Shane’s Music Challenge: THE CLASH – 1982 – Combat Rock

Shane | 30 January 2014 | Reply

THE CLASH – 1982 – Combat Rock
By Shane Pinnegar

From The Damned to The Clash, you can barely imagine that these guys were both lumped into the same genre as ‘punk’. They’re both incredibly unique, different, and a million miles from the spitty Mohawk madness of The Pistols and the second and third waves of punk and OI!

The Clash were about the only UK punk band to get a foothold in America and it broke their backs – the sheer weight of touring, success, media, attention, disparity with what their fans expected of a ‘punk’ band… not to mention that however unique and creative they were in some ways, they were just as clichéd as any other rock band in acquiring a devastating myriad of debilitating drug habits, intra-band fighting, and not long after Combat Rock’s astronomical success, breakups.

The big hits are, of course Should I Stay Or Should I Go, and Rock The Casbah. BAM! Joe Strummer lost his mind and ran off and hid, the others collapsed under the weight of their own success and only one record was to follow – Cut The Crap. That’s a story for another day…

The thing about The Clash is that they outgrew their punk origins so bloody quickly it was rude to lump them in that basket from their second album on. People did though, but if they were punk they stood for all that was original and honest and creative in punk. You can do it yourself without musical training, you can make it work and explore the music in your heart and souls and capture all the energy that will produce. THAT was what punk was about to start with, and what it should have stayed about.

It didn’t matter though, how many hip hop, rap, southern American or whatever else elements they introduced into their music, The Clash were always considered a punk band and came up against some mad opposition from every corner – even from punk fans, expecting a clichéd punk show and reacting aggressively when it became obvious that’s not what Strummer, Jones, Simonen and, by this stage, Terry Chimes, had on offer.

Best bits: The Clash will always be remembered in the mainstream for Should I Stay… and Rock The Casbah. Nothing wrong with that, they’re great songs, but don’t overlook the cutting punk politics of Know Your Rights or Straight To Hell.

8/10