best clash song

[past caring]

Am just wondering who you would propose for a "genuine" punk band who were not "corporate puppets" - and who wrote better stuff than the Clash.

ps - a source for the claim on Jones's dad would be welcome, too.

 

[danny la rouge]

It turns out that Johnny Cash didn't shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

 

[past caring]

And before kodokan starts, I don't think Jimmy Pursey was ever in Borstal, either.

 

[phildwyer]

Protex Blue

 

[London_Calling]

I'm a huge fan of judging someone's musical contribution by one of the jobs on their dads cv.

 

[Blagsta]

Johnny Rotten - anti-Christ or just a very naughty boy?

 

[Pickman's model]

Not their best, perhaps, but the best on the Sandinista album imo.

More of a fan of hitsville uk off sandinista

 

[Kaka Tim]

I thought Mick Jones was mainly brought up by his gran - so his dad's job is even more irrelevant.

 

[past caring]

Correct - lost touch after he was 8, I think.

I'd be interested to know kokodan's age, as it goes.

 

[kodokan]

Am just wondering who you would propose for a "genuine" punk band who were not "corporate puppets" - and who wrote better stuff than the Clash.

ps - a source for the claim on Jones's dad would be welcome, too.

Crass. Goggle is your friend.#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XveKOZqWTmQ&feature=related

And Beki is fit as fuck.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2005/02/debunking_punk.html

Joe Strummer was solidly middle class, with a father who had bootstrapped his way up to become a modestly successful diplomat.

 

[London_Calling]

*shock* You'll be claiming John Peel went to a public school next.

 

[Mr Moose]

In other news, Boy George Not Actually A Chameleon Or Any Kind of Reptile

Good point, well made. I heard that Freddie Mercury never actually killed a man, nor told his mum about it.

 

[Termite Man]

I don't think Sebastian Fuchs was ever a policeman but he may have owned a gun.

 

[Mr Moose]

Straight to hell. It's lyrically and musically extremely affecting.
Honorable mention to "Lost in the supermarket" - always liked that for some reason.

Agree, STH is a great composition.

 

[killer b]

I totally love crass, but they aren't a very good example of a good honest working class band. They're as middle class as it comes...

 

[Kaka Tim]

Crass. Goggle is your friend.#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XveKOZqWTmQ&feature=related
.

I think Crass might fail on the 'wrote better songs then the Clash' stipulation.

 

[Kaka Tim]

And Strummer couldn't choose his parents. He didn't grow up in the lap of luxary and privallige and spent his pre-clash years bumming around squats on zero money. Trustifarain he wasn't. His passion and anger were 100% genuine.

 

[past caring]

I totally love crass, but they aren't a very good example of a good honest working class band. They're as middle class as it comes...

They were also entirely shit - both politically and musically. No subtlety whatsoever.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

The upper middle class fascination for gangsters and the "lower orders" is quite curious.

The clash had a romantic view of things they had never experienced.

Maybe its like some working class people suddenly getting serious cash and running with the horse and hounds set.

Ultimately the clash made nice sounds but were coroprate puppets.

On the annoying scale they are not quite up there with tax dodger Bono in his cowboy hat lecturing in world poverty but they are still phoney.

Right, so you're saying that Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon weren't solidly working-class, then? And didn't have any experience of what they wrote about? Where do you think the lyrics of "White Riot" came from - from the back of a box of Corn Flakes?

Who are you holding up as a paragon of working-class musical virtue, then?

E2A: Interesting to see you name Beki Bondage as being a good working class example due to her being "fit as fuck". Charming priorities, I see...

 

[Termite Man]

Who are you holding up as a paragon of working-class musical virtue, then?

Billy Bragg?

 

[MellySingsDoom]

They were also entirely shit - both politically and musically. No subtlety whatsoever.

This is the moment where I reveal that I went to see Steve Ignorant a couple of week ago

(I don't mind you ripping the piss out of me for this next time over a few pints )

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Billy Bragg?

Ah, but he's "sold out" to the Man, Termite Man, and he "never experienced" working class life in the first place.

 

[Termite Man]

Ah, but he's "sold out" to the Man, Termite Man, and he "never experienced" working class life in the first place.

what about that bloke from toploader then?

 

[MellySingsDoom]

what about that bloke from toploader then?

Bingo - we have a winner!

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Anyway - have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the Clash (though they have done some fucking great stuff), but this one clip I think gives an indication as to just how they earned their reputation in the very first place:

 

[The39thStep]

I totally love crass, but they aren't a very good example of a good honest working class band. They're as middle class as it comes...

They were anarchists weren't they so what would you expect?

 

[sunnysidedown]

 

[past caring]

Ah, but he's "sold out" to the Man, Termite Man, and he "never experienced" working class life in the first place.

Bragg might struggle with the musical virtue bit, as well. Bragg and Crass are two sides of the same coin - unimaginative twats whose "writing" consists of little more than the trite and the banal. No room for me - you tell me what to think.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Bragg might struggle with the musical virtue bit, as well. Bragg and Crass are two sides of the same coin - unimaginative twats whose "writing" consists of little more than the trite and the banal. No room for me - you tell me what to think.

Well, seeing as I'm not a fan of Bragg's (though I do have a soft spot for "Between The Wars", due to it being on some "Now That's What I Call Music" knock-off compilation LP we had a Ma Melly's place when I were a young yoof), I wouldn't argue against your case about Bragg's lyrical clumsiness. I guess my "point" towards our current Working Class Hero here is that if you're going to start shouting your head off about "class" in music, you really should know what you're talking about. You and the others here certainly do, and he (and I'll bet my weekend's booze fund that this person's a he) doesn't.

 

[kodokan]

I totally love crass, but they aren't a very good example of a good honest working class band. They're as middle class as it comes...

They renounced it, they never sang about white riots from a white mansion.