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I still have the copy of Combat Rock I bought back in the early-to-mid 80’s (used, probably at New Frontier Record Exchange in Appleton for a couple of bucks, maybe in ’84?) and have written about it before here. I do feel like this reissue has been remastered a bit (or possibly my old copy is just in kinda bad condition) as the spoken/growled word portion on “Red Angel Dragnet” is shockingly clear and up front. Or possibly the 180g quality vinyl is just that much more superior than the cheap shit back in the 80’s.

The People’s Hall is a catalog of The Clash’s residency at the venue, located in the Republic of Frestonia. “In 1977, squatters on Freston Road, Notting Hill, in London, declared independence from the British state. Facing eviction by the Greater London Council (GLC), the community figured the best way to evade the constraints imposed on them was to just free themselves of those constraints altogether. So they lobbied the UN and established a 1.8-acre microstate-“The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia”-complete with its own postage stamps, visas, and passports….The “Frestonian National Theatre” (at the Peoples Hall, Freston Road) ran the London premiere of Heathcote Williams’s The Immoralist, while the “Frestonian National Film Institute” held regular movie screenings. In 1982, as Frestonia celebrated its fifth anniversary, the Clash recorded much of Combat Rock at Peoples Hall.” (Vice) According to the liner notes, Motörhead also recorded at the People’s Hall. The three sides of the LP are uneven offering: there’s some pretty good tracks like an excellent version of “Radio Clash” that is horn-heavy and extra stomping, “He Who Dares Or Is Tired” which sounds suspiciously like The Jam’s “Town Called Malice” and “Idle in Kangaroo Court.” But it also includes some pretty boring and irrelevant material like some random recordings of sounds and conversations like “Outside Bounds,” a field recording from outside Bonds, the New York casino where the Clash played 17 shows in 1981. Some material lands in the middle, vaguely interesting but not really necessary like the funked-up hip hop rap by graffiti artist Futura (“Futura 2000“), “Radio One – Mikey Dread,” a mellow reggae groover occasionally overlayed with answering machine recording conversation and a very over-produced version of “Know Your Rights.”

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I love Combat Rock so much – it was the first Clash album I bought; I played the living shit out of Side A and still know every single word (embarrassingly I’m still relatively ignorant of Side B because my brain stopped retaining lyrics sometime around 1989). “Know Your Rights” is one of the best album openers ever (“This is a public service announcement…with guitars!”) and is tied for my top 3 tracks on the LP. “Know Your Rights” was the first single released from Combat Rock and hit #43 in the UK. Tied with “Know Your Rights” for album favorite is “Car Jamming,” the funky reggae-ish traffic tune that name checks Lauren Bacall and the combat chemical Agent Orange. My third is the world beat staccato’d protest song “Straight To Hell” which was the flip to the double-A-side single for the second release of “Should I Stay or Should I Go” (which is another fabulous track, so accessibly pop, and the only Clash song to hit #1 in the UK). And of course I love “Rock the Casbah;” I watched the video – directed by legendary Don Letts – endlessly on MTV during the summer of ‘83 as the song hit #8 in the US, The Clash’s only American top 10 single. I also really love “Red Angel Dragnet.” It’s super-weird with mostly Joe Strummer doing his take on sprechgesang.

It’s strange listening to Side B since my past habit was to simply start Side A over, but here I go anyway. “Overpowered By Funk” is, um, funky, though not that overpowering. It definitely foreshadows the direction that Mick Jones’ Big Audio Dynamite would take. “Atom Tan” is more traditional Clash but with a lot of 80′s echoey production effects. “Sean Flynn” has saxophone, flute and world beats (making me no longer surprised that 1980′s punk me didn’t listen to it). “Ghetto Defendant” is pretty cool with the inclusion of Allen Ginsberg speaking lines of poetry. “Inoculated City” has those pop whispers that seep into many Clash tracks (like “Train in Vain” and “Lost in the Supermarket”). “Death Is a Star” is art-punk, mixing spoken poetry, vaguely off-tune crooning Beatle-esque harmonies, and harpsichord?

*This is an almost direct cut and copy from my post on May 14th, 2018. I have to work most of today so zero time to compose any new material.

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I love this record so much and every song is tops but if I have to choose, my picks are “I’m So Bored with the USA,” “London’s Burning,” “Career Opportunities” and, of course, “White Riot.” One of my favorite moments ever was in 2019 when Joe and I went to London on a musical pilgrimage and recreated The Clash album cover at Camden Market.

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The B-side to “London Calling” is a cover of the 1978 song by Willie Williams “Armagdieon Time,” a reggae tune that also appears on The Clash’s Black Market Clash (1980), a collection of “b-sides and rarities”).

