"Train in Vain" by the Clash was playing on the radio when it went off this a.m....
And I remembered when I first heard it, how I immediately became Cool. It was as if nothing had existed before that moment, and that everything would change.
It did. I left adolescence behind...
The Clash brough a new sound to the U.S.--they brought back a hard-driving rock-and-roll sound (a sound we'd almost forgot about with disco and soft rock) with their own songs and amp'd up roots anthems like "I Fought the Law."
Were they better than the Sex Pistols? The Pistols were in the face of the Establishment in a way that was totally different from the Hippieness of the 60's. So it's kind of unfair to compare the two, actually. The Clash ended up having more stayng power though (although John Lydon did quite well--and was fantastic--as the frontman of P.I.L.)
There was nothing sissy or emo about The Clash though. There was no "bitches and hoes" in Clash songs. There were crappy relationships and politics. Lots of politics ("Rock the Casbah" and most of "Sandanista.")
The Clash made you dance. But they made you think, too. The Clash reminded everyone that the Hippie days were over and if you were a young person, you had to make your own sound and your own statement and that there was still an Establishment to fight (that is, before we would get older and want to become the Establishment--it's just part of getting older...)
Joe Strummer died in '02 at the ripe old age of 50. The half-century point is a good age to die. Sure, he had more to give, but he certainly fulfilled his Potential (unlike Kurt Cobain--who died too young...) and left behind some great music...
that made some great memories for some of us...
(oh, and check out this UK book...)
And I remembered when I first heard it, how I immediately became Cool. It was as if nothing had existed before that moment, and that everything would change.
It did. I left adolescence behind...
The Clash brough a new sound to the U.S.--they brought back a hard-driving rock-and-roll sound (a sound we'd almost forgot about with disco and soft rock) with their own songs and amp'd up roots anthems like "I Fought the Law."
Were they better than the Sex Pistols? The Pistols were in the face of the Establishment in a way that was totally different from the Hippieness of the 60's. So it's kind of unfair to compare the two, actually. The Clash ended up having more stayng power though (although John Lydon did quite well--and was fantastic--as the frontman of P.I.L.)
There was nothing sissy or emo about The Clash though. There was no "bitches and hoes" in Clash songs. There were crappy relationships and politics. Lots of politics ("Rock the Casbah" and most of "Sandanista.")
The Clash made you dance. But they made you think, too. The Clash reminded everyone that the Hippie days were over and if you were a young person, you had to make your own sound and your own statement and that there was still an Establishment to fight (that is, before we would get older and want to become the Establishment--it's just part of getting older...)
Joe Strummer died in '02 at the ripe old age of 50. The half-century point is a good age to die. Sure, he had more to give, but he certainly fulfilled his Potential (unlike Kurt Cobain--who died too young...) and left behind some great music...
that made some great memories for some of us...
(oh, and check out this UK book...)
posted by Tish Grier at 7:29 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Tish! :)
I agree - no comparison between the Sex Pistols and the Clash. I like them both, but for very different reasons... As a kid, I romanticized that whole "Sid and Nancy" thing....but with the Clash, I loved their lyricism - even as a kid I thought they were "deep".
Hey Rebecca :-)
Weidly, elements of the "Sid and Nancy" relationship were in my first marriage--that movie really made me cry...
but, yes, the Clash didn't need to rely on that level of tragedy. and the way they thought/wrote about most political things wasn't as Anglo-centric as the Pistol's stuff (although "God Save the Queen" is still an amazing song in so many ways--and John Lydon did some of the most scathing pop culture commentary with P.I.L.)
hate to say it, but I'm just not seeing that kind of stuff these days. Even colllege radio isn't what it used to be.
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