And now onto the topic of one of the greatest albums of all time, London Calling by The Clash. Now this is not only my opinion, because according to Wikipedia (The Source of all knowledge) It has been given either 5 Stars out of 5, 10 Stars out of 10 or A+ by almost every major music publication EVER and was rated Best Album of the 80's TWICE! Even though it was released in 1979... There are many many many other awards and accolades it has claimed over the years but I feel that it is being forgotten, especially by people of my generation. And so I am here, doing my civic duty reminding you all of this great album.
The Album starts of with the classic, London Calling. A funky, Ska-esque guitar sound playing the simple 2 Chord intro/main riff accompanied by an on time 1,2,3,4 Drum beat starts off the song. This builds up with a sliding bass part. The verse starts with apparently post-apocalyptic themed lyrics about the fall of London. If you look at this song as a whole, it isn't a musical masterpiece and it hasn't really done anything very special. But There's something about it. I would definitely put it as one of the best songs of all time, I love this song, but I have absolutely no idea why?
Track 3, Jimmy Jazz, is definitely my favourite song on the album. It's very chilled, the lyrics are kinda violent at times, but that's how I like my "chill out" music, Violent. A clean guitar with, I think, a flanger (Don't quote me.) begins the song and it is then joined by a happy whistled tune. I love how the first two lines are kinda slurred "The Police Walk in for Jimmy Jazz, I say He ain't here but he sure went by." this makes it sound like he's in a bar. Come to think of it, the whole song is kinda slurred really. Even the instruments.
Track 5, Rudie Can't Fail, is a happy song with almost a reggae feel. I am NOT saying this song is in any way but it just has that vibe. I love the brass section on this song especially. It features in most of the songs on the album but I really like how they are used in this song. The song is very layed back and chilled out. In fact almost the entire album is very layed back and chilled. I can't help but smile or jump around pretending I can dance when I listen to this album, but this song especially.
Track 6, Spanish Bombs, is probably my second favourite song on this album, but it's hard to judge really. There are so many great songs on this album. There's something about the vocals of this song that make it so brilliant. Even though the lyrics are kinda inaudible, I love the vocals. Almost uplifting somehow.
If I were to give a mention to every song on this album, I think I would start repeating myself. Because the whole album makes me happy, bubbly, smile or perhaps some other positive adjective you may relate to. There is however one thing that bothers me and no matter how much I think about it, it still puzzles me. This album is classified as punk. Not Pop-Punk, not Punk-Rock or any other variation of punk. It's classified as punk and this album came out at the height of the punk revolution no less. So surely there must have been some complaining by the hardcore punks at the time demanding it's genre to be changed. Because if you listen to the proper Punk of that time, ie. The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys. They are much heavier and angrier than this. And yet, The Clash still happily label this album as Punk and no-one tried to stop them.
But here's my opinion. I think that even though this wasn't angry, loud and heavy. The Punks still liked it. I think they had a soft spot for this album and even the hardcore punks where proud to associate themselves this this album. Oh those softies!
This is definitely an album that everyone should own. It is a timeless classic album.
Here's a link to London Calling and Jimmy Jazz on YouTube.
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And so I'll give you guys another recommendation next week Wednesday, so until then, Turn Up the Volume and Plug in Your Head.
Xtian Zzyzx
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