riotmaster
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 15:00
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classic quote, and absolutely spot on
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elegant chaos
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 15:43
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Which - the "ho hum" or the other one?
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keith a
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 16:40
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Dog 3000 wrote: I think the 80's was the highpoint of what you might call "DIY rock" -- how "punk" some of it was is debatable, but I know that when I was a kid Black Flag was the ULTIMATE hardcore punk band, and The Clash was basically Rolling Stone Magazine-approved classic rock for college kids. (I think a lot of the "London 1977" punk was more about fashion anyway. The best UK "punk" records were actually made a couple years later -- Gang of Four, Wire, Joy Division . . . )
I think you've got a different interpretation of what 'punk' was to what we have over here (or what I have anyway!). I've never thought of GO4 or Joy Division were 'punk'. They were what came next.
'Punk' was effectively over by 1978, '79 at the latest. Joy Division might have come from the punk scene, but that doesn't make Closer a punk record. Were Black Flag really 'punk'? Or were they hardcore or whatever other label you'd like to use? 'Punk' means something quite specific here, and to me they're a descendant of rather than being part of it.
As for The Clash, only their first album and the odd 45 thereafter is what I'd call punk.
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elegant chaos
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 16:45
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I spoke to Mark P a little while back about this - as I'm a great believer in what was termed in the UK as "post-punk" - the era of The Raincoats, Scritti Politti, and later on, GO4 and of course that Macclesfield/Salford quartet I occasionally mention.....
Mark P termed punk as when people genuinely believed that the world could be changed - this ambition and idealism had died by the time post-punk had came along.
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keith a
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 17:44
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Rubbish.
The first Steel Pulse LP, for example, was a great record. Regardless of where it was recorded.
Judge it on its merits. Not geography.
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keith a
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 17:48
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Cod-shit?
I'm confused. Does that make them good then?
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paradox
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 29, 2008, 20:39
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I agree Keith.
Misty In Roots are great too!
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keith a
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 30, 2008, 06:22
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paradox wrote:
Misty In Roots are great too!
Yep!
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redbarchetta
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 30, 2008, 08:16
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Gotta say that I always regarded The Clash as slightly suspect, musically. Joe Strummer was a great bloke, apparently, but the toons never did it for me.
Just my tuppence worth.
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Hunter T Wolfe
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Re: The Clash. The Best band ever ?
Jul 30, 2008, 11:37
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There is no best band ever. And certainly not the Clash. This is a stoopid thread.
However, while I'm here, may I make the case for...
The Velvet Underground.
Because;
Before them, all rock music was essentially just amped-up R&B (nowt wrong with that, but y'know), give or take the odd jazz n' drugs-inspired improvisatory solo. Again, nothing wrong with that, but had the form really gone anywhere that Chuck Berry or John Coltrane hadn't already mapped out?
(by the way, on Randle P's request, I'm leaving the Beatles out of this).
The Velvet Underground changed everything, and made everything else possible.
They brought in the influence of the contemporary avant-garde, not just in music, but in literature, poetry, films and art; they brought in points of view that were non-macho, non-heterosexual even, and with Nico gave women a completely different rock role model from Joni Mitchell wispiness or Janis Joplin tomboy; they allowed a whole range of subjects to be sung about, in a straight-forward, non-sensational, but still poetic manner; they busted taboos and broke down boundaries; they introduced feedback, noise, and drones- and they looked amazing.
They made two peerless, ground-breaking LPs with John Cale, and 2 not quite as radical but still great in terms of songwriting and performance, LPs without; at least one out-takes album (VU) that outshines most bands entire official canon; and one of the best live albums ever.
And all the members still say they never realised their full potential!
Without the Velvets, no glam, no punk, no post-punk, no krautrock, no indie, no goth. No Iggy, no Bowie, no Can, no Joy Division, no Smiths, no Sisters of Mercy, no Teardrop Explodes, no Spacemen 3, no My Bloody Valentine...
(without the Clash, no U2, no Alarm, no Manic Street Preachers, no Rancid. Hmm... )
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