The Clash

The Clash

The Clash were an English rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk rock. Along with punk rock, they experimented with reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap and rockabilly. For most of their recording career, The Clash consisted of Joe Strummer (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mick Jones (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Simonon (bass, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals) and Nicky "Topper" Headon (drums, percussion). Headon left the group in 1982, and internal friction led to Jones's departure the following year. The group continued with new members, but finally disbanded in early 1986.

The Clash were a major success in the UK from the release of their self-titled debut album in 1977. Their third album, London Calling, released in the UK in December 1979, brought them popularity in the United States when it came out there the following month. It received wide critical acclaim; a decade later Rolling Stone magazine declared it the best album of the 1980s.

The Clash's politicised lyrics, musical experimentation, and rebellious attitude had a far-reaching influence on rock, alternative rock in particular. They became widely referred to as "The Only Band That Matters", originally a promotional slogan introduced by the group's record label, CBS. In January 2003 the band—including original drummer Terry Chimes—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash number 30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Before The Clash's founding, the band's future members were active in different parts of the London music scene. John Graham Mellor sang and played rhythm guitar in the pub rock act The 101'ers, which formed in 1974. By the time The Clash came together two years later, he had already abandoned his original stage name, "Woody" Mellor, in favor of "Joe Strummer", a reference to his rudimentary strumming skills on the ukulele as a busker in the London Underground. Mick Jones played guitar in legendary protopunk band London SS, which rehearsed for much of 1975 without ever playing a live show and recording only a single demo. London SS was managed by Bernard Rhodes, a sometime associate of impresario Malcolm McLaren and a friend of the band McLaren managed, the Sex Pistols, who made their public debut in November. Among those who auditioned for London SS without making the cut were Paul Simonon, who tried out as a vocalist, and drummer Terry Chimes. Nicky Headon drummed with the band for a week, then quit.

After London SS broke up in early 1976, Rhodes continued as Jones's manager. At the instigation of Rhodes, Jones contacted Simonon in March, suggesting he learn an instrument so he could join the new band Jones was organising. Soon Jones, Simonon on bass, Keith Levene on guitar and "whoever we could find really to play the drums" were rehearsing. In late May, Chimes was asked to audition and became the band's full-time drummer.

After rehearsing with Strummer for less than a month, The Clash made their debut on 4 July 1976, supporting the Sex Pistols at the Black Swan in Sheffield. The band apparently wanted to make it onstage before their rivals in The Damned—another London SS spinoff—made their own scheduled debut two days later. The Clash would not play out again for another five weeks. In early September, Levene was kicked out for never showing up to practice. On 21 September, the band performed at the 100 Club Punk Festival, sharing the bill with the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Subway Sect. Chimes left in late November; he was briefly replaced by Rob Harper as The Clash toured in support of the Sex Pistols during December's Anarchy Tour.

The band went through several drummers, with Jones handling the duties for a time. They finally recruited Nicky Headon, who had played briefly with Jones's London SS two years before. Headon was nicknamed "Topper" by Simonon, who felt he resembled the Topper comic book character Mickey the Monkey. An excellent musician, Headon could also play piano, bass and guitar. He originally planned to stay briefly, gain a name for himself, and then find a better band. Realising The Clash's potential, he changed his plans. In Westway To The World, Strummer noted, "If we hadn't found Topper, I don't think we'd have got anywhere". Headon's first recording with the band was the single "Complete Control"; it was produced by famed reggae artist Lee "Scratch" Perry, but the result was pure punk rock. Released in September 1977, it rose to number 28 on the British chart and has gone on to be cited as one of punk's greatest singles. During this period, members of The Clash were arrested for various misdemeanors ranging from vandalism to the stealing of a pillowcase.

In February 1978, the band came out with the single "Clash City Rockers". June saw the release of "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais", which surprised fans with its ska rhythm and arrangement. Before The Clash began recording their second album, CBS requested that they adopt a cleaner sound than its predecessor in order to reach American audiences. Sandy Pearlman, known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult, was hired to produce the record. Although some complained about its relatively mainstream production style, Give 'Em Enough Rope received largely positive reviews upon its November release. It hit number 2 in the UK, but it was not the American breakthrough CBS had hoped for, reaching only number 128 on the Billboard chart. The album's first UK single, the hard rocking "Tommy Gun", rose to number 19, the highest chart position for a Clash single to date. In support of the album, the band undertook its first, largely successful tour of the US.

In August and September 1979, The Clash recorded London Calling. Produced by Guy Stevens, who had previously worked with Mott the Hoople and others, the double album was a mix of punk rock, reggae, ska, rockabilly, traditional rock and roll and other elements possessed of an energy that had hardly flagged since the band's early days, but with greater maturity and production polish. It is regarded as one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. London Calling reached number 9 on the British chart and number 27 on the US chart. Its final track, a relatively straightforward rock and roll number sung by Mick Jones called "Train in Vain", was included at the last minute and thus did not appear in the track listing on the cover. It turned out to be their first US Top 40 hit, peaking at number 23 on the Billboard chart. In the UK, where "Train in Vain" was not released as a single, London Calling's title track, stately in beat but unmistakably punk in message and tone, rose to number 11—the highest position any Clash single reached in the UK before the band's breakup. During this period, The Clash began to be regularly billed as "The Only Band That Matters". Musician Gary Lucas, then employed by CBS Records' creative services department, claims to have coined the tagline. The epithet was soon widely adopted by fans and music journalists.

