This month, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the US release of London Calling by The Clash. It was released a month earlier in the UK, so I guess December of 2009 should have been the anniversary. Oi, whatever!
And if it isn't the best rock album of all-time, it's certainly in the conversation. A wondrous mix of punk, ska, soul and rockabilly. A double album with classics like "Brand New Cadillac", "Train in Vain", "The Guns of Brixton", "Rudie Can't Fail", "Lost in the Supermarket" and, of course, the title track.
What an amazing year 1979 was. Gia and I were just talking about this the other day. John Wayne died, Iranian radicals were taking hostages, Brenda Ann Spencer started shooting people because she didn't like Mondays, Patty Hearst was released from jail, it snowed in the Sahara desert, 11 fans were killed in Cincinnati before a concert by The Who, Saddam Hussein rises to power in Iraq, Disco Demolition in Chicago night brings a fitting end to that musical era, Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister, Jimmy Carter sees his Presidency slipping away, our first nuclear power plant "accident" occurs at Three Mile Island and The Clash recorded one of the finest albums of all-time.
But let's get back to our shiftless hero Rudie for a moment, shall we? Enjoy!
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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. Ya gotta love a band that uses the word "feckless" in one of its songs.
13 comments:
I was in the midst of many a fine tune in my own heyday during the 80's.
I seem to remember flashbacks to Joe Strummer being spat upon by many strange spotty youths.
Also in 1979: You celebrated your 50th birthday!
it was all background music for me, sugar! i was too busy being mom to 4 children. in fact, i think i lost a couple of decades doing that....damn, i waaaaaaay behind! xoxoxox
what the hell year were you born in?
(me? 1971.)
Aren't people looking young these days...
Jimmy - The Clash "opened" for The Who shortly after this album launched in NY and they were booed off the stage. Go figure.
Slyde - How long are you gonna keep pretending that you are more than a couple (as in two) years younger than me, old man? Or that you don't have a foot fetish? Or that you aren't more than just a little gay? 1979 - the year Slyde finally got his pubes!
Savannah - you got some making up to do.
Becky - Me? 1966. LATE 1966, if you must know. ;)
Wabbit - tell me about it!
If I had a dollar for every pressing of this album I wore out on a turntable in college, I could retire. Train in Vain was pretty much the soundtrack to my life between 1979 and 1982.
ps...
You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you'll have to answer to
Oh-the guns of Brixton
Brixton is a fun area by the way, lived next to it for thick end of 30 years :D
I was 26 in 1979 and 1 year married and just yanked back into reality with a kid on the way and had to not be so much a part of the Clash / Voidoids / Banshees / Dead Kennedys / Blondie / Ramones thing as I had been since Iggy lusted for life back in 77. Sigh. But I will always look back on my complete ruination of my physical health and mental well-being that era represented with a special fondness.
Bruce - aye...it's still part of the soundtrack of my life.
Wabbit - love that tune!
RW - I was 12/13 in 1979 and a little too naive to have been into that scene from a few years before that. But I made up for it quickly. Ah...Richard Hell and the Voidoids. I wasn't a fan until they were long gone, but I saw him hanging out at Handsome Dick Manitoba's bar in the East Village a couple of years ago. I looked around and realized I was probably one of the few people in the joint old enough to recognize him. Sigh.
I was 8 in '79! I can't believe I didn't make your list!
Anyway, I LOVE The Clash. In fact, since you posted this, I am going to listen to them right now because it's been far too long since I have!
(Also, my brother - older, obviously, was at that Who concert!)
Sybil - the one in Cincinnati? Wow!
I've blogged about this before. London Calling is on my top 10 albums of all time. Love it!
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