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I love this album so so much – my top tracks are the anthemic title track “London Calling,” the reggae-inspired “Rudie Can’t Fail,” the pounding punk “Clampdown,” the Paul Simonon-sung “The Guns of Brixton” and “Death or Glory.” The only song I don’t care for on this epic 2-LP masterpiece is “Lost in the Supermarket,” which I find insipidly poppy and so irritating that I always skip over it.

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I love Combat Rock so much – it was the first Clash album I bought; I played the living shit out of Side A and still know every single word (embarrassingly I’m still relatively ignorant of Side B because my brain stopped retaining lyrics sometime around 1989). “Know Your Rights” is one of the best album openers ever (“This is a public service announcement…with guitars!”) and is tied for my top 3 tracks on the LP, the lyrics still depressingly relevant in 2018 – probably even more now than in ‘82. “Know Your Rights” was the first single released from Combat Rock and hit #43 in the UK. Tied with “Know Your Rights” for album favorite is “Car Jamming,” the funky reggae-ish traffic tune that name checks Lauren Bacall and the combat chemical Agent Orange. The third is the   world beat staccatoed protest song “Straight To Hell” which was the flip to the double-A-side single for the second release of “Should I Stay or Should I Go” (which is another fabulous track, so accessibly pop, and the only Clash song to hit #1 in the UK) (I also love M.I.A.’s sampling of “Straight To Hell” on her 2008 song “Paper Planes”). And of course I love “Rock the Casbah,” the video, directed by legendary Don Letts, I watched endlessly on MTV during the summer of ‘83 as the song hit #8 in the US, their only American top 10 single. I also really love the other Side A track not already listed, “Red Angel Dragnet.” It’s super-weird with mostly Joe Strummer doing his take on sprechgesang.

It’s strange listening to Side B since my past habit was to simply start Side A over, but here I go anyway. “Overpowered By Funk” is, um, funky, not that overpowering though. It definitely foreshadows the direction that Mick Jones’ Big Audio Dynamite would take. “Atom Tan” is more traditional Clash but with a lot of 80′s echoey production effects. “Sean Flynn” has saxophone, flute and world beats (making me no longer surprised that 1980′s punk me didn’t listen to it), “Ghetto Defendant” is pretty cool with the inclusion of Allen Ginsberg speaking lines of poetry. “Inoculated City” has those pop whispers that seep into many Clash tracks (like “Train in Vain” and “Lost in the Supermarket”). “Death Is a Star” is art-punk, mixing spoken poetry, vaguely off-tune crooning Beatle-esque harmonies, and harpsichord?

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“Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” from Combat Rock is probably one of the best-known Clash singles and certainly their biggest hit, making it to #1 in the UK (albeit 10 years later; upon its initial release it reached #17 in the UK and #45 in the US). Though Mick Jones’ Clash songs are usually not my favorite – I’m much more partial to Joe Strummer or the rare Paul Simonon – it’s difficult not to love “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” with the instantly recognizable intro and irresistible guitar hook. It’s been listed on a few greatest songs of all-time lists and recently regained well-deserved popularity with its feature in Stranger Things. The B-side “Cool Confusion,” sung by Joe Strummer, is reggae-relaxed with experimental beep-boop electronic pops. “Cool Confusion” only appears on posthumously released comps like Super Black Market Clash (1994) and box sets (Sound System, 2013).

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Sandinista! hit #19 on the UK charts at the end of 1980 and in 1981 made it to #24 on the US charts. The Clash released four singles from the Sandinista! sessions: “The Call Up,” (not on the album), “Police On My Back,” “Hitsville U.K.” and “The Magnificent Seven.” The original release, which this is, includes a tri-fold newspaper style lyric sheet The Armagideon Times no.3 with cartoons drawn by Steve Bell.

My favorite tracks are “The Crooked Beat” (mostly because it is one of the rare Clash songs where Paul Simonon sings lead), the reggae-meets-theCure-style-goth “One More Dub,” “Let’s Go Crazy” with its madcap calypso, the punk anthem “Police on My Back,” reggae-mellow “The Equaliser” and the violin-heavy “Lose This Skin” which was written and sung by Tymon Dogg (who later joined Joe Strummer’s band the Mescaleros). Though all the songs are credited to The Clash, it’s fairly easy to tell which ones were primarily composed by Joe Strummer versus the ones by Mick Jones (political-punk vs. pop sensibility) and the Strummer ones are what I lean toward (i.e. on disc 2 I’m not crazy about “Somebody Got Murdered” – the title belying the upbeat, boppy music and obviously written by Jones – but the next track, “One More Time” is rich, raw and angry: Strummer!). I’m also not crazy about the version of “Career Opportunities” (originally on their debut album); Ian Dury and the Blockheads’ keyboard player Mickey Gallagher’s sons sing, backed by a harpsicordy piano and it just kind of ruins it for me.

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