The Clash album poll

[pcqgod]

Two choices, so everyone will pick 'The Clash' (77) and 'London Calling', right?

[clive gash]

The first and Combat Rock.

[Rayge]

Nah. London Calling is the best, but there's better stuff on Sandinista than the first album, which suffers from not having Topper drumming, and a not-so-tasty second side made thoroughly unpalatable by six minutes of Police and Thieves.
I haven't heard the live releases, and while there's obviously a lot of filler on Sandinista, I still preferred it to the first.
Not that I'll ever listen to any of them again.

[Rayge]

The first and Combat Rock.

Not 'Cut the Crap'?
Controversy fail.

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

Black Market Clash

Sandinista

May seem odd, is not.

The LPs that most impressed me at the time were London Calling and Combat Rock.

But the most durable pleasure I got out of the two I chose.

I have Black Market Clash in the original 10" format, and their rendition of Willi Williams' 'Armagideon Time' may well be the best reggae production of any white band in history altogether.

Sandinista! is the best hits & misses album for me, ever. Come to think of it: there aren't that many duds on it at all, it's more that critics at the time said something to this effect. Nick Kent quibbled about the 'wafer-thin production of Bill Price'.

Nonsense. It's hugely enjoyable. And it was controversial at the time, not because it was 'punk', no, it was quite contrary to any dogmatic punk-spirit.

(Punk was, after one or two months, quickly becoming boring and dogmatic and predictable, anyway. Should we critically re-appraise this, eh, phenomenon?)

And, lest I forget: London Calling was quite enjoyable pubrock. In the Shakin' Stevens and Alvin Stardust tradition.

[WG Kaspar]

Two choices, so everyone will pick 'The Clash' (77) and 'London Calling', right?

Obviously

[yomptepi]

The debut is quite good.

The rest are turds.

[Walk In My Shadow]

London Calling and Black Market.



The live cd's are very good as well.

[toomanyhatz]

The 2 editions of the debut are easily the two best. Although I like London Calling, Black Market Clash and even Give 'Em Enough Rope a great deal. Sandinista is a bloated, pretentious mess, but it has its moments. Anything else, meh.

[Sneelock]

I took "Sandanista!" and "Combat Rock" just to be a pain in the ass. I figured "London Calling" would walk it. London Calling is pretty great but I don't like each and every track like most people do. The same could be said of "Sandanista!" but I've got a lot of good will for that one. it was playing everywhere interesting people were for a couple of interesting months. these things count in the long haul.

I know "Combat Rock" is the "sell out album" but god DAMN, if you're gonna sell out then why not have public service announcements with guitars? I think it's a damned good album.

[pcqgod]

The live cd's are very good as well.

I think 'From Here to Eternity' is pretty good. Haven't heard the Shea Stadium one.


Actually, to this date I still haven't heard 'Sandinista' in its entirety, so part of the reason for this poll was my desire to see who would pick it over the obvious choices.

[sloopjohnc]

I took the first one and Black Market Clash, but you have to really like and appreciate dub, in my opinion, to get the full value of Black Market Clash.

I listened to London Calling a couple weeks ago and probably would've listed it as their tour de force if I hadn't listened to it recently. It hasn't held up very well. I like London Calling, Spanish Bombs and the Clampdown, but not a whole lot after that.

[Walk In My Shadow]

The live cd's are very good as well.

I think 'From Here to Eternity' is pretty good. Haven't heard the Shea Stadium one.


Actually, to this date I still haven't heard 'Sandinista' in its entirety, so part of the reason for this poll was my desire to see who would pick it over the obvious choices.

From Here to Eternity is a compilation of different gigs while Shea Stadium is one show. The Clash played support to the Who and gave it their all. It is one hot show, very recommended.

Sandinista! is a mountain of an album, they put perhaps too many things in it. It takes several listens to digest and even then..
GuyE made a redux version of it and that really IS better than the official version. He changed running order, put extra tracks in, etc.
If you can get it that's the one!

[naughty boy]

The debut is quite good.

The rest are turds.

Yep.

[Ranking Ted]

The debut is quite good.

The rest are turds.

Yep.

No surprise at Yomp - but only "quite good", John? And the rest completely worthless?

At certain points in my life, I'd probably make a case for even the maddening Sandinista! or the flawed GEER. But, today, it's the fabulous blast of the debut and the tantalising glimpse of a lost future that is Combat Rock.

[Ranking Ted]

Of the comps and live albums, Shea Stadium is a band firing on all cylinders. Amazing it went phut almost immediately afterwards.

[naughty boy]

The debut is quite good.

The rest are turds.

Yep.

No surprise at Yomp - but only "quite good", John? And the rest completely worthless?

I love the debut - one of my top ten all-time albums. So, yeah, I was understating.

The follow-up has two crackers and the rest is rubbish. And London Calling is a sack of shit.

[yomptepi]

The debut is quite good.

The rest are turds.

Yep.

No surprise at Yomp - but only "quite good", John? And the rest completely worthless?

.

Police and thieves is a travesty. It destroys the flow of the record. they could have left it off, and the record would have been 7 minutes shorter, but twice as good.

Of course one they had recorded it , they decided they were the fucking Rolling stones, and fucked off to America to make a record with the Blue Oyster Cult. Cunts. I can never understand why anyone would think they any good. Fucking posers.

[echolalia]

Obviously anyone who doesn’t like the first doesn’t like the Clash. (Especially the US release with Jail Guitar Doors.) I like a few songs on the second but it’s not that great really. London Calling was the album where all the bogus Clash fans got on board – it’s fucking terrible. And Sandinista is the one I play these days – easily my favourite Clash album.

[fange]

The first clearly, and then a dead heat these days between LC and CR.

I am constantly flabbergasted by the outright hatred shown by some Clash fans around here for LC, like our young echolalia above. It's not perfect by a long shot, but any record that has 'The Card Cheat', 'Train In Vain', 'The Right Profile', 'Rudie Can't Fail', 'Spanish Bombs' and 'Lost In The Supermarket' still gets my vote.