London Calling - Clash (The) > Reviews > Put London's call on hold

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	The first half
Disadvantages:	Most of the second half

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

London Calling has been called a number of things over the years. The best Clash album, the best punk album, the best album of the 80s, the best album of the 70s (it was released in the UK the last week of 1979, the USA in the first week of 1980) are the ones that stick out most. Personally I wouldn't say it was any of the above.

Up until recently, I would have automatically lashed out five stars for it. Up until I copied it to Minidisc. You see, my sister's minidisk player only marks a new track automatically when there is a pause of 2 seconds, meaning you usually have to sit through a whole album manually marking tracks. This means actually sitting listening to it. A similar experience changed my views of the Clash's fifth and penultimate effort, Combat Rock.

1.London Calling - the album starts of brilliantly, the title track is reminiscent of the bands earlier, harder work, and the lyrics tell a tale of post apocalypse London. Definitely one of the best tracks on the record.

2.Brand New Cadillac - This cover of the old classic keeps up the pace of the opener, and is another fave of mine. I can't help but love the way Strummer sings "Jesus Christ! Where did you get that Cadillac!"

3.Jimmy Jazz - the pace is brought to slower than slow with this track. It's a nice, easygoing track, not one of the best songs on the record, but still works well none the less.

4.Hateful - the pace picks up again with this song, about life as a junkie, from a junkie's point of view. Most famous for its reference to Sid Vicious ("this year I lost some friends")

5. Rudie can't fail - A superb track that mixes rock and reggae with a distinctive horn driven chorus. Written the year before for the movie Rude Boy, when a deal for an album of that movie's soundtrack fell through, it was put on this.

6.Spanish Bombs - a track with lyrics that tell a story of a war affecting Spain, played Spanish guitar come regular rock style, you have to love it.

7.The Right Profile - a song about the actor Montgomery Clift, not a particularly good song, and a very un-Clash lyrical content, about the life of a rich famous celebrity.

8.Lost in the Supermarket - a nice, if immensely downbeat story of the drab life in Britain, telling the story of a character destined to live a boring lonely life in a high rise flat. This is a classic Clash lyric, played to the new style of music, a definite standout.

9.Clampdown - another of the album's best songs, and sticking to the band's lyrical roots as a punk act, with words about not becoming part of the 'grown up' world of faceless workers. The music is also interesting, with a high whiff of military march coming from it.

10. The Guns of Brixton - Paul Simonon's first song is possibly my favourite on the album. A sort of menacing reggae song, all focussed around Paul's bassline, which began life as what he played to warm up. The lyrics, as sung by Simonon, in his blatantly not made for singing voice, tell a tale of South London tension between police and gangsters. Its probably the only track on the record that can claim to have the same, raw menace of the Clash's first record.

11.Wrong Em Boyo - Another cover version, an upbeat number, which one German punk claimed his gran used to like, not a bad track, but after the three previous, you can't help but feel slightly underwhelmed.

12.Death or Glory - a song mainly about those claiming they would die young, main focus on Rock stars who previously took the out with the old, in with the new attitude and trying to spin it from a mutual perspective. It's often seen as the band going back on their previous beliefs, this strengthened by the size of venues they played afterwards.

13.Koka Kola - this tribute to the advertising world is actually quite a nice little tune, little in that it registers in under two minutes.

14. The Card Cheat - a piano driven track, which tells the tales of a card cheat who just got rumbled. It is quite ambitious for the band, with pianos and horns along with their usual instruments, but I just cant get into it at all.

15.Lovers Rock - a slow song, and definitely one of the worst on the record. It's generic, and should have been a B-Side at best.

16. Four Horsemen - I hate to say this, but see above.

17. I'm not down - It picks up again here, with a musical cry of defiance. The song is probably made better by what it is surrounded by.

18.Revolution Rock - another rather drab track, it is a bit better than Lovers Rock or Four Horsemen, thanks to the horns though.

19.Train in Vain - pure Mick Jones is this track. It's also where the Clash first made a blatantly pop song, with nice, if pretty poor for the band, standard of lyrics. It's a simple angry at ex girlfriend song, but the catchy, rather brilliant tune is what salvages it.

The thing that irks me about the record, is that it has such a brilliant first half, then just shoots straight downhill from there onwards, only occasionally recapturing the greatness.
The fact that the band went to so much trouble to ensure that it was a double album makes this slightly amusing. It got them further into the catastrophic debt to the record company they were already in. you see, the band recorded so much material that it would have to go onto two vinyl records, still trying to be working class heroes, and after Joe Strummer wrote a letter to British music rag the NME proclaiming that there would not be a six quid clash record, ever, wanted the record to be sold at the price of a single record. After CBS told them to take a jump, they asked if they could include a free EP with the album, like CBS had done with the US version of the original record, seeing no reason why not, the band flung the rest of the songs on this 'EP'. Admitting defeat, the double album at single price was released.

I can't help but feel that they went to a lot of trouble for nothing, seeing as most of the second half of the record could easily have been released as b-sides.

Speaking of B-sides, the band's cover of Armagideon Time, a B-Side to the album's title track, is actually much better than most of the songs on the record. The same goes for the single only release Bankrobber.

London Calling was essentially the Clash abandoning punk, and transforming into a plain old rock act, this is something that they wouldn't even properly accomplish until 1982's Combat Rock. It was also really the beginning of the end for the band. Road manager Johnny Green departed after this album, it was the first where Mick started to produce, something that led to the big fall out that destroyed the band.

Much is made of Producer Guy Steven's work on the album, but if you read up on the production of the record, it becomes clear that Mick was actually responsible for a lot more of the album's production than he gets any credit for. Stevens was fighting alcoholism at the time, and while there is no doubt his influence was felt on the album, this is the beginning of the shift in power towards Mick.

At the end of the day, London Calling is by all means a good album, and is worth owning. But I cant help with sympathise with Nirvana fans who have to put up with Nevermind being the only album from the band that gets attention, despite many of their fans not seeing it as their favourite.
London Calling is without a doubt the Clash at the point where they are most accessible to a lot of listeners, without the possibly off putting Anger of the first record, or the slightly overly experimental reggae dub sound of Sandinista!.

If you aren't a particular fan of the band, or are just looking to get into them, London Calling is probably the best place to start.

But as it is, London Calling isn't by any stretch of the imagination even my second favourite Clash record. What I cant deny its moment of glory is the front cover, which was actually voted the best record sleeve ever. It features Paul Simonon (while its often credited to Joe Strummer, but seeing as everything clash related is often unrightly credited to him that's no surprise), with bass about to meet its end. I actually own a T-Shirt of this I like it so much, its just a shame I cant say the same for the album.

While I may sound like I hate the record, I don't. At all. London Calling is a really good record, the kind that all bands dream of making. It just isn't this band's best. The fact that only three tracks from it made the Live Clash record tells you something. While only three made it from Combat Rock and only one from Sandinista!, those were songs a bit too complicated and full of effects to ever hope for from a live 4 piece band. The songs on LC aren't, the band just clearly recognised it wasn't their best.

I still recommend everyone buys this album, but just don't write the band off if you don't like it. There other albums really aren't anything like this.

I hate the phrase Over-Rated, but cant help but feel it applies to this. A really good record, but not a great one. A really good rock and roll album, but not a punk one.