The Clash

The Clash were an English rock ^{Rock music} band ^{Musical ensemble} that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk rock. Along with punk, they experimented with reggae, ska, dub ^{Dub music} , funk, rap ^{Hip hop music} , dance ^{Dance music} and rockabilly. For most of their recording career, The Clash consisted of Joe Strummer (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mick Jones ^{Mick Jones (The Clash)} (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Simonon (bass, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals) and Nicky "Topper" Headon ^{Topper Headon} (drums, percussion). Headon left the group in 1982, and internal friction led to Jones's departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.

The Clash were a major success in the UK from the release of their debut album, The Clash ^{The Clash (album)} , in 1977. Their third album, London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979, brought them popularity in the United States when it came out there the following month. Critically acclaimed, it was declared the best album of the 1980s a decade later by Rolling Stone magazine.

The Clash's politicised lyrics, musical experimentation and rebellious attitude had a far-reaching influence on rock, alternative rock in particular. They became widely referred to as "The Only Band That Matters", originally a promotional slogan introduced by the group's record label, CBS ^{Columbia Records} . In January 2003 the band—including original drummer Terry Chimes—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash number 30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

 
Origins: 1974–1976

Before The Clash's founding, the band's future members were active in different parts of the London music scene. John Graham Mellor ^{Joe Strummer} sang and played rhythm guitar in the pub rock ^{Pub rock (UK)} act The 101'ers ^{The 101ers} , which formed in 1974. By the time The Clash came together two years later, he had already abandoned his original stage name, "Woody" Mellor, in favour of "Joe Strummer", a reference to his rudimentary strumming skills on the ukulele as a busker ^Busking in the London Underground. Mick Jones ^{Mick Jones (The Clash)} played guitar in legendary protopunk band London SS, which rehearsed for much of 1975 without ever playing a live show and recording only a single demo. London SS was managed by Bernard Rhodes, a sometime associate of impresario Malcolm McLaren and a friend of the band McLaren managed, the *** Pistols. Jones and his bandmates became friendly with *** Pistols Glen Matlock and Steve Jones ^{Steve Jones (musician)} , who would assist them as they tried out potential new members. Among those who auditioned for London SS without making the cut were Paul Simonon, who tried out as a vocalist, and drummer Terry Chimes. Nicky Headon ^{Topper Headon} drummed with the band for a week, then quit.

After London SS broke up in early 1976, Rhodes continued as Jones's manager. In February, Jones saw the *** Pistols perform for the first time: "You knew straight away that was it, and this was what it was going to be like from now on. It was a new scene, new values—so different from what had happened before. A bit dangerous." At the instigation of Rhodes, Jones contacted Simonon in March, suggesting he learn an instrument so he could join the new band Jones was organising. In late May, Chimes was asked to audition and became the band's full-time drummer.

The act was still searching for a lead singer. Chimes recalls one Billy Watts (who "seemed to be, like, nineteen or eighteen then, as we all were") handling the duties for a time. Rhodes had his eye on Strummer, with whom he made exploratory contact. Jones and Levene had both seen him perform and were impressed as well. Strummer, for his part, was primed to make the switch. In April, he had taken in the opening act for one of his band's gigs. That act was the *** Pistols. "I knew something was up," Strummer later explained,

so I went out in the crowd which was fairly sparse. And I saw the future—with a snotty handkerchief—right in front of me. It was immediately clear. Pub rock was, "Hello, you bunch of drunks, I'm gonna play these boogies and I hope you like them." The Pistols came out that Tuesday evening and their attitude was "Here's our tunes, and we couldn't give a flying *** whether you like them or not. In fact, we're gonna play them even if you *** hate them."

