The Awl

tralafel on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

tralafel — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:18:40 +0000

It's been thirty years and fifteen days...

Tom McGeveran on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Tom McGeveran — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:04:20 +0000

But coming from a commenter named "davidwatts" I am suspicious of the motive! Seriously, my only point is not so much that London Calling is or isn't punk--but that the Clash was not by any means the first punk band to switch gears and pick up--let's be direct here!--some of the styles being mastered by black musicians in London at the time. The genre stuff is annoy! It's a fucking great album. It's just not quite as breathtakingly original or brave as it looks thirty years later, when the Clash remains popular but so many important acts of 1979 (and what they actually sounded like) are forgotten. One more thing: Cheers for Liliput Kleenex--but I think Bry was pretty straightforward that London Calling isn't punk; I was never sure what Kleenex was but it's certainly not R and B.

barnhouse on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

barnhouse — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:35:07 +0000

Raw Power!!! I am an Anglophile through and through, but still. Also not much mentioned in this thread: the Pistols. I mean! For English punk bands I LOVED the Clash but I loved the Pistols more. And the Buzzcocks maybe most of all.

barnhouse on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

barnhouse — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:31:34 +0000

How much too much can we say about The Stooges? But I have to admit London Calling still gives me chills. Saw them at the Palladium and it practically bust my eardrums. Yay.

Hez on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Hez — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:28:21 +0000

PS: One of SNFU's songs, Drunk on a Bike, just played on the jukebox, and Chi laughed "they used to kick me out of here, and now there's 5 of my CDs on there."

Hez on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Hez — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:15:46 +0000

Also I must add that I type this as I do so many afternoons, sitting in a bar across the table from Mr. Chi Pig of SNFU. (That's for you, Krucoff.)

Flashman on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Flashman — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:15:39 +0000

Husker Du and The Replacements: two more bands that Are Not Punk. The heavy stuff just ain't at its heaviest, by the time it gets out of central Minneapolis. I think too that lots of towns had great scenes in the mid-late 80s (We had some great bands in London Ont., even!), but maybe Washington DC was the place that really kept the flame of punk, at least, burning.

Dave Bry on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dave Bry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:01:58 +0000

CBS Records marketing department. So, yes: ridiculous from the beginning. Still, a catchy slogan. And one that speaks to how great the band was at the time. And the way their fans felt about them. (Their self-satisfied, stoned-at-2 a.m., practically-asking-to-be-punched-in-the-face fans.)

slinkimalinki on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

slinkimalinki — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:43:00 +0000

LondonLee on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

LondonLee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:07:32 +0000

Who started this nonsense about The Only Band That Matters anyway? Was it because they kept up the punky rebel pose of not going on Top of The Pops long after the rest of the class of '76 did so.

formerly it takes a lot etc. on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

formerly it takes a lot etc. — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:03:23 +0000

Don't say that you love me! Just tell me that you want me! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk

Hez on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Hez — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:02:02 +0000

Heartily agree with Mindpowered. But maybe that's because I moved to Vancouver in 86 and still have pals in some of those bands (also, my stepsis lived in a squat with SP's Nevik Ogre above the infamous Save-On Meats around the same time.) And let's not forget the brilliance that is SNFU, NoMeansNo and The Hanson Bros. (Believe me, I could go on...)

Kakapo on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Kakapo — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:54:23 +0000

And, anyway, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGjk1Y_j8QE But, I'm just being a bit of an asshole. I love the Clash.

SemperBufo on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

SemperBufo — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:46:18 +0000

That's so weird, I was going to say earlier that the Slits & Kleenex were both more punk than anything the Clash ever did. Not better, just more punk.

Kakapo on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Kakapo — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:29:45 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTtfWl-B_nc

Mindpowered on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Mindpowered — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:08:47 +0000

Heartily disgree. Vancouver circa 1988 when you could see D.O.A, Frontline Assembly, Skinny Puppy and Sarah McLachlan, all in one night.

Dickdogfood on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dickdogfood — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:40:58 +0000

Also also: let the "dancing about architecture" thing DIE ALREADY.

Dickdogfood on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dickdogfood — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:25:46 +0000

I should also mention that, to our discredit, some of us forgot the 30th anniversary of "Hot Stuff."

