45th anniversary review: The Clash – “The Clash”

CBS – 8 APR 1977

45 years later this album proves itself to still be vitally relevant.

There are two versions of The Clash, one released in the UK in 1977, the other released in the US in 1979. In addition to the US version having a wildly different track order and a different recording of “White Riot,” the American release removes four tracks from the original UK version and replaced them with five various singles and b-sides from 1977-1979. As an American, I grew up listening to the American version on CD. But, a year or so back I acquired an original pressing of the original British version. Both are great albums, but they are two very different albums. Hilariously, of all the songs removed for the US version, “I’m So Bored With the USA” was kept for the American release. The American version also contains my favorite Clash song , “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais,” whereas the UK version does not. But there’s something to be said about the original UK version being the original coherent statement that the band intended to make, whereas the US version was manufactured by the record label to be a more radio friendly album. It’s also hard to deny that, as strong of an opener as “Clash City Rockers” is, “Janie Jones” is the superior opening number. In fact, with the 1977 UK release being the number one purchased import in the US in 1977, one has to wonder why CBS Records had so little faith in the original version. So let’s take a look back at the OG Clash album, 1977’s The Clash. 

The aforementioned “Janie Jones” kicks off the record. Is it a bit of a cheat to put three lines of lyrics together that don’t really rhyme and just making them rhyme by adding a “whoa” at the end of each one? Admittedly, yes. But it’s such a fun little tune that you have to forgive it its flaws. “Remote Control” is one of the prettiest melodies to ever be featured in a punk song. Then we hit “I’m So Bored With the USA,” a song which I make a point to blast out of my car window every 4^th of July. It was originally conceived as “I’m So Bored With You,” a rather mean-spirited love song that Mick Jones had been working on before Joe Strummer joined the band, but once Strummer had been added he changed the song to its current title. It remains a rather funny takedown of American culture and its invasiveness into other cultures. 

“White Riot” is a song I’ve seen used in recent years by white allies to the Black Lives Matter movement, showing its surprising relevance after 45 years. “Black man got a lot of problems/ But they don’t mind throwing a brick,” Strummer snarls. “White people go to school/Where they teach you how to be thick.” If Strummer’s lyrics lack some of the poetry they would gain in later albums, they make up for it by being so perfectly universal. “London’s Burning,” the band’s take on loneliness in the big city, is somehow both specific to London and universal to all big cities. It also has some of that lyrical artistry that “White Riot” and “Janie Jones” really lack. “The wind howls through the empty blocks looking for a home/I run through the empty stone ‘cause I’m all alone!” 

I love the philosophy behind “Cheat” which basically boils down to “the world’s not fair so there’s nothing wrong with cheating to win.” “Protex Blue” is a bit of an outlier on this album. This song about getting a condom out of a condom machine in the men’s bathroom is the only song on the album to feature Jones alone on vocals without Strummer. The song was an early indication of Jones’s songwriting style and how much it differs from Strummer’s. As the years went on, Jones took on the role of co-frontman more and more, and by the end of their career all four members of the band’s core lineup (Strummer, Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon) all wrote at least one song for the band. But, as the two most common songwriters in the band, Jones and Strummer couldn’t be more different. Strummer has always favored political lyrics, while Jones, when left to his own devices, will usually write love songs. Jones and Strummer’s distinctively different styles (and, to a lesser extent, Simonon’s third style) led to the great diversity of styles heard on later Clash albums. On The Clash, though, Strummer is clearly the lead vocalist. 

“Police and Thieves,” a cover of a Junior Marvin song, was one that the band was a bit cautious about. Unsure if they were really the right ones to bring reggae music into punk, in the end the cover more or less marks the point at which punk crossed over with ska and reggae. The band would go on to produce several songs in their career with a reggae style to them. 

The Clash finds itself highly relevant in virtually every country of the world even with 45 years under its belt. There’s something very inspiring in how much the album continues to touch so many people after nearly half a century. The band’s career was sadly short-lived, with the core lineup broken up by 1983, but they evolved a lot in that time and it’s hard not to be impressed by their growth from The Clash to Combat Rock. But they aren’t a band that got good. The Clash started as a great band and just got better.