On 30 May, Rhodes and Levene met surreptitiously with Strummer after a 101'ers gig. Rhodes gave him 48 hours to make up his mind whether he wanted to join the new band that would "rival the Pistols". When Rhodes rang him up a day early, demanding an immediate answer, Strummer agreed. Simonon later remarked, "Once we had Joe on board it all started to come together." He later explained the name's origin: "It really came to my head when I started reading the newspapers and a word that kept recurring was the word 'clash', so I thought 'The Clash, what about that,' to the others. And they and Bernard, they went for it." Levene was becoming disaffected with his position in the group. At the Black Swan, he approached the *** Pistols' lead singer, John Lydon (then going by Johnny Rotten), and suggested they get a band together if the Pistols ever broke up.

The night after their debut, the band members along with most of the *** Pistols and much of the rest of London's "inner circle" of punks showed up at Dingwalls club to attend a concert by New York's leading punk rock band, the Ramones. Afterward "came the first example of the rivalry-induced squabbling that was to dog the punk scene and undermine any attempts to promote a spirit of unity among the bands involved." Simonon got into a scuffle with J.J. Burnel, the bass player of The Stranglers. A slightly older band, The Stranglers were publicly identified with the punk scene, but were not part of the "inner circle" centered on the *** Pistols. Sometimes they would meet in the office over their Camden ^{Camden Town} rehearsal studio to collaborate directly. Strummer took the lead vocals on the majority of songs; in some cases he and Jones shared the lead. Once the band began recording, Jones would rarely have a solo lead on more than one song per album, but he would wind up responsible for two of the group's biggest hits. On 13 August, The Clash—sporting an impressive, paint-spattered "Jackson Pollock" look—played before a small, invitation-only audience in their Camden studio. Among those in attendance was Sounds ^{Sounds (magazine)} critic Giovanni Dadamo. His review described the band as a "runaway train...so powerful, they're the first new group to come along who can really scare the *** Pistols shitless".

On 29 August, The Clash and Manchester's Buzzcocks opened for the *** Pistols at the Screen on the Green—The Clash's first public performance since 4 July. The triple bill is seen as pivotal to the British punk scene's crystallization into a movement. In early September, Levene was kicked out of The Clash. Strummer would claim that Levene's dwindling interest in the band owed to his supposedly abundant use of speed, a charge Levene has denied. (Levene and Lydon would form Public Image Ltd. in 1978.) On 21 September, The Clash performed publicly for the first time without Levene at another seminal concert: the 100 Club Punk Festival, sharing the bill with the *** Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Subway Sect. Chimes left in late November; he was briefly replaced by Rob Harper as The Clash toured in support of the *** Pistols during December's Anarchy Tour.


Debut album and Give 'Em Enough Rope: 1977–1979

By the turn of the year, punk had become a major media phenomenon in the UK. On 25 January 1977, The Clash signed to CBS Records ^{Columbia Records} for £100,000, a remarkable amount for a band that had played a total of about thirty gigs and almost none as a headliner. As Clash historian Marcus Gray describes, the "band members found themselves having to justify [the deal] to both the music press and to fans who picked up on the critics' muttered asides about The Clash having 'sold out' to the establishment." Mark Perry ^{Mark Perry (musician)} , founder of the leading London punk periodical, Sniffin' Glue, let loose with what he would later call his "big quote": "Punk died the day The Clash signed to CBS." As one band associate described it, the deal "was later used as a classic example of the kind of contract that no group should ever sign—the group had to pay for their own tours, recordings, remixes, artwork, expenses...."

