The Clash (U.S. Version, Original Recording Reissued, Original Recording Remastered)

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The Clash

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First, there is absolutely no question that the UK version of this album is the more powerful version of the album, and since that version is now readily available from Amazon and elsewhere, it is unquestionably the version to get. What I would like to point out, however, is that even the American version is one of the most powerful albums you will ever encounter. This album was absolutely shocking when it came out. Punk bands were supposed to be crude, inept on their instruments, undisciplined, and lacking in any political vision except unfocused anarchism. The Clash was the punk antithesis to punk. They weren't calling for anarchy; they were calling for a revolution. They were politically outraged, but they were outraged in behalf of people who were actively suffering at the hands of society. And they were clever! "Career Opportunities" was about Mick Jones brief job opening mail for the prime minister in case any were letter bombs. And unlike other punk bands, they expressed a solidarity with the racially oppressed, with incredible songs like "White Man in Hammersmith Palais," or being one of the first white band ever to employ reggae in songs like "Police and Thieves." Musically, they were far out in front of all other punk bands, playing tight, disciplined, and incredibly exhilarating songs. They were the first punk band that could be favorably compared with any other band in rock history. And unlike other bands, lead guitarist Mick Jones could actually play solos!

Not all of the decisions concerning the American version were awful. Some were, in fact, brilliant, such as adding the hyperkinetic "I Fought the Law" or the extraordinary "Complete Control," possibly my favorite Clash song (one which Greil Marcus called possible the greatest hard rock song of all time--a hyperbolic claim, but one I wouldn't argue against with much passion). The song is a masterpiece of punk rebellion. The superficial subject matter--the lack of "complete control" that the record label had promised them--becomes the jumping off point for an anthem about the passion for social and economic control of the individual. It starts off as a song about the Clash, but morphs into a song about Everyman ("This is Joe Public speaking/I'm controlled in the body, controlled in the mind"). The song encapsulates not only the Clash at their best, but the entire punk movement. The number also contains some of my all time favorite rock lyrics (spoken by Joe Strummer over some lovely guitar playing by Mick Jones): "I don't trust you/Why should you trust me?\Huh?" The song after that builds and builds in passion with Jones playing passionately over the repeating chorus. Rock music doesn't' get better than this.

Except for their last album and one or two of the compilations, there is no such animal as a bad Clash album. Any music fan should own just about everything the band did. They were not merely consistently good; they were consistently great, and their total body of work constitutes one of the great achievements in rock history. More than any other band of the punk movement, they expressed the idealistic hope for a better, more just world and the outrage of economic and societal control by forces too great to comprehend. They where, in fact, great spokesmen for the highest aspirations of the human passion for utopia.

The original Clash album was released in April 1977. It had the louder and heavier version of 'White Riot', not the lamer single version included here. It also had the rough edged melody of 'Deny', the Mick Jones tale of sex on the London Underground 'Protex Blue', a great manifesto of punk attitude 'Cheat' and Joe Strummer's rant about a bored weekend '48 Hours'. This American version includes the single 'Complete Control' released months after the original album. 'Clash City Rockers', 'Jail Guitar Doors' and 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' were all released as or on singles in 1978 and 'I Fought The Law' wasn't released until 1979, two years after the original album!! Don't get me wrong, all of these post April '77 songs are great in their rightful place, but this packaging makes this US version essentialey a compilation album. For the true Clash sound of 76-77 get the UK original.