What's the worst song on London Calling?

Yay!

I love this album. I hate you guys.

I like this album way more viscerally than cerebrally. All the lyrics could be about shoving kittens into pint glasses for all I care, I just heart the way the geetars and drums and voices sound.

Have you Realised that Rock Stars
Always seem to lie so much?
John Lydon once said he cared
But he never really gave a fuck
Said he'd use the money he made
So that people would have somewhere to go
But now he lives in the USA
and Snorts Coke after the Show.

Why is it that Rock Stars
Always seem to lie so much?
Joe Strummer once said he cared,
but he never really gave a fuck
Said he'd use the money he made
To set up a radio station to make the
Airwaves full of something more than Shit
Have you noticed we're still Waiting?

You must realise that Rock Stars
Always seem to lie so much
Some will always tell you that they care,
But they don't really give a fuck,
Still you suckers don't ever learn
That rock stars deal in money not truth
It's good Buisiness to exploit you
Just look at Lydon or Strummer for Proof.

They said that we were trash,
Well the name is Crass, not Clash.
They can stuff their punk credentials
Cause it's them that take the cash.
They won't change nothing with their fashionable talk,
All their RAR badges and their protest walk,
Thousands of white men standing in a park,
Objecting to racism's like a candle in the dark.
Black man's got his problems and his way to deal with it,
So don't fool yourself you're helping with your white liberal shit.
If you care to take a closer look at the way things really stand,
You'd see we're all just niggers to the rulers of this land.

Punk was once an answer to years of crap,
A way of saying no where we'd always said yep.
But the moment we saw a way to be free,
They invented a dividing line, street credibility.
The qualifying factors are politics and class,
Left wing macho street fighters willing to kick arse.
They said because of racism they'd come out on the street.
It was just a form of fascism for the socialist elite.
Bigotry and blindness, a marxist con,
Another clever trick to keep us all in line.
Neat little labels to keep us all apart,
To keep us all divided when the troubles start.

Pogo on a nazi, spit upon a jew,
Vicious mindless violence that offers nothing new.
Left wing violence, right wing violence, all seems much the same,
Bully boys out fighting, it's just the same old game.
Boring fucking politics that'll get us all shot,
Left wing, right wing, you can stuff the lot.
Keep your petty prejudice, I don't see the point,
ANARCHY AND FREEDOM IS WHAT I WANT.

I like their first album better, it is teh album for all seasons

I really love this album, and I really love the Clash. I love the early stuff, I love Combat Rock, it's all part of the story for me. And I think that I'm right to do so, and I can defend it if called upon to do so, and I am not sure how much I can trust anyone who just shits all over them and dismisses them out of hand. I just wanted to say that.

Oh and "Guns of Brixton" is easily the worst song on London Calling.

"with your snakeskin suit/and your alligator boots
you don't need a laundress/just take it to the vet!"

It ain't T.S. Eliot and it won't change the world but it's a great song off a great album. Sorry if it's not your thing, but even apart from whatever posturing Strummer did, the Clash are a damn good band.

I am sadly unable to appreciate The Clash as a punk band, but only as a rock band, and (at my most disgustingly honest) as a pop band. I'm sadly with whoever said that he couldn't give a fat turd about the lyrics. I couldn't either, unless I'm indulging myself in some opressed-class fantasy, which really is no way to listen to music.

Great album, though. Real fucking catchy.

-- Ian c=====8

Not the worst track, but probably the favorite track of people who wish they were listening to a different album.

I GET GOOD ADVICE FROM THE ADVERTISING WORLD
TREAT ME NICE, PARTY GIRL

1/ I really really can't stand their music at all. It just sounds tinny and feeble and weak and the singing just sounds horrible to me.

plus

2/media coverage over the years kind ogf magnifies this into haterd a bit. oh, I know it shouldn't and stuff, but you know, here we go round again, "from the westway to the best rock n roll band in the world", "oh of course I like the clash", pr*g r*ck was so terribly middle class, that's why the clash were so necessary" (nb I'm not making the last one up, I heard it on radio 4 [oh, irony piled upon irony there, eh?] a few years ago) get this thrown at you frequently and regularly over a 10-15yr period and see how long it takes you to bristle at the very mention of the group's name!!

