1001 Albums: The Clash

#377

Album: The Clash

Artist: The Clash

Year: 1977

Length: 35:18

Genre: Punk Rock

“All across the town, all across the night
Everybody’s drivin’ with full headlight
Black or white you turn it on, or face the new religion
Everybody’s sittin’ ’round watchin’ television

London’s burnin’
(With boredom now)”

London’s Burning

Just like The Stranglers right before this one, The Clash, and specifically this album, was one I used to spin on my record player quite a bit. I remember finding it in a record store and how excited I was to finally have it as part of my collection. At that point, I already had London Calling sitting neatly in the collection, but it was really The Clash’s abrasive and aggressive debut that I really wanted to be holding in my hands. 22 year old me was incredibly excited to get home and blast this through the house (to my parents’ annoyance of course). It’s an album I enjoy enough that two months ago I got to talk about it at my monthly improv show that is based off my record collection. It was a real delight for me to do so.

Like any young guy just getting into Punk music, it made sense that The Clash would be one of my first exposures to it. They’re often hailed as one of the greatest British punk bands ever, and their debut and London Calling are often listed in top albums lists in general. I do like their debut much better than London Calling, even if their musical talents and songwriting skills are showcased much better on London Calling. The punk simplicity of this one always just made for a much more enjoyable experience for me. What can I say, I like my music fast and aggressive and my guitars crunchy and dirty and my vocals angry and passionate. What makes The Clash stand apart from a lot of their straight forward punk contemporaries is they actually knew how to play their instruments very well, which again, would heavily be seen in later albums like London Calling. And although most of the songs embody what we all know as the defining qualities of the punk genre, we do see their reggae influences start to appear on a song like “Police and Thieves”. A fun fact I recently learned about the fact that a lot of punk bands had reggae influences was that, apparently, at the venues they used to play at, reggae music would play over the speakers in between bands performing, so they were constantly exposed to that music. Pretty cool.

Of course, there has been criticisms thrown at The Clash for not truly being punk and being more of a “boy band” in a punk world, and although I feel that could be more attributed to The Sex Pistols (which I will talk about when we get there), I don’t think it fully could be said about The Clash. Sure they were a group of musicians brought together and given a bit of a makeover to fit the punk look, but the music here is full of biting commentary about UK politics and their culture that comes across as genuine that I believe these guys were pissed of at the state of their society and had something to say. A song like “Career Opportunities” still feels heavily relevant today. A take down of the lack of work available for the youth an the complete disillusionment and disdain for those that were available is something everyone of my generation still feels heavily. This may have been written in 1977 but could have easily been written in 2024. Their anger doesn’t end there though, “I’m So Bored With The USA” expresses their annoyance with the Americanisation of their country, their controversial “White Riot” was about class economics and race, and “London’s Burning” vented their frustrations about how boring everything had become.

The Clash left a large impact in the punk world and for good reason. They would become highly influential for future punk bands who tried to emulate their style, the mix of aggressive music with biting lyrics about society and politics would become a large staple of the punk genre. And regardless of that, it’s just a great album from start to finish, having what I feel is one of the best openers to an album with “Janie Jones” but also one of the strongest A-Sides to any album I’ve ever heard. The Clash are often considered one of the best in punk, and even if you might not fully agree with that, you can’t deny that it’s not well deserved on their part.

Favourite Song: Career Opportunities

-Bosco