The Clash planned to record and release a single every month in 1980. CBS balked at this idea, and the band came out with only one single—an original reggae tune, "Bankrobber", in August—before the December release of the 3-LP, 36-song Sandinista!. The album again reflected a broad range of musical styles, including extended dubs and the first forays into rap by a major rock band. Produced by the band members with the participation of Jamaican reggae artist Mikey Dread, Sandinista! was their most controversial album to date, both politically and musically. Critical opinion was divided, often within individual reviews. Trouser Press's Ira Robbins described half the album as "great", half as "nonsense" and worse. In the New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Dave Marsh argued, "Sandinista! is nonsensically cluttered. Or rather seems nonsensically cluttered. One of the Clash's principal concerns...is to avoid being stereotyped." The album fared well in America, charting at number 24, even though it had no catchy single and, in the increasingly conservative environment of album-oriented rock (AOR) radio in the US, received minimal airplay.

During 1981, the band came out with a single, "This Is Radio Clash", that further demonstrated their ability to mix diverse influences such as dub and hip hop. They set to work on their fifth album in the fall, originally planning it as a 2-LP set with the title Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg. Mick Jones produced one cut, but the other members were dissatisfied. Production duties were handed to Glyn Johns, and the album was reconceived as a single LP. Though Combat Rock was filled with offbeat songs, experiments with sound collage, and a spoken word vocal by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, it contained two "radio friendly" tracks. The leadoff single in the US was "Should I Stay or Should I Go", released in June 1982. Another Jones feature in a rock and roll style similar to "Train in Vain", it received heavy airplay on AOR stations. The follow-up, "Rock the Casbah", put lyrics addressing the Iranian clampdown on imports of Western music to a bouncy dance rhythm. (The singles were released in the opposite order in the UK, where they were both preceded by "Know Your Rights".) The music for "Rock the Casbah" was composed by Headon, who performed not only the percussion but also the piano and bass heard on the recorded version. It was the band's biggest US hit ever, charting at number 8, and the video was put into heavy rotation by MTV. The album itself was the band's most successful, hitting number 2 in the UK and number 7 in the US.

After Combat Rock, The Clash began to disintegrate. Topper Headon was asked to leave the band just prior to the release of the album, due to his heroin addiction, which was damaging his health and drumming. The band's original drummer, Terry Chimes, was brought back for the next few months. The loss of Headon, well-liked by the others, exposed the growing frictions within the band. Jones and Strummer began to feud. The band opened for The Who on a leg of their final tour in the US, playing (among other places) New York's Shea Stadium. Though The Clash continued to tour, the personal tensions were increasing.

In early 1983, Chimes left the band after the end of the Combat Rock Tour, due to the in-fighting and turmoil. He was replaced by Pete Howard for the US Festival in San Bernardino, California, which The Clash co-headlined, along with David Bowie and Van Halen. The band argued with the event's promoters over inflated ticket prices, threatening to pull out unless a large donation was made to a local charity. The group ultimately performed on May 28, the festival's New Music Day, which drew a crowd of 140,000. After the show, members of the band brawled with security staffers. This was Jones's last appearance with the group. In September 1983, he was fired. Shortly thereafter, he became a founding member of General Public, but left that band as they were recording their first album. Jones then founded the long-lasting project Big Audio Dynamite.

Nick Sheppard, formerly of the Bristol-based Cortinas, and Vince White were selected as The Clash's new guitarists. Howard continued as the drummer. The reconstituted band played its first shows in January 1984 with a batch of new material and launched into the self-financed Out of Control Tour, traveling widely over the winter and into early summer. At a striking miners' benefit show ("Scargill's Christmas Party") in December 1984, they announced that a new record would be released early in the new year.

The recording sessions for Cut the Crap were chaotic, with manager Bernard Rhodes and Strummer working in Munich. Most of the music was played by studio musicians, with Sheppard and later White flying in to provide guitar parts. Struggling with Rhodes for control of the band, Strummer returned home. The band went on a busking tour of public spaces in cities throughout the UK, playing acoustic versions of their hits and popular cover tunes.

After a gig in Athens, Strummer went to Spain to clear his mind. While he was abroad, the first single from Cut the Crap, the mournful "This Is England", was released to mostly negative reviews. "CBS had paid an advance for it so they had to put it out", Strummer later explained. "I just went, 'Well fuck this', and fucked off to the mountains of Spain to sit sobbing under a palm tree, while Bernie had to deliver a record." However, critic Dave Marsh later championed "This Is England" as one of the top 1001 rock singles of all time. The single has also received retroactive praise from Q magazine and others.