The worst song on London Calling? I really wouldn't want to chose 'cos the album's a very clear case of the whole being vastly more than the sum of it's constituent parts. If that wasn't the case and it was just a collection of songs, the decision NOT to include Armagideon Time would have been indefensible.

Anyways, here's the worst song per LP:

"Jimmy Jazz" - 3rd goddamn song and ALREADY obvious filler announces its presence.
"Spanish Bombs"
"The Card Cheat" - God I hate Phil Spector.
"Lover's Rock"

Actually, you know what I really hate about London Calling? That annoying little chorus effect (or flanger? Unsure.) that Mick uses on nearly EVERY FUCKING song! Show a little variety, dude - buy a wah-wah or something!

Pashmina is right about the music sounding tinny at least on the first Clash LP, it took me a while to get used to and there's no getting around that there's nothing inherently "great" about sounding like you were recorded from a microphone buried in a trash can.

I suppose most classic punk bands except Sham 69 would also fall under the middle-class demographic, but once again that only matters if you take punk's politics seriously (something that gets harder to do with each year). Let's leave the ideological baggage behind and just treat it as a musical revolution that, for better (and sometimes worse) changed the world.

I'm confused as to how this song is about jazz.

"jimmy jazz" always reminds me a bit of "i want to hold your hand."

this has some validity actually...

Eh? Strummer came from a middle class background but was squatting in Ladbroke Grove when he was in the 101ers / before he joined The Clash. The others came from the high-rise slums of London IIRC.

"That and the hype generated by them over the years, together with their failure to save the world, probably engendered the backlash."

The Clash were accused of selling out at regular intervals starting with the day they signed to CBS. I particularly remember disgruntled fans burning copies of the Capital Radio freebie outside the gigs on one tour as a result of a perceived act of "selling out" the details of which escape me now.

"I suppose most classic punk bands except Sham 69 would also fall under the middle-class demographic"

This is completely wrong in every possible respect.

Quite apart from anything else, Sham came from a more middle class area / background than just about any other, moderately successful, '77 UK punk group I can think of!

Are you seriously trying to tell me that you believe the Sex Pistols (just for example) came from a "middle-class demographic"?!?

".... but once again that only matters if you take punk's politics seriously"

You're either not from the UK, are less than 40 years old, or both.

"While most of the early British punk bands spoke of working-class concerns -- primarily unemployment and the shrinking U.K. economy, which was leaving a generation with nothing to do and nowhere to go -- many of the pioneering groups had working-class credentials that were suspect at best; the Sex Pistols' career was being molded by a haberdasher and would-be artist, while the Clash were led by the son of a diplomat. Sham 69, however, was different; proletarian and proud of it, Sham 69 was the voice of the people in the first wave of British punk" - allmusic again.

"Sham 69 was formed in the working-class community of Hersham (in Surrey) in 1975 by singer and lyricist Jimmy Pursey..." - allmusic again.

Once again, from "England's Dreaming," I seem to recall one or two of the Sex Pistols having gone to art school (not to mention Malcolm McLaren's idol-making tactics).

I'm neither from the UK nor older than 40 (try half that) but I'd be interested in what you have to say about all of the points you raised.

(On yet another tangent, by "classic" punk bands I meant the ones best known, i.e. the Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks, X-Ray Spex, the Jam, the Undertones, Siouxsie, Stranglers).

There wasn't (isn't) that much of a divide between the middle and working classes. People could and did regularly move between the two within the course of a generation / lifetime and members of the same family could easily be in different classes. In 1977 "unemployment and the shrinking U.K. economy" was arguably as much of a threat to the middle classes as it was to the working classes.

Going to boarding school != you are a member of the aristocracy by any means - plenty of people from ordinary middle class homes went to boarding school.

Much has been made of Joe's dad being "a diplomat" - as I understand it's something of an exaggeration (he held what was actually a fairly junior position in the civil service IIRC). He did however have to work abroad quite a bit, hence Joe (and his older brother) spent some time in boarding schools. Joe's brother committed suicide because he didn't fit in at boarding school which is what led to Joe quitting and going squatting.

