The Clash “The Clash” released on this date, April 8th, 1977. It’s the record nerd edition of the Vault today. We have a few copies of this most excellent Clash debut album (the Canadian import I’ve already blogged about that made its epic journey on a 20 hour bus ride from a Boston used record to Wisconsin in ‘88, escorted by a rowdy group of orchestra students). This one is the UK pressing on CBS Records featuring the original British track listing (which differs from the US and Canadian releases) that leads off with “Janie Jones” rather than “Clash City Rockers” – in fact that track doesn’t appear at all on this pressing of The Clash. Fellow Vault-member Joe (who was once dubbed “King of the Record Nerds”) has helpfully attached a note to the record stating “This version of “White Riot” is a remastered version of the 8-track remastered demo from the mid-January ‘77 Beaconsfield recordings. See Last Gang in Town [The Story and Myth of the Clash by Marcus Gray] p. 284, 266-67.” So I dutifully grab the book from the shelf and read “One of punk’s great concerns was the principle of Value for Money (VFM), a reaction to the inflated ticket prices charged by the rock’n’roll stars of the day. Just as entrance to gigs should be affordable, so singles should not have throwaway B-sides and albums should not contain tracks previously issued as singles. In keeping with this philosophy, the Clash had earmarked two of their most memorable rabble-rousers for their first single. Unfortunately, this threatened to diminish the impact of the album somewhat. They sidestepped this problem by deciding to include a different version of ‘White Riot’ on The Clash.” Tracks that appear on the UK pressing and not on the North American pressings are “Deny,” “Cheat,” “Protex Blue” and “48 Hours.” So the VFM model keeps on working as collectors can get more and different songs on multiple pressings.