After the breakup, Strummer contacted Jones in an effort to reform The Clash. Jones, however, had already formed a new band, Big Audio Dynamite (B.A.D.), that had released its debut late in 1985. The two did work together on their respective 1986 projects. Jones helped out with the two songs Strummer wrote and performed for the Sid and Nancy soundtrack. Strummer, in turn, cowrote a number of the tracks on the second B.A.D. album, No. 10, Upping St., which he also coproduced. With Jones committed to B.A.D., Strummer moved on to various solo projects and screen acting work. Simonon formed a band called Havana 3am. Headon recorded a solo album, before once again spiraling into drug abuse. Chimes drummed with a succession of different acts.

On 2 March 1991, a reissue of “Should I Stay or Should I Go” gave The Clash its first and only number 1 UK single. That same year, Strummer reportedly cried when he learned that "Rock the Casbah" had been adopted as a slogan by US bomber pilots in the Gulf War.

In 1999, Strummer, Jones and Simonon cooperated in the compiling of the live album From Here to Eternity and video documentary Westway to the World. On 7 November 2002, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that The Clash would be inducted into the Hall the following spring. On 15 November, Jones and Strummer shared the stage, performing three Clash songs during a London benefit show by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. Strummer, Jones and Headon wanted to play a reunion show to coincide with their induction into the Hall. Simonon, however, did not want to participate because he believed that playing at the high-priced event would not have been in the spirit of The Clash. At any rate, Strummer's death from a congenital heart defect on 22 December 2002 prevented any potential reunion. In March 2003, the Hall of Fame induction took place; the band members inducted were Strummer, Jones, Simonon, Chimes and Headon. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked The Clash number 30 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In early 2008, Carbon/Silicon, the new band founded by Mick Jones and his former London SS bandmate Tony James, entered into a six-week residency at London's Inn on the Green. On opening night, 11 January, Headon joined the band for The Clash's "Train in Vain". An encore followed with Headon playing drums on "Should I Stay or Should I Go". This was the first time since 1982 that Headon and Jones had performed together on stage.

The band's music was often charged by a leftist political ideology. Joe Strummer, in particular, was a committed leftist. The Clash are credited with pioneering the advocacy of radical politics in punk rock, and were known as the "Thinking Man's Yobs" by many simply for voicing a political slant other than anarchism. Like many early punk bands, The Clash protested against monarchy and aristocracy. However, unlike many of their peers, The Clash rejected nihilism. Instead, they found solidarity with a number of contemporary liberation movements and were involved with such groups as the Anti-Nazi League. Their politics were made explicit in the lyrics of such early recordings as "White Riot", which encouraged disaffected white youths to become politically active like their black counterparts; "Career Opportunities", which addressed the alienation of low-paid, routinised jobs and discontent over the lack of alternatives; and "London's Burning", about the bleakness and boredom of life in the inner city. Artist Caroline Coon, who was associated with the punk scene, argued that "hose tough, militaristic songs were what we needed as we went into Thatcherism".

In April 1978, The Clash headlined the Rock Against Racism concert in London's Victoria Park for 80,000 people, where Strummer wore a T-shirt bearing the words "Brigade Rosse" with the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof) insignia in the middle. He later said that he wore the shirt not to support the violent left-wing factions in Italy and Germany, but to bring attention to their existence.

The band's political sentiments were reflected in their resistance to the music industry's usual profit motivations; even at their peak, tickets to shows and souvenirs were reasonably priced. The group insisted that CBS sell their double and triple album sets London Calling and Sandinista! for the price of a single album each (then £5), succeeding with the former and compromising with the latter by agreeing to sell it for £5.99 and forfeit all their royalties on its first 200,000 sales. These "VFM" (value for money) principles meant that they were constantly in debt to CBS, and only started to break even around 1982.

In Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, "London Calling" ranked number 15, the highest for any song by a punk band. Four other Clash songs made the list: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (228), "Train In Vain" (292), "Complete Control" (361), and "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" (430). "London Calling" ranked number 48 in the magazine's 2008 list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time. In the magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, London Calling ranked number 8, again the highest entry by a punk band. The Clash was number 77 and Sandinista! was number 404.

The Clash's influence can be heard in American political punk bands such as Rancid and Anti-Flag, as well as in the political hard rock of early Manic Street Preachers. Rancid in particular is known for a Clash obsession. The band's song "Indestructible" includes the line, "And I'll keep listening to the great Joe Strummer / 'Cause through music we can live forever". U2 also has acknowledged the influence of The Clash. Many Latin American post-punk and ska/reggae/dub bands such as Mano Negra, Todos Tus Muertos, Skalariak and Maldita Vecindad are also indebted to The Clash. Argentina's Los Fabulosos Cadillacs covered "Revolution Rock", "The Guns of Brixton" and Mick Jones sings on their "Mal Bicho".

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The Clash discography

The discography of The Clash, a British punk rock band, consists of six studio albums, thirty-one singles, two live albums, eight compilations, and two EPs.

The Clash's first official recording was the single for "White Riot", released by CBS Records in March 1977. In April, CBS released their self-titled debut album, The Clash, in the United Kingdom, but refused to release it in the United States, saying that the sound was not “radio friendly”. An US version of the album with a modified track listing – four songs from the original version were replaced with five non-album singles and B-sides – was released by Epic Records in 1979, after the UK original became the best-selling import album of all time in the United States. Terry Chimes left the band for the second time soon after the recording, so only Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon were featured on the album's cover, and Chimes was credited as "Tory Crimes". The album ranked number 12 in the UK Albums Chart and number 126 in the Billboard Pop albums chart.

