Route 19 Revisited

Twenty-eight years after its original release, The Clash'sLondon Callingwas inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a 'recording of lasting qualitative or historical significance'. It has topped polls for the best album of the seventies (and of the eighties). It regularly makes the top five in Best of British album polls. And it has placed, on average, in the mid twenties in the Greatest Albums of All Time polls for the last twenty-something years. No mean feat when artists the stature of The Beatles and Bob Dylan have many of the top slots, and so many other ground-shaking, heart-breaking and mind-expanding albums fail to make the lists at all. 'Iconic' is a much abused word, but the cover ofLondon Callinghas a genuine right to claim it:Qvoted Pennie Smith's cover the best rock'n'roll photograph of all time in 2002, and the instantly recognisable image of Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar has inspired countless imitators (including Mickey Mouse). Joe Strummer once remarked that The Clash didn't made it big it in the traditional way, by shipping multi-platinum, but rather 'in the culture'.London Calling's songs are rich in lyrical and musical allusion, and since the album's release, that wealth has trickled back down into our everyday lives, in ways both obvious and subtle. The Beatles had their lumps felt inRevolution in the Head, and Bob Dylan had his hinterland explored inInvisibleRepublic. Now The Clash's finest hour and five minutes gets a book telling when, how and where it was made, detailing the stories behind its songs, placing the album in contexts personal, musical and socio-political, noting its impact upon release, and considering the ripple effects since, both in The Clash members' own careers and 'in the culture'.

Twenty-eight years after its original release, The Clash's London Calling was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It has topped polls for the best album of the seventies (and of the eighties). It regularly makes the top five in Best of British album polls; and its always there in the polls for the Greatest Albums of All Time. Now Marcus Gray tells the story of when, how and where this iconic album was made, detailing the stories behind its songs, revealing contexts for the album both personal and political, and considering the effects since on the members of the band and on our culture.

Stealing All Transmissions is a love story. It’s the story of how The Clash fell in love with America, and how America loved them back. The romance began in full in 1977, when select rock journalists and deejays aided the band’s quest to depose the rock of indolence that dominated American airwaves. This history situates The Clash amid the cultural skirmishes of the 1970s and culminates with their September 1979 performance at the Palladium in New York City. This concert was broadcast live on WNEW, and it concluded with Paul Simonon treating his Fender bass like a woodcutter’s ax. This performance produced one of the most exhilarating Clash bootleg recordings, and the photo of Simonon’s outburst which graced the cover of the London Calling LP was recently deemed the greatest rock’n’roll photograph of all time. That night marked one of the last opportunities for American audiences to see The Clash as a punk band, teetering between conviction and uncertainty, before they became a seriously brilliant rock group. Stealing represents a distinctive take on the history of punk, for no other book gives proper attention to the forces of free-form radio, long-form rock journalism, or Clash bootleg recordings, many of which are now widely available on the web. This story, which takes its title from the 1981 single “Radio Clash,” includes original interviews with key figures from the New York punk scene. This secret history concludes with an analysis of how we listen to music today and its impact on the written word.

Taking a personal approach to the subject matter, Timothy Gray reads criticism and listens to music as though rock 'n' roll not only explains American culture, but also shores up his life. In It's Just the Normal Noises, Gray examines a wide array of writing about roots music from the 1960s to the 2000s. In addition to chapters on the genre-defining work of Peter Guralnick and Greil Marcus, he explores the influential writings of Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock, the editors of No Depression magazine, and the writers who contributed to its pages, Bill Friskicks-Warren, Ed Ward, David Cantwell, and Allison Stewart among them. A host of memoirists and novelists, from Patti Smith and Ann Powers to Eleanor Henderson and Dana Spiotta, shed light on the social effects and personal attachments of the music's many manifestations, from punk to alt country to hardcore.

This one-of-a-kind reference investigates the music and the musicians that set the popular trends of the last half century in America. Many rock fans have, at one time or another, ranked their favorite artists in order of talent, charisma, and musical influence on the world as they see it. In this same spirit, author and music historian David V. Moskowitz expands on the concept of "top ten" lists to provide a lineup of the best 100 musical groups from the past 60 years. Since the chosen bands are based on the author's personal taste, this two-volume set provokes discussion of which performers are included and why, offering insights into the surprising influences behind them. From the Everly Brothers, to the Ramones, to Public Enemy, the work covers a wide variety of styles and genres, clearly illustrating the connections between them. Entries focus on the group's history, touring, membership, major releases, selected discography, bibliography, and influence. Contributions from leading scholars in popular music shed light on derivative artists and underscore the overall impact of the performers on the music industry.

In The Clash: The Only Band That Matters, respected music critic Sean Egan examines The Clash’s career and art through the prism of the uniquely interesting and fractious UK politics of the Seventies and Eighties, without which they simply would not have existed. Tackling subjects such as The Clash’s self-conscious tussles with their record label, the accusations of sell-out that dogged their footsteps, their rivalry with the similarly leaning but less purist Jam, the paradoxical quality of their achieving multi-platinum success and even whether their denunciations of Thatcherism were proven wrong, Egan has come up with new insights into a much discussed group.

On their debut, The Clash famously claimed to be “bored with the USA,” but The Clash wasn't a parochial record. Mick Jones' licks on songs such as “Hate and War” were heavily influenced by classic American rock and roll, and the cover of Junior Murvin's reggae hit “Police and Thieves” showed that the band's musical influences were already wide-ranging. Later albums such as Sandinista! and Combat Rock saw them experimenting with a huge range of musical genres, lyrical themes and visual aesthetics. The Clash Takes on the World explores the transnational aspects of The Clash's music, lyrics and politics, and it does so from a truly transnational perspective. It brings together literary scholars, historians, media theorists, musicologists, social activists and geographers from Europe and the US, and applies a range of critical approaches to The Clash's work in order to tackle a number of key questions: How should we interpret their negotiations with reggae music and culture? How did The Clash respond to the specific socio-political issues of their time, such as the economic recession, the Reagan-Thatcher era and burgeoning neoliberalism, and international conflicts in Nicaragua and the Falkland Islands? How did they reconcile their anti-capitalist stance with their own success and status as a global commodity? And how did their avowedly inclusive, multicultural stance, reflected in their musical diversity, square with the experience of watching the band in performance? The Clash Takes on the World is essential reading for scholars, students and general readers interested in a band whose popularity endures.