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GOODY TWO SHOES
2CD Deluxe Editions (Occasional Threesome), Expanded Reissues and Compilations
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"...Bullet Holes In The Cemetery Walls..."
When "The Story Of The Clash Volume 1" was originally released 29 February 1988 – even though it was a Best Of Compilation in all but name – it still felt like something of an acknowledgement of their greatness – an event even. I loved it. I had all their stuff, but I bought the bugger anyway.
Cut to the October 1999 Remastered 2CD Reissue in the same artwork and with the same tracks (just better audio) and you look at the total playing times on both CDs (49:40 minutes and 50:41 minutes) – and could argue that a bolstering-skywards was in order. They could easily have rejiggered both discs and popped on "Remote Control", "Hitsville UK", "Know Your Rights", "The Call Up" or even deep LP cuts like "Overpowered By Funk" or "Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad" or "Something About England" (plus many more). And the stingy you-will-own-nothing-and-be-glad swinehunts didn't.
But I would argue, that there is a listening precision here that I like. I hate to use the phrase 'less is more' on anything by The Clash – but mwah, mwah – I like it like that my son. I'm afraid I am working for the Clampdown. To the Spanish Bombs in Andalucía...
UK re-released October 1999 in Restored Remastered form (original was 29 February 1988, reissue uses same artwork) - "The Story Of The Clash Volume 1" by THE CLASH on Columbia 495351 2 (Barcode 5099749535121) is a 2CD 28-Track compilation that plays out as follows:
CD1 (49:40 minutes):
1. The Magnificent Seven
2. Rock The Casbah
3. This Is Radio Clash
4. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
5. Straight To Hell
6. Armagideon Time
7. Clampdown
8. Train In Vain
9. Guns Of Brixton
10. I Fought The Law
11. Somebody Got Murdered
12. Lost In The Supermarket
13. Bank Robber
NOTES on CD1:
Track 1 from the album "Sandinista!", a 3LP set released December 1980 in the UK on CBS Records FSLN 1 and Epic E3X 37037 in the USA
Tracks 2, 4 and 5 from the album "Combat Rock" - released May 1982 in the UK on CBS Records FMLN 2 and Epic FE 37689 in the USA
Track 3 is a Non-LP UK 45-single released 20 November1981 on CBS Records CBS A1797, A-side
Track 6 is a Non-LP UK 45-single released 7 December 1979 on CBS Records S CBS 8087, B-side to "London Calling" (see Track 12 on CD2 for A-side)
Tracks 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 are from the album "London Calling", a 2LP set released December 1979 in the UK on CBS Records CLASH 3. The track "Train In Vain" on the end of Side 2 was not listed on the sleeve of original copies even though it was on the album (the run-out groove gave you the name of the track). Released January 1980 in the USA on Epic E2 36328 (initial copies were the same regarding "Train In Vain")
Track 10 was on the "The Cost Of Living E.P.", a 4-Track Extended Play 45-single released 11 May 1979 on CBS Records S CBS 7324, Track 1, Side 1
CD2 (50:41 minutes):
1. (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais
2. London's Burning
3. Janie Jones
4. Tommy Gun
5. Complete Control
6. Capitol Radio
7. White Riot
8. Career Opportunities
9. Clash City Rockers
10. Safe European Home
11. Stay Free
12. London Calling
13. Spanish Bombs
14. English Civil War
15. Police & Thieves
NOTES on CD2:
Track 1 is a Non-LP UK 45-single released 16 June 1978 on CBS Records S CBS 5293, A-side
Tracks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 15 are on their debut album "The Clash" released April 1977 on CBS Records S CBS 82000 and July 1979 on Epic Records JE 36060 in the USA (with different tracks and artwork). A live version of Track 2 was also a UK 45-single released 13 May 1977 on CBS Records S CBS 6383, B-side of "Remote Control". Track 7 was also their debut UK 45-single released 18 March 1977 on CBS Records S CBS 5058, A-side. Track 9 was also a UK 45-single released 17 February 1978 on CBS Records S CBS 5834, A-side. Track 15 is a Junior Murvin cover version originally released April 1980 as a UK 45-single on Island Records WIP 6539, A-side
Tracks 4, 10, 11 and 14 are on their second album "Give 'Em Enough Rope" - released October 1978 in the UK on CBS Records S CBS 82431 and February 1979 in the USA on Epic JE 35543
Track 5 is a Non-LP UK 45-single released 23 September 1977 on CBS Records S CBS 5664, A-side (see Track 2 on CD2 for the B-side)
Track 6 was on the "The Cost Of Living E.P.", a 4-Track Extended Play 45-single released 11 May 1979 on CBS Records S CBS 7324, Track 2, Side 2
Tracks 12 and 13 are from the album "London Calling", a 2LP set released December 1979 in the UK on CBS Records CLASH 3. The track "Train In Vain" on the end of Side 2 was not listed on the sleeve of original copies even though it was on the album (the run-out groove gave you the name of the track). Released January 1980 in the USA on Epic E2 36328 (initial copies were the same regarding "Train In Vain"). Track 12 was also a UK 45-single released 7 December 1979 on CBS Records S CBS 8087, A-side (see Track 6 on CD1 for B-side "Armagideon Time")
THE CLASH was:
JOE STRUMMER – Guitar, Lead Vocals
MICK JONES – Guitar, Lead Vocals
PAUL SIMONON – Bass
TOPPER HEADON - Drums
Valet, Roadie and all-round save-them-from-themselves-and-the-British-press good guy ALBERT TRANSOME supplies the witty and brutally honest liner-notes/memories of life at the beginning with the band. There are car-shops in Camden Town whilst rehearsing three-minute wonders every day (the paint dribbles stayed on their clothes as a fashion choice) to fights with German TV Crews in Hamburg beside radiators and Hotel Carpet Replacement bills of £1,400 that chased them around for years, 350 smashed seats at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park in May 1977. There are also unsung heroes – like Alex Michon – a quiet girl who handmade all the Stage Togs. The text is peppered with suitably rebel-yell photos of our four reprobates in various I’m going-to-kill-the-chip-shop-owner for his underwhelming Saveloy supply poses. It's all very Rock 'n' Roll as you can imagine, but I can't help think that an upgraded booklet would have been better.
