An Honest Review of The Clash
May 31 '03
The Bottom Line I strongly encourage people to listen to a Clash CD with an open and honest mind. They were good but never great.
I originally wrote this as a review for the Clash's "classic" album London Calling. But one of the advisors recommended I move it here, but I am not sure how you do that so I am just going to copy and paste it here.
Just reading the pros written up by the reviewers of"The Clash" I realize how much people fall into the crowd mentality. In all the reviews everyone says the same thing, "They are so brilliant for fusing Reggae and Rock bla bla bla." They were not punk. They made good rock and roll music, but still The Clash are NOT a punk band. They talk the talk but they can't walk the walk. It's funny how Joe Strummer had such a strong political voice, such a strong message, and such a fervent stance in many racey issues. Ultimately he was not a working class man. He declared himself and his band a voice for the working class, but the truth of the matter is that Joe Strummer's father was an aristo-politician. Joe never had it tough growing up, he merely wrote about observations and everyone believes him to be this great icon because he spoke so much truth. To be honest, none of these guys would know the first thing about what the real working class had to endure, or what women and black people had to put up with.
This album London Calling is overly hyped and everyone jumps on the bandwagon and buys into the aura of The Clash. Ultimately it was them that took a $500,000 payoff from Jaguar to sell the rights to the song "London Calling" for Jag's 1999 advertising campaign. Ultimately it was The Clash who signed onto CBS Records and sold millions of records to live the better life. People are mesmorized by this band and buy into their so called greatness...but it seems like everyone is a drone. If you sat back and listened on your own you would realize the mediocrity of their music and the insincerety of the message painted. The Clash were fake, just a fad. Years later Joe Strummer sat back and called his years with The Clash nothing more than a phase. Years later Steve Ignorant, Penny Rimbaud, Eve Libertine and the rest of the members of Crass continue to promote Anarchy and Peace. They continue to live in their commune, The Dial House, in England. Strummer passed away, but he lived in an upper middle class area in England, the location slips my mind right now, but let's just say he wasn't in need of a strict budget to maintain his wealth. I hate to throw out the word sellout, but I will throw out the word insincere and fake. It's only a shame that they couldn't continue to live up to the standards they themselves set so long ago.
Everytime I hear people praise the Clash I think of some great Crass lyrics...
"CBS Promote The Clash, Ain't For Revolution it's just for Cash. Punk's become a fashion like hippie used to be, ain't got a thing to do with you or me."
"They said that we were trash, well the name is Crass NOT Clash. They can stuff their punk credentials, it's them that take the cash."
Punk-Is-Dead.
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lasersting
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