Part 7 (1/2)
”So, Joe, then what is true rebellion? Because cultural revolt see the Clash stand for in a lot of people's ards the question in silence for a few moments, then fixes me with a level stare ”Cultural revoltI'm not sure that's it exactly But I'll tell you what I've coup Rebellion is deciding to push ahead with it all for oneyourself alive, as well as the cause”
PERSEVERANCE as revolt: The notion may seeent passion that made Joe Stru-the youth-prole sentiations that stoked incendiary rally calls like ”1977,” ”Guns on the Roof,” ”White Riot,” and ”Safe European Home”-but at the same time, no other band in recent history has made stamina stand for asdistance of six years, four US tours (and at least twice as ht LPs and a hundred songs), the Clash have er claim on questions of cultural, political, and ht and liability on the purposes of rock & roll-than any other band since the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or the Who Probably the only other band that compares with them in terms of social and aesthetic force these last ten years is the sex Pistols-and their design, it seems, was simply not just to raze popular culture, but also to level the world around it, themselves included The sex Pistols could never have made a second albu records wasn't their long suit For the Clash,further possibilities of life, a way of withstanding inevitable defeats-a way of ”not giving up”
Yet trying to live out revolt as daily ethos can be a steep act; for one thing, itback Since 1977, each new Clash release has sought to outdistance its predecessors in bold and irrevocable ways Give 'Enified the band'stheir sociopolitical focus, from the narrow obsessions of UK punk sedition to the fiery reality of the world outside-a world mired in tyranny and afla, at the close of the following year, carried revolt over to thein the band's most sharply crafted, popularly accessible effort to date It also resulted in a resounding statement on how to live heroically and honorably in a world where such notions spell certain disillusionment and probable subjection (”Claroup issued their unco, bulky masterwork, Sandinista!-an opus that tried to expand the vernacular and sensibility of popularrock's forospel, Euro-pop, A social realities; in other words, bydread with innovation, for ed is a body of work that has upped the ante on punk-forced it to reach outward, to risk compromise, to embrace conflict, even if it means conflict with punk's own narrow presentiments
What also results, though, is a kind of self-imposed state of contradiction that can, on occasion, seens After all, it's one thing to start out to upend rock convention, and quite another to end up proclaimed as ”The World's New Greatest Rock & Roll Band” Yet the physical impact of the Clash's live shows, and the sti, as it did, British symbols and symptoms as text, and American rock & roll as context-had just that effect: It reat hope, if not preservers, of the very tradition they had set out to thwart
Yet the Clash have also tainted so flair for miscalculation and self-ie for ine,” one writer friend toldyou record deserves to be heard: who do these guys think they are-the Keith Jarretts of punk?”), though forwork, an unrepressed paradigm of creativity
Less successful, I think, was the previous year's late spring series of concert events at Bond's Casino in New York (eighteen shows in fifteen days), that see naivete about audience prejudices and business concerns, and on another, their inability to adopt Sandinista!'s range and depth to a live for with friend and filmmaker Don Letts, documented the whole debacle in h it never received wide release) More recently, there are the probleuileful, muddled album about artistic despair and personal dissolution that derives from those conditions rather than aims to illuminate them-and, of course, Joe Struroup calls it-in the early part of 1982
Not surprisingly, the Clash worked those setbacks to their favor Stru sabbatical in Paris (though by that time, virtually their entire UK tour had been blown out of the water), appearing stronger and more resolved than ever before What's more, Combat Rock proved to be the band's land since 1978's Give 'Erown painfully, almost fatally, unfashi+onable in their own hoious drureat influence on the band's recent ressivism, only to bail out five days before their current American tour for reasons that may never be publicly explained-not even that could disarer Bernard Rhodes (also newly returned to the fold) and road organizer Kosinal drummer Terry Chi with the group, for three days of relentless rehearsals Forty-eight hours later, the Clash, the very saroup's resplendent 1977 debut albuain in America-a bit battle-scarred,with more mastery, unity, and h, it's the hardcore potency of their current shows thatto fault the Clash for this ti” to the closing salvos of ”Coeland,” these are urgent, cla shows-as if the band had just jue, replete with ferly prudent affairs Missing are all the adventurous touchstones from Sandinista!, or even the off-center filler pieces frohts” and ”Should I Stay or Should I Go?” were the staples here, with occasional ga,” or the beautiful, ht to hell”
