Local awesome radio station WVFS just played an artist feature on The Clash. Who knows how long it went on (at least 40 minutes from when I started listening), but I heard 4 tracks from Sandinista! and a couple from Combat Rock, what the DJ referred to as "their last album."
Well,
I just had to call in and thank her for the cool artist feature... and mention Cut the Crap. But it's okay, folks, she knew about it, and didn't consider it the Clash, so didn't include it.
And I came to the realization that I haven't really listened to over half of the catalogue of one of my purported favorite bands. And that's really weird. And that's really amazing. That an honored band in rock 'n' roll could go down in flames with one of the (I imagine) worst sounding albums ever, and just have it dismissed from their catalogue and ignored.
Another thing that's amazing is the number of people on the Internet whose favourite is Sandinista!
It's really bad. Not remotely listenable, except for "This Is England", which Strummer acknowledged was a decent tune.
ReplyDeleteBut losing half the band and then trying to do a reasonable follow-up doesn't bode well for anyone. The Manics did it after losing one guy, but he only played rhythm guitar and wrote some lyrics.
I go back and forth between Sandinista! and Combat Rock as my favorite. London Calling is in a class by itself, and the earlier albums I think of as being a different band entirely. They are, of course, just as good, and choosing a "favorite" record is mostly semantics, as with the Smiths, Manics, et al.