Tuesday, January 17, 2012: TWOfer Tuesday - The "London Calling Is The Greatest Rock Album Ever Made" Edition

Bands are curious things. If you've ever been in one you know this. There comes a time when you look around you, at your bandmates, your equipment, probably the empty club you are playing in and then suddenly, in one moment, you clearly understand that Talking Heads lyric:

"You may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?" Then you may say to yourself, "MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

So, there was a time in my life when I was playing bass in a couple of bands. Eventually, I too got to that point described above, so I decided to start reading musical biographies.  Any biography of musical figures I could get a hold of. I was really trying to get inspiration and insight about music, equipment, performing and any insider knowledge about the music business I could find. But mostly I curious about bands. How do they form, how do they function, why do they break up.

One of the most peculiar books I came across was "Last Gang in Town: The Story and Myth of the Clash" by Marcus Gray. Recently, he has written an updated version with a lot more info, however this was the one that was available in my local library at that time.

Now let me confess something, gentle reader. This might seem quite shocking coming from a purveyor of supposed "cool" music, but I've never really been that into The Clash. I mean, I "appreciate" them and all, and their impact on music and culture and whatnot. However in my life, I can count very few times when looking for music I've thought, "Man, I need to hear some Clash!". And probably one of the reasons for this is that I never really bought into these guys as musical cum political revolutionaries. It all smelled overcooked. So, when I picked up Mr Gray's book, I was glad to see that I was not alone, and was looking forward to reading an opinion antithetical from the usual hagiographies that one encounters about the Sacred Clash.

Which is exactly what I got. To a fault. This became one of the most relentlessly negative books I think I have ever read. I was certainly happy to have the Clash taken down a notch or two, but halfway through even I was saying, "Aw, c'mon, give 'em a break, will ya"?

See, the thing about it was this: you really came away knowing that The Clash had let the author down. This guy had bought into the hype and the myth so heavily, and somewhere, somehow, he finally saw The Clash for who they truly were - just some guys in a band making music. After all the albums and all the posters and all the t-shirts and all the political sermonizing about Revolución, these were just guys who played music together in a band. And, boy, did the author have an axe to grind about that.

What he should have done, instead of venting out his frustration on the page, was thrown away all the Clash posters, t-shirts and all the Clash albums...save one.

London Calling.

London Calling is the real deal. London Calling will not let you down. London Calling not only lives up to the hype, it squares right up to the hype, looks it straight into its eyes and then kicks the hype's scrawny ass all the way down the street.

Out of 500 selections for Greatest Album Ever, Rolling Stone has London Calling at #8. Rolling Stone are idiots. But, if you read this blog, you already know this.

You want punk? Ska-reggae? R&B? Rockabilly? Jazz? Ok, well, Jimmy Jazz is soft, pseudo-jazz, but it's a heck of a lot more than their peers were doing at the time.

You want hope? Fear? Joy? Agnst? Social commentary?  Just a couple of good time songs?  You say you want a revolución? This album delivers.

London Calling is the rarest of rare creatures - it is both of its time and timeless. Put on Sgt Pepper (RS's choice for #1 album ever) and you can hear a great album, no question, but there are cracks in the foundation there. That album is showing its age. Put on Train In Vain, or Rudy Can't Fail, or any number of tracks from LC, they they sound like they could have been written and recorded yesterday. Or tomorrow.

You can hear something new every time you listen through these tracks. You make some connection, you see some different level of meaning that you didn't catch before.

There are very, very few albums that hold up that well, for that many rotations, for that long of time. Yes, Sgt. Pepper. Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde. Maybe Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.

But none of those have the visceral impact of London Calling. Those albums are cool. This album is heavy and cool.

London Calling is the best album of all time. But don't take my word for it.

Listen for yourself.