Pop Socket on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Pop Socket — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:23:28 +0000

Edie Brickell!

Dickdogfood on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dickdogfood — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:20:06 +0000

Never loved the Clash. Oh, I can be entertained by them, but there are times when I listen to the first album and I think the snottiness is so recieved that I feel like I'm being hectored by an internet troll secretly sponsored by McDonald's.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Natasha Vargas-Cooper — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:00:48 +0000

I will make you defend your punk rock purity all of these damn internets, METH!

Antonia Capet on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Antonia Capet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:50:19 +0000

I think we do agree, actually! Reviews don't kill people, hyperbole kills people. I totally would have been with you on this: "London Calling is just some of the very best of the stuff ever recorded."

KarenUhOh on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

KarenUhOh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:46:20 +0000

Natalie Merchant?

KarenUhOh on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

KarenUhOh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:45:50 +0000

Well, if you're gonna go there--and you want to capture some fer reals punk spirit, the early Kleenex/LiLiPUT stuff is tough to beat.

formerly it takes a lot etc. on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

formerly it takes a lot etc. — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:36:06 +0000

I came of age in the mid-70's and should have been a punk but I had older siblings who came of age in the late 60's and taught me that Let It Be was the apotheosis of rock. To this day, I'm confused and out of sync with my times.

Alex Pareene on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Alex Pareene — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:31:40 +0000

paul simon: godfather of punk

Alex Pareene on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Alex Pareene — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:30:54 +0000

The Mekons were more politically astute (if not "relevant") and in 1979 they COULDN'T play their instruments, which is way more punk rock

Alex Pareene on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Alex Pareene — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:30:08 +0000

The Slits' Cut came out in '79. that is an awesome album.

MatthewGallaway on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

MatthewGallaway — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Agree on all counts!

Dave Bry on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dave Bry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:24:59 +0000

Yes. I thought a lot about "Zen Arcade" when I was writing that "London Calling" was punk's crowning achievement. And the Replacements' "Let It Be," too. (Has there ever been a better music scene than mid-80s Minneapolis? This wanking, time-wasting rock-crit dork says no.) I guess next would be a long semantics parsing of the meaning of "crowning achievement." But I'll spare everybody.

Hez on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Hez — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:23:54 +0000

I have this on cassette still. That is all.

LondonLee on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

LondonLee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:20:07 +0000

I always thought of 'Tusk' as their 'Exile On Main Street' - messy and a bit fucked up.

johnpseudonym on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

johnpseudonym — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:18:51 +0000

Siouxsie and the Banshees' The Scream (1978) is better than any Clash album. But it's a moot point, punk reached its apex in the second wave (i.e., hardcore).

MatthewGallaway on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

MatthewGallaway — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:14:32 +0000

This makes me excited for 2k14, when we can celebrate (if that's the right word) the 30th anniversary of Zen Arcade, an album that in some respects is the Schopenhauer-infused answer to London Calling's Hegelian dialectic. Like London Calling, ZA mixes genres but unlike London Calling is rooted in a bleak and dire pessimism that to this day keeps it safely out of the mnstrm (relatively speaking), both conceptually and sonically, and arguably (or at least if I'm making the argument) more relevant to the shitshow that is our world today (and for the next __ years). Zen Arcade is the true Malevichian 'White on White' of punk/hardcore: there was no point in going any further in that direction once it was released; London Calling (as much as I love it) feels a bit like 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips' in comparison.

Meth Molter Malls on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Meth Molter Malls — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:12:28 +0000

I'm glad Shakey decided to start playing that song again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSCUC-wElkM

SemperBufo on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

SemperBufo — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:09:31 +0000

I'm not even going to touch the matter of how what we consider punk, or even what we consider to have been punk, changes over the decades. Leave that for media studies grad students of the future.

Alex Pareene on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Alex Pareene — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:02:32 +0000

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'RE THE ONE?

Dave Bry on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dave Bry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:58:55 +0000

Should have put "I have to go beat off about the use of flying buttresses in gothic cathedrals." (By which I mean, I kind of agree!)

