Part 6 (2/2)
But as involving as the new PiL were, they still couldn't roup's near hour-long show, punk after punk would scrabble onstage from out of the pressed mass down front, and dance and flail around Lydon or try to pat his red-tufted head, until some beefy security hack would heft them off their feet and toss them over the heads of the audience At times it would resemble a melee, but in truth it wasn't: It was a carefully orchestrated ritual (though the punks possessed a good deal uards), and though the punks' behavior may have seemed an unnecessarily stupid, ruffian activity, it also reat participant sport too, if you prefer bowling from the ball's perspective)
But all the audience's exciterowth, seeesture by Lydon at the show's end ”We're going to do an oldie for ya,” he said in his fa tone, as the band returned for their first encore ”Sing along-you know the words” With that, PiL vaulted into a roaring version of the sex Pistols' greatest mo, shearing effect that the Pistols' rendition of the song did at Winterland in 1978, in their final perfor, and the audience responded by thrashi+ng in near-religious fervor
In 1996, Rotten inal sex Pistols-guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and the band's first bassist, Glen Matlock-re-formed for a tour of Europe and Aia, since they were siain but without the context of daring and risk that they brought to every stage they reat deal: The late-1990s sex Pistols showed they were still up to the job of assaulting rock & roll with as ence as anybody, and more important, their shoere reminders of what a dawriting (ht in their brief, world-changing season twenty years prior For those few nights in 1996, John Lydon was undeniably Johnny Rotten again, and it seeht still be the fiercest,popular art on earth
NEW ORDER'S STORY also continued-in fact, still continues More or less
At first it was obvious that the band couldn't immediately surmount the loss of Ian Curtis, who had pretty e So that it held the band back onstage But for all of Curtis' deadly excesses, he also had a clear-cut point of view: Curtis knew that damnation hat he stood for, and he didn't flinch from what that entailed
By contrast, New Order didn't seem to have rier to hear what this band had to say, they lost the personality who had made them notable in the first place And while nobody in New Order seemed to want to i hi's Gone Green,” and their disappointing debut album, Movement, New Order didn't offerof their once thick, surging sound It was prettier and more disciplined than Joy Division's sound, to be sure, but also less exciting and involving Whatever was being said about their new life-that of a band that had to live with an ineradicable loss-was never clear The words, and even the vocals theot lost in tricky mixes that reduced lyrics to a kind of atmospheric filler As a result, Movement didn't matter as much as Joy Division's music or myth had As the UK scene shi+fted to a more rhythmic aesthetic, Joy Division's influence diminished, and with it, perhaps, New Order's best chance for preeminence
And then in 1983, New Order rebounded with Power, Corruption and Lies-one of thealbums of that year, and nearly the equal to their former achievements with Joy Division Still, it was pretty much impossible to say what Power, Corruption and Lies was ”about” in the way that one could say what Joy Division's , New Order seemed to be a band about for lacework of interlocking guitar and synthesizer motifs, buttressed by a massive, uniform dance pulse-a sound that overshadowed the eree that sound became the sole medium and object of those eroup's wondrous 1982 single ”Temptation,” but it came into its own fully with Power, Corruption and Lies
The collective elements of sound on that albureat deal indeed The sharp-edged arpeggiated guitar lines and swathed synthesizer webs on ”Your Silent Face,” ”Leave Me Alone,” and ”Age of Consent” interweave over pulsating dance patterns as though the sound wereandwere simply the expression of the sound itself By comparison, the vocals aren't muchforth soly axiomatic notions of roe the truth of Ian Curtis' dissolution Yet the words aren't what carry Power, Corruption and Lies' substance Even the best vocals and lyrics on the albuuitars and synthesizers which surround and overwhelm them
Power, Corruption and Lies was a synthesis of rhyth for its own pleasure In 1983, it sounded like rhapsodic, impassioned pop: music with a force of human heart that counted all the more for the hard truths it had to withstand to find its own confidence and soul But New Order never really surpassed that moment They went on to ettable, and none that ever helped make up for what they lost on that fatal day in May 1980
WHAT WOULD HAVE happened if a group dared to resurrect or reinvent punk in Britain with the saance and vision that the sex Pistols once flourished? No doubt that group would have been condemned and resented as Johnny Rotten's band hich is just what befell the most controversial and perhaps , glorious-sounding quartet called the Jesus and Mary Chain
Like the Pistols, the Jesus and Mary Chain played music that was immediately a shock, music that demanded you coht it The group's early singles, ”Never Understand” and ”Upside Down,” pitted lovely tunes and drea feedback and relentless pandeested a plausible teareat avant-garde pre-punk band, Pere Ubu This approach was both acclailand, where the Jesus and Mary Chain, ely had to be seen to be heard (The band's early concerts reportedly incited strong reactions-soht crowd convulsions-just like early punk) While the group's 1985 debut album, Psychocandy, didn't win over emony that ruled that period's British and American radio, the album nonetheless showed that the Jesus and Mary Chain's e The band's mix of mellifluence and noise held up beautifully over Psychocandy's forty-th Every track on the albunetis, and inventive