In the same month, the band also released an EP single, Capital Radio, which was given away to NME's readers. In May, CBS released the single "Remote Control" without asking them first, and, in September, "Complete Control", produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry, it was Topper Headon's first recording with the band, and rose to number 28 on the British Singles Chart.

In February 1978, the band came out with the single "Clash City Rockers". June saw the release of "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais". The Clash second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope, was released by CBS and produced by Sandy Pearlman in November, receiving largely positive reviews. It hit number 2 in the UK, and number 128 on the Billboard chart. The album's first UK single, "Tommy Gun", rose to number 19.

In February, 1979, CBS released the single, "English Civil War", and in May the EP, The Cost of Living. In August and September 1979, the Clash recorded their third studio album, London Calling. Produced by Guy Stevens, the double album was a mix of different styles, with greater maturity and production polish. London Calling, released on December 1979 by CBS and regarded as one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded, reached number 9 on the British chart and number 27 on the US chart. In the UK, London Calling's title track, released few days before the album's release, rose to number 11—the highest position any Clash single reached in the UK before the band's breakup. The album's final track, "Train in Vain", included at the last minute and thus did not appear in the track listing on the cover, was released in Holland, Germany, Spain, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia on June 1980. The single was not released in the UK, and in the U.S. was backed with "London Calling". It turned out to be the band's biggest U.S. hit to date, reaching number 23 on the Billboard chart.

In August, the band came out with another single, "Bankrobber", which reached number 12 in the UK. In October, Epic released the compilation album Black Market Clash, only in the U.S.. The compilation reached number 74 in the U.S.. In the following November, CBS released the single "The Call Up", which reached number 40 in the UK. In December, CBS released the 3-LP, 36-song Sandinista!. The album again reflected a broad range of musical styles, including extended dubs and the first forays into rap by a major rock band. Produced by the band members with the participation of Mikey Dread, Sandinista! was their most controversial album to date, both politically and musically. The album fared well in America, charting at number 24.

During 1981, the band came out with a single, "Hitsville UK". Released on January 1981, the single reached number 56 in the UK and number 53 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In April, CBS released the single for the song "The Magnificent Seven" which peaked at number 34 on the UK Singles Chart in 1981, and at number 21 on the U.S. Billboard Club Play Singles in 1982. In the same month, CBS released the 12-inch single "The Magnificent Dance". In November, CBS released the single, "This Is Radio Clash", which further demonstrated their ability to mix diverse influences such as dub and hip hop. It reached number 47 on the UK Singles Chart.

In April 1982, CBS released the single "Know Your Rights", which reached number 43 in the UK. They set to work on their fifth studio album in the fall, originally planned to be a 2-LP set with the title Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg, the album's producer, Glyn Johns, reconceived it as a single LP. It contains two "radio friendly" singles, "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah". "Should I Stay or Should I Go" reached number 17 in the UK and number 45 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Rock the Casbah" peaked at number 17 in the UK and number 8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album itself was the band's most successful, hitting number 2 in the UK and number 7 in the U.S..

After Combat Rock, Topper Headon was asked to leave the band, and in September, Mick Jones was fired. The first single from Cut the Crap, "This Is England", was released by CBS in September 1985. It reached number 74 in the UK. Cut the Crap, the last studio album of the band, actually composed by Strummer, Simonon, Pete Howard, Nick Sheppard and Vince White, was produced by manager Bernard Rhodes and released by CBS in November. It reached number 16 in the UK and number 88 in the U.S.. The Clash effectively disbanded in early 1986.

In 1988, Epic released the double-disc, 28-track compilation The Story of the Clash, Volume 1 presenting a relatively thorough overview of their career. In March 1991, a reissue of "Should I Stay or Should I Go" gave the band its first and only number 1 UK single. In the same year, CBS and Epic released the triple-disc, 64-song box set Clash on Broadway that covers their entire career, and the compilation album The Singles, that includes all their singles, except for 1985's "This Is England". In 1994, Epic released Super Black Market Clash, a compilation that contains B-sides and rare tracks not available on their other albums. In 1999, Epic released the compilation album of live material, From Here to Eternity: Live.

The Clash: Westway to the World, a documentary film about the band, was released by Sony Music Entertainment in 2000, and, in 2003, it won the Grammy Awards for the best long form music video. In 2003, Epic and Sony BMG released The Essential Clash, a career-spanning greatest hits album and DVD, dedicated to Joe Strummer, who died during the production of the album. In 2004, Sony Legacy released London Calling: 25th Anniversary Edition. It contains The Vanilla Tapes as a bonus disc, and a DVD featuring the making of the album, the music videos for "London Calling", "Train in Vain" and "Clampdown", and video footage of The Clash recording sessions in Wessex Studios. In 2006, Sony BMG released the box set Singles Box which includes all the singles that they released in the UK. In 2007, Sony Bmg released The Singles that presents a stripped down view of the singles of the band. In 2008, Sony Music Entertainment released The Clash Live: Revolution Rock, produced and directed by Don Letts, it features live material and interviews from 1978 to 1983, and, in October, the live album The Clash: Live At Shea Stadium, which features the recording of the band's second night at Shea Stadium in 1982.