Natan on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Natan — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:57:33 +0000

I've always thought it was hokey as hell.

KarenUhOh on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

KarenUhOh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:54:41 +0000

It's not that funny, is it?

Dave Bry on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dave Bry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:54:25 +0000

Right. Thanks, Meth. It's not the only album that matters. As Pareene pointed out so welcomely, "Tusk" came out that year, too.

KarenUhOh on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

KarenUhOh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:53:15 +0000

Honey, the Dolls are this little tutu's alltime fave. . .till S-k, at least.

davidwatts on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

davidwatts — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:50:40 +0000

And here I thought I would be the only one talking about how humorless and overblown this album is! You guys really are the best. So, yeah, as to my original point: it's the best "punk rock record" if your idea of punk rock is making political points of the 2-AM-stoned-dorm-room-conversation variety over musical backing stolen from black people and drained of any energy or urgency, all the while being just so fucking self-satisfied that everyone around you wants to punch you in the face.

Dave Bry on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Dave Bry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:48:48 +0000

Yes! Fleetwood Mac is punk is one of my favorite things ever.

ecgroom on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

ecgroom — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:47:45 +0000

Best described as a MUSICAL (trying to stay aways from the genres) TRIUMPH. The Clash was SO BEYOND punk for the simple reason they could all play their instruments and were politically relevant too. And speaking of spit, Joe's blathering of lyrics while on stage was like a showering diatribe - one that I was subject too on a few occasions.

Alex Pareene on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Alex Pareene — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:44:29 +0000

Better punk albums from 1979: Fear of Music, Singles Going Steady (cheating -- but TRUE), Rust Never Sleeps (THIS IS THE STORY OF JOHNNY ROTTEN), and, obviously, the REAL only album that matters, and the most punk fucking album ever, Tusk.

Meth Molter Malls on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Meth Molter Malls — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:40:12 +0000

Re-registered under this moniker just for NVC. I think I like it. For everyone else's benefit(?), I'll say that I wasn't running this album down when I had this convo with NVC a couple months back. Bry is right: the album is brillz--if not the ONLY album that matters. I just said that stuff to NVC in order to explain why nothing from Calling is on this weirdly indefensible mix cd-r I made earlier this year for someone who asked what punk means to me. /EssplainingTooMuch

Baboleen on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Baboleen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:33:50 +0000

Regardless of the genre you place the album, it represents a time in my life when I most had a fuck them all attitude. I was 18, a punk and having the time of my life. The Clash came on the radio this morning and I blasted it!! A great remember when.

Hobbesian on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Hobbesian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:30:47 +0000

Or something.

Pop Socket on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Pop Socket — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:29:52 +0000

I bought it when I was in high school. Damn I'm old. Of all the crap I listened to as a kid, this is the album that has stood the test of time and is as relevant know as it was then, if not more so. For example, Gaslight Anthem is the bastard son of Joe Strummer and Bruce Springsteen. And Broooce has been known to cover a Clash son or two.

SemperBufo on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

SemperBufo — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:29:30 +0000

I remember that they both struck me as kind of humorless at the time. Especially that posh twat Strummer. And later, when they dropped "Rock the Casbah," the whiff of hypocrisy hit me like mustard gas. But as I go all old and soft, & no longer base my identity on the music I listen to, I've grown to love this album (and also G4's Entertainment!).

Hobbesian on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Hobbesian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:29:23 +0000

In fact, Janie Jones was in love with rock and roll. Woah.

sailor on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

sailor — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:23:56 +0000

Of course I fucked the italic thing up. What's the symbol for close ital? Jesus, can I get a life? Soon?

sailor on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

sailor — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:22:02 +0000

Whee, another music discussion hinged on arbitrary genre categorizations! What a fabulous use of time. Punk shmunk. London Calling was a really good album. Just call it rock and roll which, an expression that isn't limited to stuff like Eddie Cochran, young 'uns.

LondonLee on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

LondonLee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:06:09 +0000
In between Altamont and Punk there was Glam Rock, Reggae, Disco Ã¢â‚¬" quite a lot happened in the 70s.