Mickey Foote, who worked as a technician at their concerts, was hired to produce The Clash's debut album, and Terry Chimes was drafted back for the recording. The band's first single, "White Riot", was released in March 1977; the album, The Clash ^{The Clash (album)} , came out the following month. Filled with fiery punk tracks, it also presaged the many eclectic turns the band would take with its cover of the reggae song "Police and Thieves". "[A]midst the *** Pistols' inertia in the first half of 1977, the Clash found themselves as the flag-wavers of the punk rock consciousness", according to music journalist and former punk musician John Robb ^{John Robb (musician)} . Though both the single and album charted well in the UK—"White Riot" reached number 34, The Clash number 12—CBS refused to release either in the United States, saying that the sound was not “radio friendly”. A US version of the album with a modified track listing was released in 1979, after the UK original became the best-selling import album of all time in the United States. Chimes left the band again soon after the recording, so only Simonon, Jones and Strummer were featured on the album's cover, and Chimes was credited as "Tory Crimes". In the documentary Westway to the World, Jones referred to him as one of "the best drummers around". Chimes, who had no great wish to make a career from music, said, "The point was that I wanted one kind of life—they wanted another, and why are we working together, if we want completely different things?" They finally recruited Nicky Headon, who had played briefly with Jones's London SS two years before. Headon was nicknamed "Topper" by Simonon, who felt he resembled the Topper comic book ^{Topper (comic book)} character Mickey the Monkey. An excellent musician, Headon could also play piano, bass and guitar. He originally planned to stay briefly, gain a name for himself, and then find a better band. Realising The Clash's potential, he changed his plans. Strummer later observed, "If we hadn't found Topper, I don't think we'd have got anywhere". The day after a Newcastle gig, Strummer and Headon were arrested for stealing pillowcases from their hotel room. That same month, CBS released "Remote Control ^{Remote Control (The Clash song)} " as the debut LP's second single, defying the wishes of the band, who saw it as one of the album's weakest tracks.

Headon's first recording with the band was the single "Complete Control", which addressed the band's anger at their record label's behavior. It was co-produced by famed reggae artist Lee "Scratch" Perry, but Foote was summoned to "ground things" a bit and the result was pure punk rock. Released in September 1977—NME noted how CBS allowed the group to "bait their masters"—it rose to number 28 on the British chart and has gone on to be cited as one of punk's greatest singles. In February 1978, the band came out with the single "Clash City Rockers". June saw the release of "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais", which surprised fans with its ska rhythm and arrangement.

Before The Clash began recording their second album, CBS requested that they adopt a cleaner sound than its predecessor in order to reach American audiences. Sandy Pearlman, known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult, was hired to produce the record. Although some complained about its relatively mainstream production style, Give 'Em Enough Rope received largely positive reviews upon its November release. It hit number 2 in the UK, but it was not the American breakthrough CBS had hoped for, reaching only number 128 on the Billboard ^{Billboard magazine} chart ^{Billboard charts} . The album's first UK single, the hard rocking "Tommy Gun ^{Tommy Gun (song)} ", rose to number 19, the highest chart position for a Clash single to date. In support of the album, the band undertook its first, largely successful tour of North America in February 1979.


London Calling, Sandinista! and Combat Rock: 1979–1982

In August and September 1979, The Clash recorded London Calling. Produced by Guy Stevens, who had previously worked with Mott the Hoople and others, the double album was a mix of punk rock, reggae, ska, rockabilly, traditional rock and roll and other elements possessed of an energy that had hardly flagged since the band's early days, but with greater maturity and production polish. It is regarded as one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. London Calling reached number 9 on the British chart and number 27 on the US chart. Its final track, a relatively straightforward rock and roll number sung by Mick Jones called "Train in Vain", was included at the last minute and thus did not appear in the track listing on the cover. It turned out to be their first US Top 40 hit, peaking at number 23 on the Billboard chart. In the UK, where "Train in Vain" was not released as a single, London Calling's title track ^{London Calling (song)} , stately in beat but unmistakably punk in message and tone, rose to number 11—the highest position any Clash single reached in the UK before the band's breakup. During this period, The Clash began to be regularly billed as "The Only Band That Matters". Musician Gary Lucas, then employed by CBS Records' creative services department, claims to have coined the tagline. The epithet was soon widely adopted by fans and music journalists.