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The Clash (album)

The Clash is the first album-length recording released by the English punk rock band The Clash. It was released in two different versions, both of which are still in print: the original version in 1977 and the revised U.S. version in 1979 (with several post-1977 single sides added to the album).

Issued in the UK by CBS Records in 1977, engineered by CBS staff engineer Simon Humphrey and produced by Clash live soundman Mickey Foote, at the (now-razed) CBS Whitfield Street Studio No. 3. This first album by the Clash was unusually musically varied for a punk band, with reggae and early rock and roll influences plainly evident.

Most of the album was conceived on the 18th floor of a council high rise on London's Harrow Rd, in a flat that was rented by Jones' grandmother, who frequently went to see their live concert. The album was recorded over three weekend sessions at CBS Studio 3 in early February 1977. By the third of these sessions the album was recorded and mixed to completion, with the tapes being delivered to CBS at the start of March. It cost just £4000 to produce.

The subject of the opening track, "Janie Jones", was a famous madam in London in the 1970s. "Remote Control" was written by Mick Jones after the Anarchy Tour and contains pointed observations about the civic hall bureaucrats who had cancelled concerts, the police, big business and especially record companies. CBS decided to release the song as a single without consulting the band. "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.", developed from a Mick Jones song, entitled "I'm So Bored With You", condemns the Americanization of the UK in Europe. "White Riot" was the first single put out by The Clash. The song is short and intense, punk style of two chords played very fast. Lyrically, the song is about class economics and race.

The album's front cover photo, shot by Kate Simon, was taken in the alleyway directly opposite the front door of the band's 'Rehearsal Rehearsals' building in Camden Market. Drummer Terry Chimes, though a full member of The Clash at the time, did not appear in the shot as he had already decided to leave the band. The picture of the charging police officers on the rear, shot by Rocco Macauly, was taken during the 1976 riot at the Notting Hill Carnival—the inspiration for the track "White Riot".

The album received positive reviews from critics and peaked at number 12 in the UK charts. In December 1979, critic Robert Christgau named it his favorite album of the 1970s.

In February 1993, the New Musical Express magazine ranked the album number 13 in its list of the Greatest Albums Of All Time. NME also ranked The Clash number 3 in its list of the Greatest Albums of the '70s, and wrote in the review that "the speed-freaked brain of punk set to the tinniest, most frantic guitars ever trapped on vinyl. Lives were changed beyond recognition by it".

In December 1999, Q magazine rated the album 5 stars out of 5, and wrote about The Clash that they "would never sound so punk as they did on 1977's self-titled debut....Lyrically intricate...it still howled with anger". The same magazine placed The Clash at number forty-eight in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever in 2000, and included The Clash in its "100 Best Punk Albums", giving it 5 stars out of 5, in May 2002.

In 2000, Alternative press rated the album 5 out of 5. Alternative press review saw The Clash as an eternal punk album, a blueprint for the pantomime of 'punkier' rock acts, and that for all of its forced politics and angst, The Clash continues to sound crucial.

In May 2001, Spin magazine ranked the album number 3 in its "50 Most Essential Punk Records", and wrote "Punk as alienated rage, as anticorporate blather, as joyous racial confusion, as evangelic outreach and white knuckles and haywire impulses".

In March 2003, Mojo magazine ranked The Clash number 2 in its "Top 50 Punk Albums", writing about the album that it was "the ultimate punk protest album. Searingly evocative of dreary late '70s Britain, but still timelessly inspiring".

Lee Perry (credited with singer Junior Murvin with the composition of "Police and Thieves") heard the album whilst in London in 1977 and played it to Bob Marley, who in turn mentioned The Clash on his own track "Punky Reggae Party".

All tracks were written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, except where noted.

Tracks 1, 3–4, 6–8 are sung by Joe Strummer. Tracks 2 and 5 are sung by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.

Tracks 1–2 and 4–6 are sung by Joe Strummer. Track 3 is sung by Mick Jones.

In the U.S. the Clash's debut album was released one year after Give Em Enough Rope, so it was their second U.S. LP. CBS in America had decided that the album was 'not radio friendly', so it was initially only available in the States during 1977/1978 as an import, and as such became the biggest selling import of the year, shifting over 100,000 copies.

In July 1979, Epic released a modified version of the album for the United States market. This version replaced four songs from the original version with five non-album singles and B-sides, some of which were recorded and released after The Clash's second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope. It also used the re-recorded single version of "White Riot", rather than the original take featured on the UK album. Initial copies of this American album came with a bonus 7" single which featured "Groovy Times" and "Gates of the West".

This was another moderately successful American album for The Clash, even though the sales were likely diluted by the longstanding popularity of the UK version on the import market. The Clash peaked at #126 on the Billboard charts, setting the stage for the commercial breakthrough of London Calling later that year.

Since the Clash's first U.K. album had already been released in Canada by CBS Records, when CBS Canada released the U.S. version they changed the cover art so as to not confuse the record buying public. The CBS Canada version of the LP has a dark blue border instead of the green. Initial copies also contained the bonus "Groovy Times" 45.

