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Cope vs. The Clash
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Dec 14, 2009, 15:56
Re: Cope vs. The Clash
Dec 14, 2009, 08:51
Lord Lucan wrote:
They've always struck me as humourless and overly earnest with a daft load of macho posturing and, at their worst, patronising. And anything that feels the need to declare itself as 'authentic' has always struck me as suspect


Well yes. That could apply to pretty much any British rock band that has ever got to a level of mass popularity having started as a Melody Maker / NME / Sounds favourite.

When bands like The Clash and U2 get to be stadium big the authenticity thing is something they take on to try and prove they are not all about the box office. Radiohead did the same thing with their art rock gestures. Deliberately abandoning traditional uses of melody and pretending you are living in Memphis in '54 are just two sides of the same coin marked "guilt" and "denial". U2 did both! First after "Joshua Tree" and then again after "Achtung Baby". For "Sandinista" see "Rattle and Hum". You could possibly say the same thing about Springsteen's "Nebraska".

I don't think The Clash are uniquely sinning in this respect but because they started out "on that revolution stuff" their success when it came was all the more offensive to the puritanical. And don't forget the backlash started with the critics not with the fans. The worst thing you can do in the eyes of a rock writer is change the story unless change *is* the story, like Bowie.

The Clash are a myth now, a musical theme park, like Hendrix at Woodstock is a myth, like Zeppelin are a myth or Dylan in 66 is a myth. I would guess that the vast majority of people listening to them today and buying into their shtick were not even born in 1977.

The really sad thing is when devout fans of rock bands say "never change" they really do mean it. Which is why as an art form Rock n Roll rarely escapes the infantile and why so many artists get caught in a loop of recreating the music that gave them their early successes over and over again. And which is of course also one reason why we love it so much. When Joni Mitchell said in response to an audience request "no one asked Van Gogh to paint The Starry Night again" she had a point while completely misunderstanding why most people go to Rock shows in the first place.

Then again looking for artistic truth (whatever that is) or real insight in rock n roll (especially in something as plastic and dead-ended as Punk Rock) is a fairly pointless exercise. Needle in the proverbial haystack.
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