Let's clear this up right now: Hersham is / was no more "a working-class community" than it is / was within the sound of Bow Bells. It is generally affluent, commuter belt. The members of Sham 69 were no more working class than they were Cockneys. Jimmy Pursey is / was completely full of shit.

Ditto also Bromley and all the bands that came from there too FWIW.

Going to art school != you were a member of the landed gentry either. Probably midle class.

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense, though I have a couple more questions. You mentioned that Sham 69 was hardly working class whereas most "classic" (according to my earlier definition) punk bands were. When you say this, do you mean they were working-class as defined by your class mobility argument, where the divide was quite small?

Also, since you seem to know a lot about this and/or were there when it happened: I've heard some rather cynical accounts of early punk shows that describe the audiences of these bands as primarily middle-class (or let's say "well-off") kids slumming it in the city centres and then taking the subways back to their comfortable suburban existence. What was your impression of these shows and their audience?

Thanks already though, I'm somewhat fascinated by that era enjoy reading any and all accounts, especially if they're conflicting with (or breaking down) any established myths.

Sorry if I've given a slightly misleading impression - the fact was that Sham 69 were certainly no more working class than most of the other bands and in many cases an awful lot less; they simply affected to be far more working class than they actually were and to come from far more deprived (depraved?) backgrounds than they actually had, partly because they thought this gave them more street cred. and partly in (I believe) an effort to appeal to a far wider audience than the original punk scene had done - basically the hooligans on the football terraces.

They were, of course hugely successful in doing this to their - and indeed the entire UK punk scene's - immediate and eternal regret.

Incidentally it's also a mistake to assume that the football terraces were exclusively working class because of course they weren't by any means....

"I've heard some rather cynical accounts of early punk shows that describe the audiences of these bands as primarily middle-class (or let's say "well-off") kids slumming it in the city centres and then taking the subways back to their comfortable suburban existence. What was your impression of these shows and their audience?"

For starters I wouldn't say "primarily" middle-class but there was certainly a significant element that was; the suggestion 'though seems to be that punk was created by angry working class kids with some genuine point about their plight and stolen / patronised by bored middle class kids playing at it. I don't think that was the case at all. The punk pubs and clubs tended to be in city centres because (a) it was a very small minority interest and city centres are always the natural place to congregate; (b) the punks were considered to be pretty much scum and no-one would have allowed us to congregate / play anywhere bear the areas that "nice" people lived!

You also again have to appreciate how small the divide was between the middle and working class: ordinary kids could and did "[slum] it in the city centres and then [take] the subways back to their comfortable suburban existence" whenever they visited their relatives!

If I had to give a simplistic social profile of the audiences / how those audiences changed between '77 and '79 'though, the outstanding thing to me would be that the people in the audiences in '77 were generally more (intelligent? intellectual?) looking for ways of expressing their individuality. By '79 there were vastly more of them, mostly just conforming sheep-like to some bizarre so-called "punk" stereotype that had apparently been created for them by a bunch of designers and marketing men, blissfully oblivious to the myriad glaring contradictions inherent in the very concept of punk as some sort of "product".

My second runner up would be "Death or Glory".

But I like "Koka Kola" and "lover's Rock"

Worst song on the album is EASILY "Lost in the Supermarket" (I fully expect to catch a huge stack of abuse for this comment). It's crappy, whingey milksoppery that makes Robert Smith and Morrissey sound like Lemmy and Jaz Coleman by comparison.

There's a handful of good tracks on the album: "Supermarket," "London Calling," "Spanish Bombs," another one maybe (I forget). The rest sounds like a fucking BAR BAND.

Rudie Can't Fail
Wrong'em boyo
Brand new cadillac
Koka Kola
Lovers rock

cut the crap, make an ep, pleeeeease

Stewart O. right around the money all thru this thread.

worst rock-n-roll mucho-macho-songs on london calling
Rudie Can't Fail
Wrong'em boyo
Brand new cadillac
Koka Kola
Lovers rock

How are any of these songs macho? "Wrongem Boyo" and "Brand New Cadillac" (covers, by the way, one ska, one rockabilly) are about as anti-macho as it gets.

