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Show "Ifyou've i,j3h&J v' o fin mtjfM 0 lost a battle then go on and weep about it. Sometimes you've got to wake up in the morning and think, Screw 'em. We're gonna win the bloody battle." Joe Strummer lz Iff - S2 LfJ I Nicky "Topper" Headon, whose headlong, drum attack locks neatly with Jones' guitar work, came into the group when Chimes defected after the first album. CBS claims their decision to withhold The Clash from American distribution traces to the record's "sloppiness of production and unintelligible lyrics." ("We like to slobber the message," Strummer says.) The group and the corporation compromised, naming Sandy Pearlman, known for his work with The Blue Oyster Cult, to produce Give 'Em Enough Rope. "K's great," Strummer acknowledges, "he done a good job." Cutting the album took six harrowing months, the group suspicious all the while that an outside producer might take the edge oir their sound. Pearlman, for his part, calls the Clash "the greatest rock & roll group around," even though they want to do their next record alone. Few American stations are willing to play the current record. Though the lyrics are still difficult to pull out of the album's chaotic mix, they are, on emergence, provocative and defiant. Jones, for example, salutes an outlaw friend in Stay r ree. full-capaci- ty "He met when we were in school Sever look no shit from no one . . And if you're in the croud tonight, have a drink . . on me. . Strummer, in "(Juris on the Rooftop," sketches a world where vested powers will kill to keep their dominion. Rein miniscent of Mick Jaggcr's omniscient demon-person- a 'Sympathy for the Devil," he sings, " like to be I like I like I like to be to to in in be in be in . out and the album has gone beyond 75,000 in sales not Fleetwood Mac territory, but certainly a healthy wedge. The Clash, meanwhile, plan to stay in the pattern they've set, sticking with the kind of people they grew up with, playing frequent, small dates. "That's what we do, the way we live," Strummer says. "Don't even think about it." "I don't think I've got something to say that the bloke down the road hasn't got," Jones adds. "I just happen to be the one that's doing it. It's just continuous communication. It's to do with ideas being able to stand up and have your say. I I Santa Monica: Enemy Territory Besieged by Don Snowden arrival of the Clash was an event L.A.'s hard-cor- e roc18 for kers had been awaiting anxiously months since the release of the band's first album. Mother Nature even played her hand, blanketing Santa Monica with a London-styl- e The . Stay free albums and their string of memorable British singles, covered some twenty songs in little over an hour. The accent was on high energy rockers with undertones of the early Who and Kinks "Capitol Radio," "Guns on the Roof" and "Clash City Rockers" among them but the band showed musical resources beyond the thrashing typical of new outfits. wave many In its populist sensibilities and ability to create a hard rock frenzy, the Clash most resembles Mott the Hoople. Lead guitarist Mick Jones' "Stay Free" captures the sort of wistful nostalgia that Ian Hunter used to regularly evoke, and "Complete Control" and "Safe European Home" are centered around guitar riffs that would fit snugly in the Mott songbook. But the Clash also has a hidden weapon in the ability of bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon to handle reggae ("White Man in Hammersmith Palais," "Police and Thieves") and New Orleans rhythm and blues ("Julie's in the Drug Squad") stylings with Affarica, a beatin' on the final drum. USSR, matin' sure these things will come. USA, prelendin' that the war is done. Europa, saying goodbye to everyone ..." Jones sews the lyric shut with a menacing guitar passage Keith Richards. worthy of Ut It Bleed-er- a "Pearl Harbor '79" is all the more impressive for radio's reluctance to play Give 'Em Enough Rope. Most dates were sold pea-sou- p fog. With high hopes came the folly of great expectations Conan the Barbarian, the Mighty Thor and Superman would've been hard pressed to satisfy Santa Monica's expectant crowd. But the Clash triumphed with the most exciting Civic has witnessed in years. show the Rock and roll takes on the nature of a holy war for the Clash. Much has been written about the political content of their songs and, indeed, Joe Strummcr's militant imagery provides both food for thought and a call for radical action. But the Clash's live success stems from their sheer energy and raw power as a classic rock and roll band. blend of material from both The set, a rock-saturat- ed well-structur- ed funky panache. A Clash concert is an exercise in non-sto- p action; they start in overdrive and don't let up for a second. Jones dashes exuberantly from one end of the stage to the other. Simonon lopes about the front of the stage while Headon provides a ferocious and impeccably precise foundation for the three front men. Few performers become so physically caught up in music as lead singer Strummer slashing at his battered Ielecaster with mouth agape, left leg pumping like a piston and eyes opened wide, he appears totally possessed, body and soul. More than anything else, a Clash concert is characterized by a sense of struggle. On a less than spectacular night, the battle is merely to keep the songs from falling apart at the seams. When they're clicking on all cylinders as at Santa Monica it's a fight to avoid being overwhelmed by the tremendous energy unleashed onstage and in the audience. At moments the set seemed about to careen out of control, but the Clash relishes the edge of anarchy. Strummer's only smile of the evening came after he narrowly missed being guitar-bashe- d by darting beneath one ofJones' leaps from the drum riser. Yet, in the middle of a song, Headon stopped playing to summon aid for a fan being squashed against the stage. In England, the band often brings its own bouncers to prevent the mayhem often caused by the strong-artactics of a club's employees. Anarchic as they may seem to be, the Clash is probably the only band that actually takes some responsibility for policing a gig themselves. And no ordinary band would be capable of stopping in mid-son- g and sixty seconds later level back same the of at being intensity but the Clash did. In the midst of an otherwise tepid press conference after the gig, Strummer defined the group's perspective: "The important thing is to rockC? roll, rock & roll, and never mind this lecture bollocks. . . . We never said it was a Utopia. Rock & roll is played on enemy ground." m on our Clash cover story, lives in San Francisco Howie Klein, and writes for England's New Musical Express, Creem, New York Rocker, and New Wave Rock. He also hosts the original new wave radio 95 in San Francisco. show on KSAN-F- M |