The Clash planned to record and release a single every month in 1980. CBS balked at this idea, and the band came out with only one single—an original reggae tune, "Bankrobber", in August—before the December release of the 3-LP, 36-song Sandinista!. The album again reflected a broad range of musical styles, including extended dubs ^{dub music} and the first forays into rap ^{Hip hop music} by a major rock band. Produced by the band members with the participation of Jamaican reggae artist Mikey Dread, Sandinista! was their most controversial album to date, both politically and musically. Critical opinion was divided, often within individual reviews. Trouser Press's Ira Robbins described half the album as "great", half as "nonsense" and worse. In the New Rolling Stone Record Guide ^{Rolling Stone Album Guide} , Dave Marsh argued, "Sandinista! is nonsensically cluttered. Or rather seems nonsensically cluttered. One of the Clash's principal concerns...is to avoid being stereotyped." The album fared well in America, charting at number 24, even though it had no catchy single and, in the increasingly conservative environment of album-oriented rock (AOR) radio in the US, received minimal airplay. It was the band's biggest US hit ever, charting at number 8, and the video was put into heavy rotation by MTV. The band's original drummer, Terry Chimes, was brought back for the next few months. The loss of Headon, well-liked by the others, exposed the growing frictions within the band. Jones and Strummer began to feud. The band opened for The Who on a leg of their final tour in the US, playing (among other places) New York's Shea Stadium. Though The Clash continued to tour, the personal tensions were increasing. This was Jones's last appearance with the group. In September 1983, he was fired. Shortly thereafter, he became a founding member of General Public, but left that band as they were recording their first album. Jones then founded the long-lasting project Big Audio Dynamite.

Nick Sheppard, formerly of the Bristol-based Cortinas ^{The Cortinas (punk band)} , and Vince White were selected as The Clash's new guitarists. Howard continued as the drummer. The reconstituted band played its first shows in January 1984 with a batch of new material and launched into the self-financed Out of Control Tour, traveling widely over the winter and into early summer. At a striking miners' benefit show ("Scargill's Christmas Party") in December 1984, they announced that a new record would be released early in the new year.


Cut the Crap, final breakup, and aftermath: 1985–1991

The recording sessions for Cut the Crap were chaotic, with manager Bernard Rhodes and Strummer working in Munich ^{Munich, Germany} . Most of the music was played by studio musicians, with Sheppard and later White flying in to provide guitar parts. Struggling with Rhodes for control of the band, Strummer returned home. The band went on a busking tour of public spaces in cities throughout the UK, playing acoustic versions of their hits and popular cover tunes.

After a gig in Athens ^{Athens, Greece} , Strummer went to Spain to clear his mind. While he was abroad, the first single from Cut the Crap, the mournful "This Is England ^{This Is England (song)} ", was released to mostly negative reviews. "CBS had paid an advance for it so they had to put it out", Strummer later explained. "I just went, 'Well *** this', and ***ed off to the mountains of Spain to sit sobbing under a palm tree, while Bernie had to deliver a record." The single has also received retroactive praise from Q magazine ^{Q (magazine)} and others.

"This Is England", much like the rest of the album that came out later that year, had been drastically re-engineered by Rhodes, with synths and football-style chants added to Strummer's incomplete recordings. Although Howard was an adept drummer, drum machines were used for virtually all of the percussion tracks. For the remainder of his life, Strummer largely disowned the album,


Collaborations and reunions: 1999–present

In 1999, Strummer, Jones and Simonon cooperated in the compiling of the live album From Here to Eternity ^{From Here to Eternity: Live} and video documentary Westway to the World. On 7 November 2002, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that The Clash would be inducted into the Hall the following spring. On 15 November, Jones and Strummer shared the stage, performing three Clash songs during a London benefit show by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros ^{The Mescaleros} .

Simonon and Jones featured on the title track of the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach in 2010. This reunion marked the first time the performers had worked together professionally in over twenty years. They later joined the Gorillaz on tour for their "G-Club" shows in the UK.The band's music was often charged by a leftist political ideology ^{Left-wing politics} . Joe Strummer, in particular, was a committed leftist. The Clash are credited with pioneering the advocacy of radical politics in punk rock, and were famously dubbed the "Thinking Man's Yobs" by NME ^{New Musical Express} . Like many early punk bands, The Clash protested against monarchy and aristocracy. However, unlike many of their peers, The Clash rejected nihilism.