1. Everything about the intro on "The Guns of Brixton"

2. The funky, speeded up part on "Death or Glory" ("playing the blues of kings sure looks better now")

3. Joe Strummer's wordless gurgling on "The Right Profile" (after "There I go again shaking, but I ain't got the chills")

4. The weird, harmonics-using rhythm guitar playing on "Lost in the Supermarket" ("I empty a bottle, I feel a bit free")

5. The transition from the last guitar strum on "Brand New Cadillac" to the first one on "Jimmy Jazz"

6. The transition from the end of "Hateful" to the beginning of "Rudie Can't Fail" (the only Bo Diddley New Orleans ska song every recorded)

7. Joe Strummer saying "The Ice Age is coming" right after that scary, backward-recorded guitar solo on "London Calling," at which point you might believe him...

8. The part where the bass casually cuts out and then comes back on "Revolution Rock." (Also: "Weddings, parties, anything...")

9. "It's the best years of your life they want to steal" (on "Clampdown")

10. The fact that I still can't figure out if "Spanish Bombs" is pro- or anti-terrorist 25 years later. (See "Tommy Gun.")

Hey guess what? The newest Bachelor series features a bachelor from the UK and is called The Bachelor: London Calling!! Hilarious? Yes! (And to answer to original thread question: ALL OF THEM, of course.)

Scott wins for quoting Rudimentary Peni upthread.

Also; all of them.

jimmy jazz

What latebloomer said.

"Revolution Rock."

i love 'jimmy jazz'

i might say 'wrong em boyo'. it's pretty good though

Lovers Rock

Only two tracks remaining untouched:

"The Right Profile"
"Clampdown"

There are no bad songs on "London Calling", but "Cadillac" is kind of pointless.

"London Calling"

And don't you realize how fucking right wing that Crass lyric actually is?

geir otm

those are the perfect two tracks to remain untouched

"Spanish Bombs"

Jimmy Jazz

Why don't people like this album? I think it's great!

because it always makes the usual lists and this is ilm

Guns of Brixton is the only killer song on it.

Lovers Rock

Guns of Brixton is the only killer song on it.

― Conan The Asshander (Doran)

Nonsense. Guns in Brixton is a highlight but Lost in the Supermarket and Spanish Bombs are also killer (even tho the later has some of the worst spanish mispronunciations I've heard in a song).

mispronounciations*

Horses for courses. I'm not really a Clash fan. I spent ages trying to like them when I was younger and felt that I should but I think those two songs a pretty poor really. I could make myself a better mini album out of Sandinista! than I could out of London Calling.

"Sing, Michael, Sing!"

title track is all time zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

For me it's what's not to like? It's not a very 'punk' rock album, but it's a great pop record with lots of fun and variety and catchy tunes, so for those reasons it's pretty classic. Guns Of Brixton has that bassline, Wrong Em Boyo is just the right side of goofy fun, and lost in the supermarket has a peculiar pathos that kind of takes me offguard halfway through the record.

Yeah NV the title track is boring.

No it isn't, not with that Ride of the Valkyries bassline

Only dud here is "Lover's Rock", which isn't so much terrible as it is filler.

It's not a bad album, but it's not the go-to album for any of the essential aspects of the band, so I haven't listened to it in probably 15 years. (Listened to Sandinista! twice straight through on the drive from Atlanta last Monday though.)

went and youtube'd the original version (i think) of revolution rock. where previously i thought they added to every cover they chose, this one not so much so i agree w/it being the only not essential tune on LC. wrong 'em boyo is a fantastic original and a great cover to boot; while, imo, cadillac is off the charts a ferocious cover version so i don't understand Geir's upthread comment. except that it's Herr Geir. Lover's Rock might be a throwaway but it's still FUN.
"not the go-to for essential aspects of the band" except to hear how quickly they grew from 1978-1979 and became a perfect band with great songwriting and musicianship by their third album i guess