All tracks were written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, except where noted.

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The Clash of Civilizations

The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.

The theory was originally formulated in a 1992 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, which was then developed in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?", in response to Francis Fukuyama's 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man. Huntington later expanded his thesis in a 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.

The term itself was first used by Bernard Lewis in an article in the September 1990 issue of The Atlantic Monthly titled The Roots of Muslim Rage.

Iranian leader Mohammad Khatami introduced the idea of Dialogue Among Civilizations as a response to the theory of Clash of Civilizations. The term "Dialogue among Civilizations" became more known after the United Nations adopted a resolution to name the year 2001 as the year of Dialogue among Civilizations.

Huntington began his thinking by surveying the diverse theories about the nature of global politics in the post-Cold War period. Some theorists and writers argued that human rights, liberal democracy and capitalist free market economy had become the only remaining ideological alternative for nations in the post-Cold War world. Specifically, Francis Fukuyama argued that the world had reached the 'end of history' in a Hegelian sense.

Huntington believed that while the age of ideology had ended, the world had only reverted to a normal state of affairs characterized by cultural conflict. In his thesis, he argued that the primary axis of conflict in the future would be along cultural and religious lines.

As an extension, he posits that the concept of different civilizations, as the highest rank of cultural identity, will become increasingly useful in analyzing the potential for conflict.

Huntington seems to fall in the primordialist school, believing that culturally defined groups are ancient and natural, however his early work would suggest he is a Structural Functionalist. His view that nation states would remain the most powerful actors is in line with realism. Finally, his warning that the Western civilization may decline is inspired by Arnold J. Toynbee, Carroll Quigley, and Oswald Spengler.

Due to an enormous response and the solidification of his views, Huntington later expanded the thesis in his 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.

Huntington argues that the trends of global conflict after the end of the Cold War are increasingly appearing at these civilizational divisions. Wars such as those following the break up of Yugoslavia, in Chechnya, and between India and Pakistan were cited as evidence of inter-civilizational conflict.

Huntington also argues that the widespread Western belief in the universality of the West's values and political systems is naïve and that continued insistence on democratization and such "universal" norms will only further antagonize other civilizations. Huntington sees the West as reluctant to accept this because it built the international system, wrote its laws, and gave it substance in the form of the United Nations.

Huntington identifies a major shift of economic, military, and political power from the West to the other civilizations of the world, most significantly to what he identifies as the two "challenger civilizations", Sinic and Islam.

In Huntington's view, East Asian Sinic civilization is culturally asserting itself and its values relative to the West due to its rapid economic growth. Specifically, he believes that China's goals are to reassert itself as the regional hegemon, and that other countries in the region will 'bandwagon' with China due to the history of hierarchical command structures implicit in the Confucian Sinic civilization, as opposed to the individualism and pluralism valued in the West.

In other words, regional powers such as the two Koreas and Vietnam will acquiesce to Chinese demands and become more supportive of China rather than attempting to oppose it. Huntington therefore believes that the rise of China poses one of the most significant problems and the most powerful long-term threat to the West, as Chinese cultural assertion clashes with the American desire for the lack of a regional hegemony in East Asia.

Huntington argues that the Islamic civilization has experienced a massive population explosion which is fueling instability both on the borders of Islam and in its interior, where fundamentalist movements are becoming increasingly popular. Manifestations of what he terms the "Islamic Resurgence" include the 1979 Iranian revolution and the first Gulf War.

Perhaps the most controversial statement Huntington made in the Foreign Affairs article was that "Islam has bloody borders". Huntington believes this to be a real consequence of several factors, including the previously mentioned Muslim youth bulge and population growth and Islamic proximity to many civilizations including Sinic, Orthodox, Western, and African.

Huntington sees Islamic civilization as a potential ally to China, both having more revisionist goals and sharing common conflicts with other civilizations, especially the West. Specifically, he identifies common Chinese and Islamic interests in the areas of weapons proliferation, human rights, and democracy that conflict with those of the West, and feels that these are areas in which the two civilizations will cooperate.

Russia, Japan, and India are what Huntington terms 'swing civilizations' and may favor either side. Russia, for example, clashes with the many Muslim ethnic groups on its southern border (such as Chechnya) but cooperates with Iran in order to avoid further Muslim-Orthodox violence in Southern Russia and in an attempt to continue the flow of oil. Huntington argues that a "Sino-Islamic connection" is emerging in which China will cooperate more closely with Iran, Pakistan, and other states to augment its international position.

Huntington also argues that civilizational conflicts are "particularly prevalent between Muslims and non-Muslims", identifying the "bloody borders" between Islamic and non-Islamic civilizations. This conflict dates back as far as the initial thrust of Islam into Europe, its eventual expulsion in the Iberian reconquest, the attacks of the Ottoman Turks on Eastern Europe and Vienna, and the European imperial division of the Islamic nations in the 1800s and 1900s.

More recent factors contributing to a Western-Islamic clash, Huntington wrote, are the Islamic Resurgence and demographic explosion in Islam, coupled with the values of Western universalism - that is, the view that all civilizations should adopt Western values - that infuriate Islamic fundamentalists.

