U.K.) as it’s by far the best track of the others they left off (the others were “Cheat,” “Deny,” and “Protex Blue”) and a perfect punk rock weekend anthem if there ever was one.
“Guns on the Roof”
The story of their arrest for shooting pigeons on a rooftop (with friend GARY BARNACLE, who later appeared as a sax player on ELVIS COSTELLO’s underappreciated Goodbye Cruel World album in 1984), the primal urgency behind this song is what makes it one of their defining moments. Much like “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”, which uses the lack of political awareness at a DELROY WILSON concert that Joe Strummer attended as a backdrop for passionate, almost paranoid proclamations, this song makes this relatively minor incident sound almost apocalyptic in terms of the injustice being perpetrated. Just check out the anti-imperalist lyrics at the end. This is a trick that The Clash repeated often, starting with their great single “Complete Control”, but nowhere better than on this track.
“Lost in the Supermarket”
This is my favorite song on London Calling and a superior ‘60s pop-influenced MICK JONES song to “Train in Vain”, the song on this album that became a minor hit and one of their most well-known songs, though it was added as an afterthought to the album and not even listed on the original back cover.
“Koka Kola”
This is another underappreciated song from London Calling. It’s just a minute and a half blast of energy that manages to fit in a great bridge and lyrics that foreshadowed the stock market boom and eventual bust (in 1987) of the 1980’s.
“Washington Bullets”
One of many Clash songs influenced by reggae rhythms, this one features great though somewhat naive lyrics railing against U.S. imperialism. One line declares being pleasantly surprised that the U.S. didn’t interfere with the democratic elections held in Nicaragua in 1979 which led Sandinista leader DANIEL ORTEGA to power. The huge irony, of course, is that years later the U.S. would use drastic measures (like supplying arms to the Contras via dealings with Iran) to try and oust Ortega from power in the ‘80s.
“Charlie Don’t Surf”
Inspired by a famous line in the movie Apocalypse Now, this is one of their catchiest, most memorable songs, especially since it’s located on side five of Sandinista!. As such, it’s a refreshing jolt of pop energy in the middle of some of the most experimental and challenging music they ever made.
“Ghetto Defendant”
This one features ALLEN GINSBERG reciting lines about slamdancing and other punk dances to start off the song. Overall, it’s one of their finest reggae-influenced numbers and one of the many highlights of the underrated Combat Rock.
“Inoculated City”
The original version of this song used a sample from a 2000 Flushes (a toilet bowl cleaner) commercial. When the company threatened to sue, the sample was pulled, but later restored on the most recent CD remaster. Regardless, this song is a terrific ‘60s pop influenced number and as such, stands out amongst the mostly world music-influenced songs on here.
“One More Time”
In addition to being yet another great reggae-influenced track on Sandinista!, this song was covered memorably by THE FIERY FURNACES a few years back on a two-part Clash covers compilation given away with an issue of the UK magazine Uncut. On the same CD, SPARKS rescue “We are the Clash” (from the abysmal Cut the Crap) and turn it into a song in their own brilliantly twisted style.
