The Clash

In 1976, singer-guitarists Joe Strummer (born John Mellor) and Mick Jones were both small-time London band­leaders intrigued by the first rumblings of a new, loud, rough kind of rock. Together with Paul Simonon, the fashion-plate artist they taught to play bass, they formed a group that Simonon—inspired by the era’s sensational newspaper headlines—named the Clash. A year later, they were ruling British punk alongside the Sex Pistols. Over the next five years, the Clash evolved far beyond their initial roar, thanks in part to their ongoing fascination with reggae and, later, American disco and hip-hop. By 1982’s Combat Rock, they were one of the biggest bands in the world, insanely prolific and gifted at virtually every pop form they experimented with. Then it all fell apart. Jones, kicked out of the band for dubious reasons, started the dance-rock project Big Audio Dynamite; Strummer made one more album with a gutted Clash, then launched a spotty solo career and died of a heart attack in 2002. What the Clash bequeathed to generations of punks after them, though, was a path out of bluster and nihilism. As Jones put it in 1978: “We’re more optimistic. The Pistols said there was no future, and we say there is a future.” Their political rage, and their musical range, grew from their hopeful humanism.


Essential
The Clash (U.S. Version)
London Calling
Sandinista!


Great
Give 'Em Enough Rope
Combat Rock
The Singles


Check It Out
Big Audio Dynamite- No. 10, Upping St.
Super Black Market Clash
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros Global A Go-Go


Be Careful
Big Audio Dynamite- This Is Big Audio Dynamite
Clash on Broadway
From Here to Eternity: Live
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros- Streetcore

For Fans Only
Cut the Crap
Big Audio Dynamite- Tighten Up, Vol. 88
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros- Rock Art and the X-Ray Style