All these historical and modern factors combined, Huntington wrote briefly in his Foreign Affairs article and in much more detail in his 1996 book, would lead to a bloody clash between the Islamic and Western civilizations. Along with Sinic-Western conflict, he believed, the Western-Islamic clash would represent the bloodiest conflicts of the early 21st century. Thus, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent events including the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have been widely viewed as a vindication of the Clash theory.

In Huntington's view, intercivilizational conflict manifests itself in two forms: fault line conflicts and core state conflicts.

Fault line conflicts are on a local level and occur between adjacent states belonging to different civilizations or within states that are home to populations from different civilizations.

Core state conflicts are on a global level between the major states of different civilizations. Core state conflicts can arise out of fault line conflicts when core states become involved.

These conflicts may result from a number of causes, such as: relative influence or power (military or economic), discrimination against people from a different civilization, intervention to protect kinsmen in a different civilization, or different values and culture, particularly when one civilization attempts to impose its values on people of a different civilization.

Critics of Huntington's ideas often extend their criticisms to traditional cultures and internal reformers who wish to modernize without adopting the values and attitudes of Western culture. These critics sometimes claim that to modernize is necessarily to become Westernized to a very large extent.

In reply, those who consider the Clash of Civilizations thesis accurate often point to the example of Japan, claiming that it is not a Western state at its core. They argue that it adopted much Western technology (also inventing much technology of its own in recent times), parliamentary democracy, and free enterprise, but has remained culturally very distinct from the West.

China is also cited by some as a rising non-Western economy. Many also point out the East Asian Tigers or neighboring states as having adapted western economics, while maintaining traditional or authoritarian social government.

Perhaps the ultimate example of non-Western modernization is Russia, the core state of the Orthodox civilization. The variant of this argument that uses Russia as an example relies on the acceptance of a unique non-Western civilization headed by an Orthodox state such as Russia or perhaps an Eastern European country.

Huntington argues that Russia is primarily a non-Western state although he seems to agree that it shares a considerable amount of cultural ancestry with the modern West. Russia was one of the great powers during World War I. It also happened to be a non-Western power.

According to Huntington, the West is distinguished from Orthodox Christian countries by the experience of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Enlightenment, overseas colonialism rather than contiguous expansion and colonialism, and a recent re-infusion of Classical culture through Rome rather than through the continuous trajectory of the Byzantine Empire.

The differences among the modern Slavic states can still be seen today. This issue is also linked to the "universalizing factor" exhibited in some civilizations.

Huntington refers to countries that are seeking to affiliate with another civilization as "torn countries." Turkey, whose political leadership has systematically tried to Westernize the country since the 1920s, is his chief example.

Turkey's history, culture, and traditions are derived from Islamic civilization, but Turkey's Western-oriented elite imposed western institutions and dress, embraced the Latin alphabet, joined NATO, and is seeking to join the European Union. Mexico and Russia are also considered to be torn by Huntington. He also gives the example of Australia as a country torn between its Western civilizational heritage and its growing economic engagement with Asia.

According to Huntington, a torn country must meet three requirements in order to redefine its civilizational identity. Its political and economic elite must support the move. Second, the public must be willing to accept the redefinition. Third, the elites of the civilization that the torn country is trying to join must accept the country.

As noted in the book, to date no torn country has successfully redefined its civilizational identity, this mostly due to the elites of the 'host' civilization refusing to accept the torn country, though if Turkey gained membership of the European Union it has been noted that many of its people would support Westernization. If this was to happen it would be the first to redefine its civilizational identity.

Amartya Sen wrote a book called "Identity and Violence: The illusion of destiny" in critique of Huntington's main concept of an inevitable clash along civilizational lines. In this book he argues that a root cause of violence is when people see each other as having a singular affiliation, ie: Hindu or Muslim, as opposed to multiple affiliations: Hindu, woman, housewife, mother, artist, daughter, member of a particular socio-economic class...etc. all of which can be a source of a person's identity.

In his book Terror and Liberalism, Paul Berman proposes another criticism of the civilization clash hypothesis. According to Berman, distinct cultural boundaries do not exist in the present day. He argues there is no "Islamic civilization" nor a "Western civilization", and that the evidence for a civilization clash is not convincing, especially when considering relationships such as that between the United States and Saudi Arabia. In addition, he cites the fact that many Islamic extremists spent a significant amount of time living and/or studying in the western world. According to Berman conflict arises because of philosophical beliefs between groups, regardless of cultural or religious identity.

It has been claimed that values are more easily transmitted and altered than Huntington proposes. Nations such as India, Turkey and South Korea as well as many Eastern European countries and Latin American countries, have become democracies in recent period, while many Western nations remain as Constitutional monarchies. Some also see Huntington's thesis as creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and reasserting differences between civilizations. Edward Said issued a response to Huntington's thesis in his own essay entitled "The Clash of Ignorance." Said argues that Huntington's categorization of the world's fixed "civilizations" omits the dynamic interdependency and interaction of culture. All his ideas are based not on harmony but on the clash or conflict between worlds. The theory that each world is “self-enclosed” is applied to the world map, to the structure of civilizations, to the notion that each race has a special destiny and psychology. According to Said, it is an example of an imagined geography, where the presentation of the world in a certain way legitimates certain politics. Interventionist and aggressive, the concept of civilizational clash is aimed at maintaining a war time status in the minds of the Americans. Thus, it continues to expand the Cold War by other means rather than advancing ideas that might help us understand the current scene or that could reconcile the two cultures.