LondonLee on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

LondonLee — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:03:12 +0000
Here I was all prepared to be contrarian and say that London Calling isn't a punk album (no matter what Americans keep saying) and that the first Clash album (UK version of course) is still their best - but everyone else beat me to it. Punk died after the summer of 1977, The Clash were smart enough to move on. I saw them on the London Calling tour too (London Lyceum Ballroom) and they were fantastic, Peteykins must have caught them on a bad night.

spanish bombs on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

spanish bombs — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:54:06 +0000
People can argue about whether this album has the punk spirit, but it definitely lacks the punk aesthetic as heard on The Clash's eponymous outing.

Antonia Capet on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Antonia Capet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:50:44 +0000
Unless Bry is touting that very thing by arguing that "London Calling" is responsible for KILLING punk rock? "In fact, it's probably as responsible as any other work for the fact that the term "punk rock" seems kind of silly now." In which case it's all a weird circular strange kind of snake-eating-its-own-tail kind of argument. The best punk album killed punk, or something. Which is a very punk-rock thing to do.

Antonia Capet on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Antonia Capet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:46:20 +0000
Onanist.

beingiseasy on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

beingiseasy — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:45:35 +0000
I agree. It's a mosaic of just about everything in rock that came before. It's a blend of solid rock 'n roll mixed with 'world music'. Calling London Calling Punk is like saying that Sgt. Peppers was just Rock or Psychedelia.

KarenUhOh on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

KarenUhOh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:44:31 +0000
Absolutely true--it's a pop move. You might even argue Give 'Em Enough Rope was a step back. Or, you could really not care a crap, and that would be valid, too.

Antonia Capet on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Antonia Capet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:42:22 +0000
Wikipedia would agree. "The album represented a change in The Clash's musical style, and featured elements of ska, pop, soul, rockabilly and reggae more prominently than in their previously released music." You can have a non-punk album by a punk band, and that appears to be what happened here.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Natasha Vargas-Cooper — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:39:43 +0000
Another Awl contributer, let's call him Meth Molter Malls, said that this NOT a Punk Album and point to Train n Vain as a way to highlight his argument. Thoughts?

KarenUhOh on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

KarenUhOh — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:30:54 +0000
I'll defer to the rankings, as all such criticism seems so purely subjective, past a certain level of consensus. [The Clash is better. Maybe even Sandanista!)]. What gets me so much is how those glaciers of time just melted. I mean, it seemed like forever between Elvis and the Beatles, or between the Brits and the Psychs--hell, between Woodstock and Altamont. You drummed your fingers and waited for records to come out. And then, like, eons later, punk finally happened; and then NW, Rap, World, Hip Hop blah blah blah--until 30 years passed, and it seems just like "Yesterday."

NotAndersonCooper on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

NotAndersonCooper — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:30:53 +0000
Wanker.

Peteykins on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Peteykins — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:29:09 +0000
Mind if I dissent? When London Calling came out, I thought it was OK; they were never my favorites. And then I saw them live on the London Calling tour and they could barely play the songs, they were so terrible. That's when I realized that the producer had to be responsible for most of their sound on the record. Of course, it didn't help the Clash that their warm-up act was the newish Gang of Four, who were so good they'd make anybody following them sound like crap.

Antonia Capet on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

Antonia Capet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:17:08 +0000
Ugh. I knew it would be something like this when I saw the headline. Exaggerated, overblown rock-critic fetishism, as usual. It's a good album, but by no means "the only album that matters." It's particularly good if you were a 17-year-old boy in 1979, but really not so maverick if you consider that it's basically a testament to how late the British got their shit together, when it came to rock and roll. Albums like this get most of their totemic status because they came out at roughly the time that most contemporary rock critics learned to beat off.

beingiseasy on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

beingiseasy — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:13:07 +0000
also: "I went to the market to realize my soul 'cause what I need, I just don't have" yesyes

beingiseasy on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

beingiseasy — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:10:50 +0000
a Top 20 album of mine. So much influence in those 19 songs.

NotAndersonCooper on It's Been 30 Years Since The Release Of The Only Album That Matters

NotAndersonCooper — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:10:06 +0000
Death or Glory had me at: I believe in this and it's been tested by research. He who fucks nuns will later join the church The perfect subversion and poetry for a struggling post adolescent.