Sunday, January 17, 2010

#8: London Calling- The Clash

Mike Natale:

Listened to: CD

Here’s where I become a little sad. It’s nostalgia time, everybody. You see, whenever I was sad, whenever the world was getting me down, I’d go on over to the Tower Records on Sunrise Highway and buy a CD in their $7.99 bin. Seriously, you would not believe how many great albums (I based my unlearned opinions on what the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albumsbook they had on their podium said) were in that bin: Blood On The Tracks, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Sticky Fingers, Blue Train. But what started it all was London Calling by The Clash. Bought with money given to me by my grandmother (who has since passed) in congratulations for my winning at the shot putt at my day-before’s track meet (in the 7th grade, before I abandoned athletics for music), this album was a game-changer for me, and I was truly convinced that this album was one of the 10 greatest albums ever.
I’ve since grown up, and learned how wrong I was. London Calling is still a great album, and is in frequent rotation on my stereo, but top 10? Really?

The powerful beating riff on the title track is what draws you on. This is one of those compositions every artist ought to wish they wrote (Hell, we know Bruce does). It’s criticism of the 70’s culture of consumption, it’s fear of nuclear holocaust, it’s howling yelps echoing down just to terrify and alert. This is truly The Clash’s finest track, and one of the bet things the punk-rock movement ever produced (and I’m a punk at heart, so I know what I’m saying here).
It’s a bit downhill from here. The darkness and power in London Calling seems to get lost in tracks like “Brand New Cadillac” and “Jimmy Jazz”. “Hateful” gets a little more fun, but maybe only because I’m a musical theatre fan, and get these images of cheap 20’s choreography set to this track. “Rudie Can’t Fail” has more of a reggae feel, which I can appreciate, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it.

“Spanish Bombs” is about the Spanish Civil War, in which millions…millions of…zzzzzzzzzzz… I’m sorry, I stopped giving a shit a while ago. These are kinda fun tracks, but nothing quite as stand out and special as London Calling at this point. “The Right Profile” gets more fun, as it opens with a guitar riff that’s unavoidably great, and lyrics I’ve never been able to decipher other than “That’s Montgomery Clift, honey!”.Yet this is still one of my favorite tracks on the album. Maybe it’s just the incorporation of brass instruments in punk rock.

Lost In The Supermarket”, a song that one of my favorites, Ben Folds, eventually covered, is one of the finest songs about the suckiness of suburban life that I’ve had the fortune to hear in my time. “I wasn’t born so much as I fell out” is a feeling I’m sure many have felt from time to time. It amazes me, though, that I so enjoy an album where the only tracks I’ll listen to on their own are this, the title, and the closer, which we’ll get to later.

The rest of the tracks, with the exception of “Guns of Brixton” are nothing that really lit me up until the last track, the 80’s bubble-gum pop-esque “Train In Vain”, a song my mother was convinced was by Wham!. Now, you may be wondering what makes this album so great if it’s so inconsistent, and not jam-packed with the hits other albums have. Well, I’ll tell you. Give it another listen. Look the diversity, the variety, the sheer scope of this album, musically and thematically. The grandiose scale this album possesses transcends punk-rock and moves into the realm of true compositional genius. Rarely has an album covered so many topics and styles, and even more rarely done them all well, if no all colossal hits. I maintain that the beginning and end tracks are the albums best, but that’s probably why they were put that way. Finally, an album not only gives us variety, but is smart enough to realize it’s own best moments.

So, do I agree that this is one of the greatest albums? Yes. Top 10? No. If it were a Top 10 of album covers, yes, but not album content. However, if you haven’t listened to this album yet, and you decide not to listen to it now, don’t read nay more of my posts, as I want nothing to do with you.

-Mike
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(Nick’s piece)
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Well, swing on by tomorrow for #468: Elton John- Elton John. And please enjoy our special piece below on album covers.

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