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Philosophy Football\u2019s Mark Perryman<\/strong> recalls the Clash’s epic album of 40 years ago. Image designed by Hugh Tisdall for Philosophy Football<\/em><\/p>\n 14th December 1979\u00a0\u2013 the year of Thatcher\u2019s election was seen out with the release of London Calling, widely regarded as the finest of all Clash albums.\u00a0 Forty years later, 14th December 2019, another Tory nightmare begins and London’s drowning. So it seems timely to look back, in hope.<\/p>\n The Clash had burst onto the fast-emerging punk scene in \u201977 with their debut album. The band\u2019s second long-player Give \u2018Em Enough Rope was released to mixed reviews. It was over-produced, so the raw energy edge of its tracks was somewhat blunted. All this was to change however, with London Calling.<\/p>\n From double album length, weighing in at an astonishing nineteen tracks across four sides, to the stunning cover pic of Paul Simonon doing some serious damage to his bass guitar, this was to become an instant classic.\u00a0 The rich mix of sounds showcased the foursome\u2019s ever-expanding musical influences \u2013 jazz, reggae and dub, the blues, rockabilly, ska. This by and large wasn\u2019t what was expected of 1970s English punk bands. Despite that, both fans and critics loved it.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n On their debut album Joe Strummer had belted out the anthemic \u2018We\u2019re so bored with the USA\u2019 yet two years later The Clash appeared to have fallen hopelessly in love with the place. \u00a0The influences were obvious, from Montgomery Clift to Cadillacs \u2013 a wholesome embrace of Americana minus the shrill anti-Americanism of the band\u2019s more obvious politics.<\/p>\n The band were emerging as fulsome internationalists too. Every bit at home belting out their tribute to inner-city resistance The Guns of Brixton as their very particular account in Spanish Bombs of the battle against Franco\u2019s fascists. For many listeners these tracks would be their first introduction to either subject. The Clash were a genuinely educational, as well as innovative, outfit, a key influence shaping a generation whose politics were framed by being anti-Thatcher on the home front and soon enough against Reagan on the global front too. \u00a0Sounds familiar? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Two tracks in particular stand out. Not only as unforgettable when first heard but uncannily prescient four decades on too.\u00a0<\/p>\n What are we gonna do now?<\/em> This \u2018clampdown\u2019 mixed authoritarianism, race hatred and economic power. What The Clash railed against in 1979 remains the shape of Johnson and Trump\u2019s right-wing, racist populism today.<\/p>\n And then of course the album\u2019s title track, London Calling:<\/p>\n London calling to the faraway towns<\/em> This was the era of the Winter of Discontent, the Special Patrol Group, war in Ireland (and soon enough in the South Atlantic too), the Nazi National Front on the march, Brixton and Toxteth ablaze, civil disobedience against Reagan and Thatcher\u2019s nuclear arms race, and then the year-long Miners\u2019 Strike.\u00a0 \u2018War is declared\u2019 \u2013 they weren\u2019t far wrong.<\/p>\n The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in<\/em> The meteorology might be a tad skewift but a frightening vision of the future has become the vivid reality of the present-day climate emergency. A melting polar ice cap, record-breaking heatwaves, agricultural growing seasons in crisis, and rising seal levels.<\/p>\n We can rest assured that The Clash of yesteryear would have been playing Extinction Rebellion benefit gigs today.\u00a0 It\u2019s Revolution Rock, \u201979 vintage \u2013 play it loud in 2019, and keep the faith.<\/p>\n
Taking off his turban, they said, ‘is this man a Jew?’<\/em>
‘Cause they’re working for the clampdown<\/em>
They put up a poster saying: ‘We earn more than you’<\/em>
We’re working for the clampdown<\/em>
We will teach our twisted speech<\/em>
To the young believers<\/em>
We will train our blue-eyed men<\/em>
To be young believers<\/em><\/p>\n
Now war is declared and battle come down<\/em><\/p>\n
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growin’ thin<\/em>
Engines stop running, but I have no fear<\/em>
‘Cause London is drowning, and I,\u00a0<\/em>I live by the river<\/em><\/p>\n