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The Clash. The Clash were an English rock band that formed in London in 1976 and were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they used elements of reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly, and they contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that followed punk.
- 1976–1986
- London, England
Learn about the history and legacy of The Clash, the iconic rock band that formed in 1976 and integrated reggae, dub, funk, jazz and hip hop into their music. Explore their albums, songs, controversies, style and influence on modern culture and politics.
- 1977
- White Riot
- What’s My Name
- Know Your Rights
- I’m So Bored with The USA
- Janie Jones
- Charlie Don’T Surf
- Brand New Cadillac
- The Guns of Brixton
- Clash City Rockers
A historical artefact, not for the proto-punk music, but because the lyrics epitomise the new wave’s perceived threat to the old guard. “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones / In 1977,” sang Joe Strummer, hardly about to let his love of such pop greatsget in the way of punk’s declaration of year zero.
Guitarist Mick Jonesnow dislikes the first Clash single, its lyrics written by Strummer after the band were caught up in the 1976 Notting Hill riots and he concluded white people needed “a riot of our own”. The sentiment hasn’t aged well, but the song exemplifies the amphetamine-fuelled punk the band would leave behind.
A Clash curio in that it’s the only one of the group’s songs to bear a writing credit for Keith Levene, the band’s original guitarist. Levene showers melodic gold dust all over this otherwise shouty punk stomper, but is better known for his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd.
From Combat Rock, the final album by the classic quartet of Strummer, Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon. The tank was getting emptied, but Strummer’s black humour brimsthrough lines such as “You have the right to free speech / As long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.”
This hugely anthemic track on debut album The Clashbegan life as I’m So Bored With You, a song about Jones’s girlfriend, before Strummer’s ad-libbed “… SA” took it in a new direction. The blistering critique of US imperialism and exported culture (“Yankee detectives are always on the TV”) didn’t stop the Clash’s love of American iconography, cars a...
Original Clash drummer Terry Chimes – uncharitably credited as Tory Crimes on The Clash – propels the debut’s storming opener, a eulogy to a 60s pop celebrity and libertinewho had been jailed for vice offences in 1973. On release, the convicted madam returned Strummer’s affections in the song Letter to Joe.
By the epic three-disc fourth album, Sandinista!, the Clash arguably had too many ideas for their own good, but within the 36-song sprawl are undoubted treasures. Titled after a Lt Col Kilgore quip in Apocalypse Now, there’s an element of the doo-wop era to this sweet song about, well, cultural imperialism.
This bracing cover of a 1959 Vince Taylor and the Playboys trackrefers to the early Brit rockers’ glamorous dream car (when most of them probably had to make do with a humble Ford Anglia). From the double album London Calling, the Clash’s creative zenith.
Brixton boy Simonon wanted some songwriting cash and so penned this memorable song about police harassment and discontent in his London neighbourhood, two years before the district exploded into rioting. In 1990, Simonon received an unexpected windfall when Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim) sampled the groove for Beats International’s hit Dub Be Good...
Year zero meant many punks hurriedly buried their pasts in pub rock bands with long hair, but this 1978 single reworks a song from Strummer’s old pub rock band, the 101’ers, around trademark Clash self-mythology. The shift from aggressive guitars (surely copied from the Who’s I Can’t Explain) to something more mournful suggest musical adventure to ...
- 2 min
- 21
- Dave Simpson
Celebrate World Clash Day with the official website for The Clash, the legendary punk rock band. Explore their timeline, discography, biography, videos, photos, news and merchandise.
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The Clash - The Clash | Official Website. April 8, 1977. This album was the first major punk record to be released in the UK. It was later released in the US on July 23rd 1979. Iconic artwork, alongside themes of Britain’s disaffected youth, unemployment, drugs, rioting and oppressive policing acted as a blueprint for the burgeoning punk genre.
