jThat then is the end of the C’s all CD albums I own, it’s not, I have a fair old selection downstairs but it will be some time before I see them so as far as the C’s are concerned. Richard Dunn.
It was nothing like the slog the B’s were, the most of a single artist that I encountered was JC, by the way his new album is utterly marvellous, very much a down beat album, beautiful and his voice is quite controlled. Where was I, oh yes, just Cash really and The Cramps but what of the best, what were the best C’s?
Orange Blossom special by Johnny Cash
Whilst we have Johnny Cash in mind, it was a close run thing between his compilation God and his album, Orange Blossom Special, in the end without a pause it was Orange Blossom Special. Admittedly of late I have been giving more play to Ride This Train but of all the Cash albums I poured words over, Orange Blossom special hit all the right notes, perfectly, and completely.
Was it the best C? I am still writing, ease up there a second.
Of the best C’s we also had two Clash albums, two perfect in every way easily ten out of tens in The Clash and London Calling. Genre defining and at the same time not tied to a genre, something special this way comes in both albums.
Career Opportunities by The Clash
And then there is Gene Clarks White Light, and that for my money was the best C. An album that I come back to time and time again and improves with every listen. All the C 10’s were great in their own way and any other day I may well have put Camera Obscura’s Lets Get Out Of This Country, but no, today it is Gene Clark that is the best C.
This is where I would post a video of a track but it seems all of Gene Clarks White Light tracks aren’t embeddable.
Showing posts with label The Clash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Clash. Show all posts
Friday, 19 March 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
The Clash
A bona fide classic today in the self titled Clash debut, The Clash.
I say this undramatically but what a stunning album, even if it was a dreadful album 2 songs part way through are the best two back to back songs bar none, name two songs on an album that follow each other that are better than White Riot and White Man In Hammersmith Palais. As I wheeled through Staffordshire in the Spring sunshine with each and every track I wanted to wind down the window, attract the attention of the BMW driver to my right and say this is fucking ace this is. I didn’t but by god I hammered away at my steering wheel bongos.
You know already if this is a good album, its not an obscure oddity, this is musical revolution (with guitars) from the opening Who strokes to the closing dig at Charles Shaar Murray, its not a good, great or excellent album it is ground breaking, a head of its time, undated and rare. Its a classic in every sense of the word and if there is a hole in your CD, tape or vinyl collection where this should be, I am not disappointed, I pity you.
This album takes music to a better place, it kicks open the doors and says here you go try some of this, yes sir you can still boogie, but the beat was a little different.
I saw Joe Strummer and his band The Mescaleros perform White Man In Hammersmith Palais before he died, my wife thinks it was one of the happiest I have ever been in my life. She wasn’t wrong.
The album is just wonderful, no low point, no filler, nothing out of place, nothing bad. 10 out of 10, and if you went back to all the other 10 out of 10’s they would be 9’s compared to this. Stunning.
White Man In Hammersmith Palais by The Clash
I say this undramatically but what a stunning album, even if it was a dreadful album 2 songs part way through are the best two back to back songs bar none, name two songs on an album that follow each other that are better than White Riot and White Man In Hammersmith Palais. As I wheeled through Staffordshire in the Spring sunshine with each and every track I wanted to wind down the window, attract the attention of the BMW driver to my right and say this is fucking ace this is. I didn’t but by god I hammered away at my steering wheel bongos.
You know already if this is a good album, its not an obscure oddity, this is musical revolution (with guitars) from the opening Who strokes to the closing dig at Charles Shaar Murray, its not a good, great or excellent album it is ground breaking, a head of its time, undated and rare. Its a classic in every sense of the word and if there is a hole in your CD, tape or vinyl collection where this should be, I am not disappointed, I pity you.
This album takes music to a better place, it kicks open the doors and says here you go try some of this, yes sir you can still boogie, but the beat was a little different.
I saw Joe Strummer and his band The Mescaleros perform White Man In Hammersmith Palais before he died, my wife thinks it was one of the happiest I have ever been in my life. She wasn’t wrong.
The album is just wonderful, no low point, no filler, nothing out of place, nothing bad. 10 out of 10, and if you went back to all the other 10 out of 10’s they would be 9’s compared to this. Stunning.
White Man In Hammersmith Palais by The Clash
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Give em' Enough Rope Review
John Mellor, Michael Jones, Nicholas Headon and Paul Gustave Simonon were todays commute music makers, or The Clash to me and you and their second album, Give Em Enough Rope.
The Clash are the greatest Rock n Roll band on the planet (after Tenacious D) and this their second album confirmed it for most. Universally liked by critics and fans alike it is an album that has stood the test of time. I think its OK, not that great and maybe my 4th favourite Clash album.
You see its got filler on it, and The Clash should not do filler on a single album, there isn’t any filler on double albums so why is there on a single? This filler is fair though and the good tracks are great, but where is the Career opportunities though, or the White Man in Hammersmith? Possibly still Hammersmith’s Palais.
It does have Tommy Gun, it does have Safe European Home and more but somehow these left me unfulfilled, The Clash are one of my very favourite bands, and I guess this isn’t Cut The Crap, thank heavens for that, but it’s just not right. 6 out of 10.
Stay Free by The Clash
The Clash are the greatest Rock n Roll band on the planet (after Tenacious D) and this their second album confirmed it for most. Universally liked by critics and fans alike it is an album that has stood the test of time. I think its OK, not that great and maybe my 4th favourite Clash album.