But
that's a by-the-by because the real meat and veg comes in new RAY STAFF, BOB WHITNEY and RAY PRICE
Remasters done at Whitfield Street Studios that rawk with a panache these recordings needed. For sure the earlier more-crudely recorded years have always felt like sonic compromises in some way and the later material subject to better Production Values, but here they have tackled both with strength and space.
It's genius really to start this CD1 listen with "The Magnificent Seven" - it's not Punk Rock, as straightjacket descriptions would have us define it - and yet it is. Coming off the splurge that was "Sandinista!" in 1980 – the count-in, the Bass Notes, the angry 'you lot – wot!' chant in the chorus – the workingman drinking his wages – vacuum cleaner sucking up Budgie – brilliant! And the Remaster is punching it out with real power when you give it some welly. Degenerate but faithful with that crazy Casbah Sound – the opener is cleverly followed with the hugely popular "Rock The Casbah" where you can bet that Sharif don't think its Kosher (he don't like it either). The echoed Reggae tinge continues with "This Is Radio Clash" – deadly exhibitions of murder in Vietnam by Napalm – the snarl of Joe Strummer lifting the tune out of parody.
Is it possible to resist "Should I Stay Or I Should I Go" – I doubt it! Armed with a fantastic Rock-Punk riff and lyrics that make you laugh and uncomfortable at the same time (don't know which clothes even fit me). If I am honest, I've always been on the shelf about "Straight To Hell" – though I will say that all that drum patting crossing your speakers with treated guitars is clearer in the Remaster. One million times better and in my Top Five Greatest B-sides evah out of hundreds of thousands with an irration in the nation - "Armagideon Time" comes storming across your speakers. Lot of people getting no supper tonight – its equally brilliant A-side "London Calling" is on CD2 (I cannot imagine how many movies about the Capitol this song has featured in).
At last we get genuine Punk brilliance - "Clampdown" riffing into your living room as the boss men at the factory tell you how lucky you are to have a job. It makes you want to race back one more time to the wonder that is the 2LP-set "London Calling". Clever sequencing now Funks it up with that double’s hidden song "Train In Vain" that ended Side 4 without announcing itself. What a fantastic song – The Clash in brilliant form. Smart sequencing too with the Big Bass almost Dub Rock of "Guns Of Brixton" – politics seeping through their every breath – those wavy guitar fills clearer too.
CD1 ends with a run of four that is surely a claim to their greatness in itself. First up is the incendiary cover of The Bobby Fuller Hit from the Sixties - "I Fought The Law" suiting their gang-of-four ethos (you and me against the world). The following two are what made me love the "London Calling" album – angry, smart, topical, mainlining the zeitgeist – barber getting coshed – but elsewhere - "Somebody Got Murdered" – someone dead forever. Perfectly winding the CD down comes two different Clash Sounds - "Lost In The Supermarket" (Joe looking for a guaranteed personality) while I can now no longer hear "Bank Robber" without thinking about Johnny Quid (played by a brilliantly deranged Toby Kebbell) in the underrated Guy Ritchie movie "RockNRolla". Daddy was a Bank Robber, but he hurt nobody, he just loved to take your money. Love it!
CD2 is the genuinely PUNK disc. It opens with "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" giving it some angry British Working Class via a Jamaican Sound System - those piano and harmonica and jagged rhythms combo already showing their song-construction chops. Another smart choice comes with the bored-youth of "London's Burning" – yellow lights in the dim night offering a way forward. Love those layered vocals on "Janie Jones" and the Joe Jackson hard Bass line. Riffage and feedback come a stomping into your den with "Tommy Gun" – nutters shooting up the place just for fun. "Complete Control" is so British Punk it hurts, while the discussion about seeing The Pistols for the first time foretells what was to come for The Clash - "Capitol Radio" explaining their beginnings and history in a rough-as-it-comes interview style. It sets up the simple rip-em-up of "White Riot" – the sort of Punk Missile many felt they should have stuck with (but the band was smarter than that).
The rage against the establishment machine continues with "Career Opportunities" and "Clash City Rockers" – crude but so powerful the pair of them. The production values go through the roof for "Safe European Home" – the power of the band suddenly captured for real. But then I go into rapture when I play "Stay Free" – that fantastic riff woven into lyrics about school and smoking menthols and ignoring teachers and making plans down at The Crown & Anchor – burn it fucking down (to the annoyance of everyone). The final four revert to well-known hits – the underworld and phoney Beatlemania biting the dust in the epoch-making "London Calling" – bullet holes in the cemetery walls with "Spanish Bombs" – everyone including Johnny comes marching home in "English Civil War". It all comes to an end with a Junior Murvin cover version – the oh-yeah guns and ammunition of "Police & Thieves" – Joe Strummer worrying about the next generation.
THE CLASH were a great band – not a good one – and every fan knows why this compilation avoids even a single song from the sorry swan-song that was the "Cut The Crap" album in 1985 after they broke up. But what you do get here is a gluttony-fest – and it sounds banging...