Critics (see Le Monde Diplomatique articles) call The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the theoretical legitimization of American-led Western aggression against China and the world's Islamic cultures. Nevertheless, this post–Cold War shift in geopolitical organization and structure requires that the West internally strengthen itself culturally, by abandoning the imposition of its ideal of democratic universalism and its incessant military interventionism. Other critics argue that Huntington's taxonomy is simplistic and arbitrary, and does not take account of the internal dynamics and partisan tensions within civilizations. Huntington's influence upon U.S. policy has been likened to that of British historian A.J. Toynbee's controversial religious theories about Asian leaders in the early twentieth century.

Mr. Picco was appointed to his UN position in 1999 in order to facilitate discussions on diversity, through organizing conferences and seminars and disseminating information and scholarly materials. Having served the United Nations for two decades, Mr. Picco is most recognized for participating in UN efforts to negotiate the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and in bringing an end to the Iran-Iraq war. He believes that people should take responsibility for who they are, what they do, what they value, and what they believe in.

Huntington's piece in Foreign Affairs created more responses than almost any other essay ever published in that journal. The thesis has received much criticism from wildly different paradigms, with implications, methodology, and even the basic concepts being questioned. In his book, Huntington relies mostly on anecdotal evidence. Despite his expectations, more rigorous empirical studies have not shown any particular increase in the frequency of intercivilizational conflicts in the post-Cold War period. In fact, regional war and conflict spiked immediately after the end of Cold War, then it has declined slowly and steadily since then. However, what proportion of existing conflict can be attributed to "intercivilizational conflict" and whether such conflict increase in proportion to the overall conflict would remain to be seen.

Some have argued that his identified civilizations are fractured and show little internal unity. The Muslim world is severely fractured along ethnic lines with Arabs, Persians, Turks, Pakistanis, Kurds, Berbers, Albanians, Bosnians , Africans and Indonesians all having very different world views. Moreover, the criteria of the proposed delineation are not clear. One can argue, for instance, that cultural differences between China and Japan are not more important than between China and Vietnam. However, Vietnam is put together with China under the label of the Sinic civilization while Japan is supposed to form a separate civilization. Whereas, Western civilization includes both Protestant and Catholic branches; and the Germanic (which would include Anglo Saxon) and Romance cultural differences in Western Europe are also disregarded, as well as Anglo-Saxon countries (Britain, U.S., Canada, Australia, etc.) and Continental Europe. The distinction between the Western and Orthodox civilizations excludes non-religious factors, such as the post-Communist legacy or the level of economic development. It also ignores differences within Muslim communities.

In the case of Islamic societies, the "clash" may be with notions of "modernity" rather than with other comparable, religiously based societies or groups. Conflict arises between the values of traditional religion and those of consumerism and the entertainment world.

Also, in recent years the theory of Dialogue Among Civilizations, a response to Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, has become the centre of some international attention. The concept, which was introduced by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, was the basis for United Nation's resolution to name the year 2001 as the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations..

The Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) initiative was proposed at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 2005 by the President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and co-sponsored by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The initiative is intended to galvanize collective action across diverse societies in order to combat extremism, to overcome cultural and social barriers between mainly the Western and predominantly Muslim worlds, and to reduce the tensions and polarization between societies which differ in religious and cultural values.

These events have fueled a general perception that Huntington's Clash is well underway.

Some maintained that the 1995 and 2004 enlargements of the European Union brought the EU's eastern border up to the boundary between Huntington's Western and Orthodox civilizations; most of Europe's historically Protestant and Roman Catholic countries (with the exception of Croatia and countries like Switzerland and Norway who voluntarily opted out of EU membership) were now EU members, while a number of Europe's historically Orthodox countries (with exceptions such as longtime EU member Greece and newly accepted Cyprus) were outside the EU.

As others have noted, however, the NATO and EU membership of Romania and Bulgaria (since 2004 and 2007, correspondingly) present a challenge to some of Huntington's analysis and the line he drew throughout Romania failed to materialize. The recent tidal movements in Ukraine and Republic of Moldova show that there is no obvious limit between CIS and NATO either.

German geographers have pointed out that Huntington's regions of "civilizations" are affected by the concept of the "Kulturerdteile" (culture-continents) of the geographer Albert Kolb - a deprecated theory from 1962. In this theory, the effect of religious aspects was less important than historical and social aspects. Huntington notes in his book that German scholars hold a separate concept of civilization than presented in his analysis.

The Clash of Civilizations thesis may also be regarded as an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The ideas of Huntington and Bernard Lewis were already influential among American neoconservative figures such as Vice President Dick Cheney prior to September 11, 2001; Middle East scholar Gilles Kepel (2003) reports that many radical Islamists in the Middle East likewise viewed Huntington's thesis approvingly.

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