Top Ten Favorite Clash Tracks: Part One (1-5)
1. Death or Glory, from London Calling(1979): London Calling is my overwhelmingly favorite album from the 70s. It was like the apocalyptic death yell of the decade, released on December 14th, 1979 in the UK. And this is my favorite track from the album, an emotional song, an epic song. This song has a killer hook, a triumphant punk anthem that romanticizes the whole outcast, bar frequenting dredge of society little Britainer.
Quote:
Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world,
Ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl.
Love 'n hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands,
Hands that slap his kids around, 'cause they don't understand how,
Death or glory, becomes just another story.
Death or glory, becomes just another story.
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2. Guns of Brixton, from London Calling(1979): The absolute best bass line The Clash ever produced. And some of the best lyrics that posits a wonderful question to the listener; "When they kick out your front door, how you gonna come? With your hands on your head, or on the trigger of your gun?" Truly a violent, slightly revolutionary attitude there. The guitars, they have a reggae rhythm but sound as if they're emerging from the fiery maw of Hades.
3. London Calling, from London Calling(1979): The flagship intro to this monumental album is one of the more obvious opening tracks in the history of punk.
Of course you would write an album called
London Calling and have this as the opener. It perfectly sets the tone for the almost flawless album to come.
4. Train in Vain, from London Calling(1979): This is the perfect closing track for The Clash's magnum opus. It was originally a hidden track on the first release, an epilogue hiding in the mist. It's a song of betrayal, but it's sung in a way that allows for a light at the end of the tunnel, despite all the troubling times the singer lives in. Despite the apocalyptic death cry that London Calling is, in the end it does provide a sort of hope. The hope of breaking ties with the past and starting anew, which is certainly what the band did after London Calling was released, because it was the breakthrough that made them international rock stars. From this point forward, The Clash were the kings of Punk.
5. Lost in the Supermarket, from London Calling(1979): This song is simultaneously an ode to a lost childhood and a sad ballad about the ordered confusion of capitalism(the supermarket, the suburbs), the entire thing reeks of loneliness and better times. Past times, obviously.