But for all the brave new territory Psychocandy staked out, at times it seemed to su with it Between the albu dissonance and lovely melodies, one could find allusions to many musical parents, not ht that band's howling guitar sound, they preferred patient rhyth ones), but also hints of the Beatles (Jesus' ”Just like Honey” took ”Love Me Do” and fused it with ”Helter Skelter”), eleht have sounded played by the Seeds and produced by Phil Spector), and, of course, strong echoes of such earlier trailblazers as the Velvet Underground and Joy Division
Psychocandy proved a British albu sweet melodies and raw cacophonies so powerfully, the Jesus and Mary Chain were saying that dreauish, hope and fear, are necessary counterparts in both life and roup reinvented (if only briefly) punk's original courage and vision, on the band's own ter line across rock & roll and demanded that you stand on one side or another, the Jesus and Mary Chain drew a line and then occupied it alone, turning that line into a scary and alluring union of two opposing worlds Jesus and Mary Chain-like the sex Pistols or Joy Division-pretty ood on the possibilities that their music raised The band went on toDarklands (1987), as well as Barbed Wire Kisses (1988), Automatic (1989), Honey's Dead (1992), and Stoned and Dethroned (1994) None of thement of what became of British punk and pop style as 1985's Psychocandy All these years later, it is still a record that can thrill you-like the best and worst stolen orgasms of your life-or that can drive you into a bad, spooky corner of your mind and spirit, as if you just finally realized how ardless of your best efforts to in on to all its unbeatable final disorder
the clash: punk beginnings, punk endings
”fuck that shi+t,” says Joe Struer of the Clash, addressing so ”Happy New Year” at hiot your future at stake Face front! Take it!”
In sleepy London town, during thepresented as a war of class and aesthetics At the crux of that battle is a volcanic series of four Clash concerts-including a benefit for Sid Vicious-coroup's second albuh Rope, which entered the British charts at nuether with the sex Pistols, the Clash helped spearhead the punk nation as the most intellectual and political punk band When the Pistols disbanded in early 1978, the rock press and punks alike looked to the Clash as the movement's central syle that helped create their radical myth, the Clash brandish a hearty reputation as a rock & roll band that, like the Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen, must be seen to be believed Certainly no other band coer as potently as the Clash When Nicky ”Topper” Headon's single-shot snare report opens ”Safe European Houitarist Mick Jones' ill-fated attempt to rub elboith Rastafarians in the Jamaicans' backyard), all hell breaks loose, both on the Lyceue and floor
Like the sex Pistols, the Clash's live sound hinges on a massive, orchestral druuitar work of Jones, ith his tireless two-step knee kicks looks just like a Rockettes' version of Keith Richards Shards of Mott the Hoople and the Who cut through the tuuitar and Paul Sinash at the beat underneath And Stru his face up into a broken-tooth yowl, he gleefully bludgeons words, then caresses the, R & B-inflected passion
Maybe it's the gestalt of the event, oraround me, but I think it's the most persuasive rock & roll show I've seen since I watched the sex Pistols' final performance in San Francisco earlier in the same year
I try to say as much to a reticent Joe Stru roo lasses and a nut-brown porkpie hat, rese me with his wary, testy eyes, he mumbles an inaudible reply
Across the rooe in a corner, sharing a spliff ”You a Yank?” Jones asksvoice ”Fro to thethis band, Jones, rites nearly all of the Clash's h the austere Strummer writes the bulk of the lyrics In the best Keith Richards tradition, the fans see Mick as a sensitive and vulnerable street waif, prone to dissipation as much as to idealism Indeed, he looks as beentler, more considerate people I've ever spent ti in the same spot, Mick declines to be interviewed ”Lately, interviews makeeveryone's charges-charges that shouldn't have to be answered”
The Clash have been hit with a wide volley of charges, ranging frolish rock-press backlash aimed at what the critics see as reckless politics, to very real cri valuable racing pigeons) and Jones (for alleged cocaine possession) But probably the er, Bernard Rhodes, who, after he was fired, accused the band of betraying its punk ideals and slapped the lawsuit Jones, in a recent interview, railed back ”We're still the only ones true to the original aims of punk,” he said ”Those other bands should be destroyed”
THE CLASH FORMED as a result of Joe Strummer's frustrations and Jones' rock ideals Both claies by their parents, and while Stru Woody Guthrie and Chuck Berry songs in London's subways for spare change during his late teens, Jones retreated into reading and playing Mott the Hoople, Dylan, Kinks, and Who records In 1975, he left the art school he was attending and for blend of the New York Dolls, the Stooges, and Mott, becalish punk scene
Then, in early 1976, shortly after the sex Pistols assailed London, Mick Jones ran into Stru in a pub-circuit R & B band called the 101ers ”I don't like your band,” Jones said, ”but I like the way you sing” Struade, cut his hair, quit the 101ers, and joined Jones, Siuitarist Keith Levene (later a e Ltd) and drummer Terry Chimes (brilliantly renaht e of Bernard Rhodes, the Clash signed with CBS Records for a reported 200,000