Their politics were made explicit in the lyrics of such early recordings as "White Riot", which encouraged disaffected white youths to become politically active like their black counterparts; "Career Opportunities", which addressed the alienation of low-paid, routinised jobs and discontent over the lack of alternatives; and "London's Burning", about the bleakness and boredom of life in the inner city. The scope of the band's political interests widened on later recordings. The title of Sandinista! celebrated the left-wing rebels ^{Sandinista National Liberation Front} who had recently overthrown Nicaraguan despot Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and the album was filled with songs driven by other political issues extending far beyond British shores: "Washington Bullets ^{Washington Bullets (song)} " addressed covert military operations around the globe, while the "The Call-Up" was a meditation on US draft policies. Combat Rock s "Straight to Hell" is described by scholars Simon Reynolds and Joy Press as an "around-the-world-at-war-in-five-verses guided tour of hell-zones where boy-soldiers had languished."

The band's political sentiments were reflected in their resistance to the music industry's usual profit motivations; even at their peak, tickets to shows and souvenirs were reasonably priced. These "VFM" (value for money) principles meant that they were constantly in debt to CBS, and only started to break even around 1982.In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash number 30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In the magazine's 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, "London Calling" ranked number 15, again the highest for any song by a punk band. Four other Clash songs made the list: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (228), "Train In Vain" (292), "Complete Control" (361), and "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" (430).

In John Robb's description, The Clash's debut established the "blueprint for the sound and the soul of what punk rock would be about.... The Clash were utterly inspirational, utterly positive, and they offered a million possibilities." Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers, the first major punk band from Northern Ireland, explained the record's impact:

[T]he big watershed was The Clash album—that was go out, cut your hair, stop mucking about time, y'know. Up to that point we'd still been singing about bowling down California highways. I mean, it meant nothing to me. Although The Damned and the Pistols were great, they were only exciting musically; lyrically, I couldn't really make out a lot if it.... [T]o realise that [The Clash] were actually singing about their own lives in West London was like a bolt out of the blue.

The Clash also inspired many musicians who were only loosely associated, if at all, with punk. The band's embrace of ska, reggae and England's Jamaican subculture helped provide the impetus for the 2 Tone movement that emerged amid the fallout of the punk explosion. Other musicians who began performing while The Clash were active and acknowledged their debt to the band include Billy Bragg and Aztec Camera. U2's The Edge has compared The Clash's inspirational effect to that of the Ramones—both gave young rock musicians at large the "sense that the door of possibility had swung open." He wrote, "The Clash, more than any other group, kick-started a thousand garage bands across Ireland and the U.K.... [S]eeing them perform was a life-changing experience."

In later years, The Clash's influence can be heard in American political punk bands such as Rancid ^{Rancid (band)} , Anti-Flag, Bad Religion and NOFX, as well as in the political hard rock of early Manic Street Preachers. California's Rancid, in particular, are known as "incurable Clash zealots". The title track of the band's album Indestructible ^{Indestructible (Rancid album)} proclaims, "I'll keep listening to that great Joe Strummer!" The Clash's involvement with Jamaican musical and production styles has inspired similar cross-cultural efforts by bands such as Bad Brains, Massive Attack, Sublime and No Doubt. They are credited with laying the groundwork for LCD Soundsystem's "punk-funk". Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers ranked London Calling above the work of his father, Bob Dylan, as the record that “changed his life”. Among the many latter-day British acts identified as having been inspired by The Clash are Babyshambles, The Futureheads, The Charlatans and The Arctic Monkeys. Many rock en español bands such as Todos Tus Muertos, Café Tacuba, Maldita Vecindad, Tijuana No and Attaque 77 are indebted to The Clash. Argentina's Los Fabulosos Cadillacs covered "Revolution Rock" and "The Guns of Brixton", both from London Calling, and invited Mick Jones to sing on their "Mal Bicho". The Clash's influence is similarly reflected in Paris-founded Mano Negra's politicised lyrics and fusion of musical styles.;Studio albums
* The Clash ^{The Clash (album)} (1977)
* Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978)
* London Calling (1979)
* Sandinista! (1980)
* Combat Rock (1982)
* Cut the Crap (1985)