In Praise Of: The Clash, "This is England"

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Their best post-Sandanista song? Joe Strummer-as-auteur, directing his anonymous hacks to give it their all one more time. Love the buzzsaw guitar, drum machine, and synth. A devastating epitaph, for Thatcher-besotted England, for his great band.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Those horrible synth drum hand-claps ruin it for me.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

You're supposed to like New Order!

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

I think that is a great song, better than anything else on the album. Like the rest of the great Clash songs, Strummer's voice makes it. I love the lyric "I've got my motorcycle jacket but I'm walking all the time". Classic.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

I do like New Order. In New Order's...er...hands, synthesized hand claps are fine, but it just didn't work with the Clash.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

To be fair, this wasn't really the Clash, it was Joe Strummer, Paul I think, and a bunch of hirelings.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

True'dat, but it still left the warehouse with the word CLASH on its sleeve (to say nothing of the oh-so-unlistenably-trying-way-too-hard track, "We Are the Clash").

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

Whatever. Using synthesized handclaps signfied a refreshing need to shit on their own legend. I lvoe the arrogance of writing and performing a song called "We Are The Clash" with only two of the original members playing on it. What a rebuke to critics (especially English ones).

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

I lvoe the arrogance of writing and performing a song called "We Are The Clash" with only two of the original members playing on it. What a rebuke to critics (especially English ones).

The critics still had the last laugh.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

Whatever. Using synthesized handclaps signfied a refreshing need to shit on their own legend.

If they didn't care about their own legend, they'd have given up the ghost and rightly stopped calling themselves the Clash at the time.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

The band and the myth created by the band are two different things, Alex. I reckon Strummer and Simonon still had something to say using the Clash moniker.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

Well,I liked the last album.

OK, not"loved" but liked.

― mark grout (mark grout), Sunday, 10 July 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

The band and the myth created by the band are two different things, Alex. I reckon Strummer and Simonon still had something to say using the Clash moniker.

Then riddle me this, Batman. How come nary a track from Cut the Crap appears on a single Clash compilation? It was an abortive mistake, and even the band knows it. Cut the Crap has been -- arguably deservedly -- erased from history.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

Um, wrong. 2003's "The Essential Clash" included "This is England."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

Hang on....oooh, you're right. Oh well.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

Besides, who gives a shit what compilers (or the band) consider worth preserving?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

I think Dave Marsh (of all people) included it in his "Heart of Rock & Roll" compilation of the best singles ever (along with "White Man in Hammersmith Palais," I think).

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

Dave Marsh? Fuck does he know? Zilcho, that's what.

Anyway, regardless...."This is England" is inarguably the finest track on Cut the Crap for whatever that's worth (i.e. not a lot).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

"This Is England" is a great song, arguably most properly regarded as Joe Strummer's best solo work rather than as a Clash track. But whatever, it's classic, and I like the edgy electro production. Very mid-'80s, very Thatcher-era.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

Solo Strummer-wise, I quite like "Love Kills" from the otherwise lamentable Sid & Nancy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

And the best post-Sandinista Clash song is either "Innoculated City" or "Know Your Rights".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

"Coma Girl" and his cover of "Redemption Song" from the last Mescaleros album are damn fine too.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

Actually, "Tony Adams" on Rock Art & the X-Ray Style was pretty great as well.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

(i like Sid&Nancy; but that's a subject for another thread)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 10 July 2005 23:25 (twenty years ago)

all y'all are vastly overestimating the actual number of Clash members involved in the album - Paul's not on it at all, and I think Joe had even quit by the time the album came out! some of the other late-period guys might have been recruited to play on it*, but it was actually put together by Bernie Rhodes without Strummer's knowledge, from demos Joe had done before he became so disillusioned with the whole "Clash II" thing that he chucked it in. Rhodes even credited himself as 'Jose Unidos' to try and make it look like the production pseudonym was for Strummer...

hardcore tape-trading type fans have put together a version of the Cut The Crap running order from live recordings to try and restore the reputation of the songs from their anaemic "production".

*the only contributing musician I know for sure was (Sandinista! bassist) Norman Watt-Roy, hired by Rhodes for sessions.

― kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 11 July 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

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