Their first alburoup's label stateside, deemed it ”too crude”), was archetypal, resplendent punk While the sex Pistols proffered a nihilistic iuttural way, vindicated punk's negativism Harrowed rhyths ailish life, ust-key elements in punk aesthetics
But even before the first album was released, the punk scene had dealt the Clash solish press, began turning on each other, and dru bottles, spit, and the band's politics, quit Months passed before the group settled on Nicky Headon (also a member of Mick Jones' London SS) as a replace By that time, their reputation had swelled to near-messianic proportions
When it was time for a new album, CBS asked Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman to check out the Clash's shows ”By a miracle of God,” says Pearl They were playing for the thrill of affecting their audience's consciousness, both musically and politically Rock & roll shouldn't be cute and adorable; it should be violent and anarchic Based on that, I think they're the greatest rock & roll group around” Mick Jones balked at first at the idea of Pearlman as their producer, but Strummer's interest prevailed It took six h Rope, and it was a stormy period for all concerned (”We knee had to watch Pearlood a sound”) But nowhere near as storh Rope is rock & roll's State of Siege-with a dash of Duck Soup for co the tried themes of bored youth and repressive society, Strummer and Jones tapped so fascises with visions of civil strife, gunplay, backbiting, and lyrics that ht've been spirited from the streets of Italy and Iran: ”A system built by the sweat of the many/Creates assassins to kill off the few/Take any place and call it a courthouse/This is a place where no judge can stand” And the uitars and drurandly
THE DAY AFTER the Clash's last Lyceum show, I meet Joe Strurand art allery's treasures until we settle in a dim corner of the downstairs cafe for an interview
We start by talking about the band's apparent position as de facto leaders of punk Strummer stares into his muddy tea, uninterested in the idea of conversation, and lets Si roup, with his skeletal face and disheveled hair, Siuileless and alish, ”doesn't mean that I'm entitled to a different lifestyle than anyone else I used to think so I'd stay up all night, get pissed, party all the tiet cut off froet up early, paintoff to work and I feel more like one of them”
But, I note, most of those sahtened by bands like the Clash
Strurunts ”I'm pleased”
This seems a fair time to raise the question of the band's recent bout with the British rock press After Give 'Eh Rope, soears, saying that the Clash's militancy is little more than a fashi+onable stance, and that their attitude toward terrorist violence is dangerously auous ”One is never entirely sure just which side [the Clash] is supposed to be taking,” wrote Nick Kent in New Musical Express ”The Clash use incidentsas fodder for songs without caring”
Stru his craggy teeth ”We're against fascis I'd like to think that we're subtle; that's what greatness is, innit? I can't stand all these people preaching, like Touity can be construed as encouraging violence
”Our s like 'Guns on the Roof' and 'Last Gang in Town' are supposed to take the piss out of violence It's just that souy with the o to his extre We sing about the world that affects us We're not just another wank rock group like Boston or Aeros a record contract with one of the world's biggest coot loads of contradictions for you,” says Stru to do soroup in the world, and that alsoto be radical-I mean, we never want to be really respectable-and maybe the two can't coexist, but we'll try You knohat helps us? We're totally suspicious of anyone who comes in contact with us Totally We aim to keep punk alive”
The conversation turns to the Clash's i claustrophobic for us,” says Stru America could be a new lease on life”
But the American rock scene-and especially radio-see about (While the Clash lish charts, they have yet to dent Billboard's Top 200 ”We adle this time around,” says Bruce Harris of Epic's A & R departh Rope has sold forty thousand copies and that's better than sixty percent of most new acts”) I ask if a failure to win Yankee hearts would set theot here We haven't been to Europe much, and we haven't been to japan or Australia, and ant to go behind the iron curtain” He pauses and shrugs his face in a taut grin ”There are a lot of other places where we could lose our lives”
THE NEXT TIME I meet the Clash, over three years later, is in fact in A hhewn crop of Mohawk hair that flares from the top of his head, his thumb cocked back like a pistol ”You knohy I did this, don't you?” he asks, leaning forward, a conspiratorial s rooe at the Hollywood Palladiueroup's 1980 London Calling tour Struuitarist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Terry Chimes (the latter, newly returned to the Clash's fold)-are about to hit the stage for the afternoon's peremptory soundcheck, but first Joe wants to share a little revelation about his newly acquired headdress
”I did it,” he says, ”to try to force some confrontation this time around I wanted people to react to it, to ask ht stir up a little friendly conversation, if you knohat I ets a look that's part disappointment, part bafflement ”No, not much Maybe people find it a little too scary, you know, too serious Over here, you Americans never seem to kno to take matters of style It's like you view it as a threat, as rebellion In England, style signifies, u as simple as a radical haircut with a true act of rebellion”