The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope

Give ‘Em Enough Rope

Best song: Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad

Worst song: Stay Free

Overall grade: 4

[author’s note: it’s experiment time! My original reviews were 500-600 words but for a while now they’ve been ~1000, and so I thought I’d have a go at writing something more concise again and see how it works. May or may not become a regular thing, and if anyone has a preference for one writing style over the other, I’ll definitely take that on board.]

After such an acclaimed first effort, the Clash were always going to have some trouble here. With their second album, they strike an awkward-teenager sort of balance between the uncontrollable punk energy of the debut and the genre-boundary-ignoring lasting statement that is London Calling. It works, sometimes, and at other times it can get a little dull. The longer song form that’s found on a lot of songs here can sometimes allow for more development of musical ideas and a chance to showcase other instruments, but at other times is unnecessary and repetitive.

As on their first album, I’d say their most successful songs are the more politically-inclined ones, where Strummer really cares about what he’s singing about, and that’s why my favourites are ‘Julie’s Been Working For The Drug Squad’, the lyrically excellent ‘Safe European Home’, and ‘Tommy Gun’ with its outstanding introduction. Another thing I like about ‘Julie’s’ is the piano part, courtesy of guest musician Allen Lanier, that weaves its way through.

In contrast, I’m not a big fan of ‘Stay Free’, a slower and much more pop-oriented song that feels like it could have been written by pretty much any band. ‘Drug Stabbing Time’ is another song which I’m mostly not a big fan of, except for the awesome saxophone solo which punctuates it.

A song I find particularly interesting is ‘English Civil War’, which is a punk rearrangement of a traditional Irish tune. Joe Strummer had learnt the anti-war song as a schoolboy and came up with the idea of modernising it, which works really well and adds some variety to the album.

It’s definitely possible to notice an improvement in technical skill between the last album and this one, and that has a lot to do with new drummer Topper Headon, who was jazz trained and brings a solid and interesting backing to pretty much every song. In addition, Paul Simonon takes on a more prominent role than he had on the debut, playing some good bass lines on songs like the otherwise-unspectacular ‘Last Gang In Town’.

The other song in the mediocre middle section is ‘Guns on the Roof’, a disappointing use of the riff from the Who’s ‘I Can’t Explain’ that serves to remind you that the original was so much better. But The Clash manage a great comeback at the end of the album. The rocky ‘Cheapskates’ is excellently, passionately sung by Strummer, and anthemic ‘All The Young Punks’ makes a great closer to the album, slower than usual but still interesting, and something of a rallying call to a generation.

Overall, this second album features a fair mix of great writing and uninspired writing, and while the balance shifts enough in the direction of good songs to make it well worth owning, there’s nothing here which I’d describe as criminal to miss out on. It’s never offensively bad but it can walk the fine line between a band having fun and a band existing on automatic.

The Clash: The Clash

The Clash  (UK version)

Best song: controversially, Police & Thieves

Worst song: What’s My Name

Overall grade: 5

(again, sorry for the delays. Just one more day of school. I promise.)

You’ve probably heard of the Clash; they’re kind of a big deal. I’d heard of them before I started listening to all the 60s and 70s music that fills up most of my collection today. But just in case you still think I’m talking about the noise made when two cymbals are banged together, brief summary: the Clash were an integral part of the British punk rock movement that happened in 1977, which basically means they were big fans of the idea that anyone can start a band, not such big fans of the government, and quite vocal about both of these things. They were originally formed with the intention to be “a new band that would rival the Sex Pistols” but, of course, they would end up out-lasting the Pistols by quite a few years, as well as securing a reputation based more on the music than the shock factor, which the Pistols can’t claim. That said, I’ve never written a piece of English coursework on the Clash.

Interestingly, although Joe Strummer is by far the most well-known member of the Clash, he was actually the last to join. The band existed for quite some time without a lead singer. It wasn’t until Strummer joined that things really got off the ground, though: he has a writing credit on every song but one on this album, along with Mick Jones.

In the list of great punk debuts, this has to be right up there. It didn’t invent British punk, but  it may have given it its enduring appeal. The Clash proved from day one that they knew what they wanted to say and how they were going to say it, and the songs here are loud and punchy but also very listenable, although they never had the same pop inclinations as the Ramones. So yeah, it is very tempting to get up and headbang to these songs, and that’s definitely a lot of fun, but it’s also good to pay attention to the lyrics once in a while, especially on songs like ‘Career Opportunities’ and ‘Hate & War’, both of which offset their fast, fun beat with a meaningful and well-expressed message.

A lot of these songs do sound fairly similar, but standouts include the ridiculously catchy ‘London’s Burning’ and the angry call to action ‘White Riot’. There’s also ‘Deny’, which I think is really underrated; it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia page but in actual fact it has the best vocal and guitar interplay on the album as well as the ‘you’re such a liarrr…’ hook. The riff that opens ‘What’s My Name’ is really cool, and always makes me really excited to hear the song, but in actual fact it’s quite repetitive and annoying, in a not dissimilar way to the recent Rihanna song of the same title.

Last song of note is the closer ‘Garageland’. It’s a beautiful sentiment: a lot of fans were worried that by signing to CBS Records, the Clash would forget where they came from and become a sell-out corporate band, and this song was the band’s promise they wouldn’t lose sight of their roots. It’s especially relevant coming at the end of their first highly successful album, and its famous opening line ‘Back in the garage with my bullshit detector’ has united crowds at concert venues worldwide.

The only cover on this version of the album is reggae song ‘Police & Thieves’, and it’s extended from the original for a full six minutes. With hindsight it seems obvious, but at the time it was probably a surprising choice of song to cover, with most bands taking on more straightforward rock songs. The Clash made absolutely the right choice, though: their version is absolutely stunning. I’m generally biased against covers and it’s almost unheard of for me to pick one as best song, but here I can’t find a contender. The band have very much put their own signature on the song and each of them does a great job: Simonon’s bass line perfectly drives things along giving a simple and sparse feel, Strummer’s rough and streetwise vocals suit the subject matter and contrast with the ‘oh yeah!’ heard repeated in the background, Jones plays a clever, interesting guitar solo that breaks the song into two parts and the whole song has an odd spacious feel. It’s got enough time to really explore the controlled-anger buildup that helps make it so successful.

That aside, this is, of course, less diverse than some of the band’s later records, and in some ways they were still growing into their talents. But it’s the sound of a group of really passionate young guys writing unrestrainedly about what they believe in, and that really shows through in the music and makes the album a highly enjoyable listen.

So, I reviewed the UK version. Why? The Clash are from the UK. This version came first, it was written to be an album and it’s the album they wanted to put out. The US version is essentially just a compilation that draws very heavily from this album. That’s not to say it’s not worth a listen, though. I’d probably give it the same grade and it does have ‘I Fought The Law’ on it, which is another totally awesome cover (this band just know how to pick them, they really do.)