You see its got filler on it, and The Clash should not do filler on a single album, there isn’t any filler on double albums so why is there on a single? This filler is fair though and the good tracks are great, but where is the Career opportunities though, or the White Man in Hammersmith? Possibly still Hammersmith’s Palais.
It does have Tommy Gun, it does have Safe European Home and more but somehow these left me unfulfilled, The Clash are one of my very favourite bands, and I guess this isn’t Cut The Crap, thank heavens for that, but it’s just not right. 6 out of 10.
Stay Free by The Clash
Monday, 23 November 2009
London Calling
Not a commute as such, more a trip to the parents in Telford to collect a book. Same thing though, the next loosely alphabeticised CD album was The Clash's third album, London Calling.
London Calling is one of my very favourite albums. The Clash as a youngster didn't even feature in my life, no one I knew liked them, I never heard them, I knew very very few songs by them and it was only until I was 18 or 19 I heard anything by them, the friend that first played me Husker Du and The Wedding Present also played me London Calling. I was smitten from then on in.
London Calling is a non punk record by a punk band. Its the sound of a band leaving those roots behind, expanding their sound or going the route that so many punk bands had gone prior to 1979, the year of this albums release.
The use of horns, flirtations with ska and reggae, blues and garage rock are what made The Clash better than all of their contemporaries, their willingness to allow a pop tune to break through is non more evident than it is on this album.
In Wrong Em Boyo they take Stagger Lee and and meld it into the Clive Alphonso song, it moves along at a bouncy old pace and its not just Wrong Em Boyo that embraces the music of the west indies, Guns of Brixton's famous bassline takes you straight from Pimlico to Studio 1.
Wrong Em Boyo by The Clash
Jimmy Jazz, Lost in the Supermarket and Train In Vain up the pop quotient and do it so well, all pop music should sound like this, and although it was released 30 years ago almost to the day, it could be put out now and sound current.
Jimmy Jazz by The Clash
On Brand New Cadillac, Strummer revisits the 101ers sound, this is the blueprint for all covers of this song that came after. Do people cover this song or the original? Either way its a blistering beautiful version of a great song.
Brand New Cadillac by The Clash
As a double its faultless, a stunning album that I adore more than any other Clash album and almost more than any other album, bar a few. Its an album that should be in everyones collection, its an album that never loses its initial shine. So so good. Unsurprisingly 10 out of 10.
London Calling is one of my very favourite albums. The Clash as a youngster didn't even feature in my life, no one I knew liked them, I never heard them, I knew very very few songs by them and it was only until I was 18 or 19 I heard anything by them, the friend that first played me Husker Du and The Wedding Present also played me London Calling. I was smitten from then on in.
London Calling is a non punk record by a punk band. Its the sound of a band leaving those roots behind, expanding their sound or going the route that so many punk bands had gone prior to 1979, the year of this albums release.
The use of horns, flirtations with ska and reggae, blues and garage rock are what made The Clash better than all of their contemporaries, their willingness to allow a pop tune to break through is non more evident than it is on this album.
In Wrong Em Boyo they take Stagger Lee and and meld it into the Clive Alphonso song, it moves along at a bouncy old pace and its not just Wrong Em Boyo that embraces the music of the west indies, Guns of Brixton's famous bassline takes you straight from Pimlico to Studio 1.
Wrong Em Boyo by The Clash
Jimmy Jazz, Lost in the Supermarket and Train In Vain up the pop quotient and do it so well, all pop music should sound like this, and although it was released 30 years ago almost to the day, it could be put out now and sound current.
Jimmy Jazz by The Clash
On Brand New Cadillac, Strummer revisits the 101ers sound, this is the blueprint for all covers of this song that came after. Do people cover this song or the original? Either way its a blistering beautiful version of a great song.
Brand New Cadillac by The Clash
As a double its faultless, a stunning album that I adore more than any other Clash album and almost more than any other album, bar a few. Its an album that should be in everyones collection, its an album that never loses its initial shine. So so good. Unsurprisingly 10 out of 10.
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
A Year in Music - 1979
For reasons known only to myself (and other closet list makers) I have been putting together compilations based on particular years. This started in a round about way when, after a string of random songs on the ipod of more or less the same age, and with no hobbies or interests or friends to speak of, I decided to group some music by year, just for the sheer edge-of-seat, surf the internet / burn a cd crazy wildness of the thing.
As a starting point I chose 1979. Don't ask me why. The lists, of course, only consist of things I would listen to. There are ridiculous omissions, whole genres ignored, but they are true to the year they purport to be. Some years seem ridiculous in the amount of decent music released, while others are dusty barren tumbleweed strewn wastelands (1986 springs to mind).
My starting year, or year zero, is 1979, and there are far too many decent songs to choose from. It was year zero for Britain also, as Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister on May 4th, and nothing was ever the same again.
So, my 1979 top picks, interspersed with a couple of vids are
London Calling - The Clash
ELO - Don't Bring Me Down
AC/DC - If You Want Blood
Amii Stewart - Knock on Wood
The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Elvis Costello - Accidents will Happen
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him
Joy Division - She's Lost Control
Eddie Grant - Livin' on the Front Line
Madness - The Prince
Motorhead - Overkill
Rainbow - All Night Long
The Beat - Rankin Full Stop
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight
The Cure - Killing an Arab
The Jam - Eton Rifles
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
XTC - Making plans for Nigel
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