And yetand yet, though this is the Clash's unabashed greatest-hits concessional tour, these were also the ful shows I've ever seen frolish jaunts or their first couple of US tours-with the group issuing ”Safe European Ho and world-saving calls to truth-was to watch a rock & roll band (the strongest since the Who; the er claim on terror, revolution, and deliverance than any pop culture force before it (the sex Pistols fell just short of the deliverance part-that is unless you equate deliverance with self-dissolution) But to watch the Clash in 1982-as they mount the pace of ”Somebody Got Murdered,” or seize the pulse of ”Clampdown”-is to watch a band that has learned how costly it can be to try to live those claiht of pop culture isn't enough: You have to esture; you have to keep the designs behind those gestures sharp and unsparing; and you have to be willing to risk the refusal or flattening of those gestures, if not your own failure Above all, it's to watch a band that's learned that they will probably lose far more than they'll ever win, that soh, they'll probably lose it all
”I'LL TELL YOU what ,” says Mick Jones, one late afternoon, over eggs and hash-browns at a popular Santa Monica Boulevard diner ”It's a celebration: We're out there celebrating that we exist-we ht”
Jones pauses for a few moments and pokes idly at his still unexplored breakfast ”Still, I wonder,” he says ”Don't you think people just like it because they think they're getting the old Clash this time around-the Clash the way it should be? I bet that's what it is”
No, I answer, I think they like it because it see show Also, to be frank, because the band's never sounded more confident or better unified
Mick ponders that for a moment as he watches the flutter and traffic of the boulevard ”I think we are playing pretty goodI feel all right about the shows, but I don't feel it's as much fun as it used to be somehow We used to kind of explode We play better now but for me personally
”I'e in acco with the words My part of it is to hold it all together, help keep the rhythuitar a lot, you know, and those are moments where the instruoing all the ti over the top asto control myself a bit more”
Yet, I point out, Jones has so rock & rollperformance of ”So, a large seg on the line: ”I've been very hungry/But not enough to kill”
”The i,” says Jones, ”is that it isn't any particular person who gets killed-it's just anybody It's funny, in some places we play, where people live in extreland-the audience see better But in richer places, people understand the other part better, the part about 'So that, even though they ht have money, they understand they can still lose it all-not just the money, but their lives But the audiences are more radually at his breakfast, now that it's good and cold ”America,” he says, a thin tone of distaste in his voice ”The people here never really took punk of our kind seriously-always treated it like soroup like the sex Pistols had to come out here to the land of proross end-that Sid and Nancy play America screwed the the way of the sex Pistols-getting sed up by A, I note, that almost all of the Clash's music since the first albulish topic matter and styles Sandinista! seemed like a rampart of Third World concerns
”Yeah, well it was,” says Mick, ”and that didn't particularly win a lot of hearts andto be difficult, because we keptresistance with the idea, but ere very stubborn and went straight ahead Sandinista! is quite special to me It wasn't, as soinally anted to do a single a month, then put out a double albu But CBS wouldn't have that, so we thought, All right, three albuone without releasing another record for a year or so I think people would've still been listening to it-there's enough there
”Combat Rock is like the best of Sandinista!-a concise stateh it contains just asone album as well as three, you know”
Yet Coh with the idea that death is an ever-present possibility In fact, it almost seems a death-obsessed album, ith tracks like ”Death Is a Star,” ”Ghetto Defendant,” ”Sean Flynn,” ”Straight to hell”
”All me favorite tracks,” says Mick with a broad s this alburoup's own depression or confusion, but I don't think that's true I think it's clear that we know exactly where we're at-we're not confused at all The problem is, a lot of people equate depression with reality, so they find the record depressing I think it just touches on what's real I wouldn't say it's exactly optimistic, but I wouldn't call it pessimistic either”
But some critics, I tell him, have found the Clash's brand of political rhetoric and realism just as naive as that jaunty romanticism of the pop bands
Mick takes a sip of his coffee and regards e Voice calling us 'naive,' and Sandinista! a 'pink elephant'? Well, we are, and it is It doesn't particularly discourage us, that kind of talk It's i our point across Not just because people will try to discredit us, but because somebody has to counteract all the land over this Falklands fiasco It's important that somebody's there to tell them that there aren't any winners where there aren't any real causes It , but not because she's made the British winners Instead, she's made them victi,” Jones continues, ”is that the American critics don't seelish do, whereas with London Calling and Sandinista!, it was just the opposite: Aot down on us But I think what they like about Colish pop right now that bothers to be real Most of the new pop doesn't try to engage reality at all-which isn't necessarily bad, because I like a lot of the new stuff too, like Hu what the world's about-and that's not so all those party bands want to do
”I don't know,” says Mick, his voice soft and , we have our share of fun too, but these daysit's just that all the parties seem so far away”
I ask him: Do you think your audience understands that? Some of the people I've seen at the band's shows-both the punk contingent, plus theStones-see, not toacts like Joe Ely and Grandmaster Flash, doesn't seem much different to me than any other mindless party ritual
Mick bristles mildly ”They're not really assholes, are they? They just don't kno to act I mean, at Bond's it wasn't actually racis, 'What jerks!' But e h ti acts, it seemed to stop I think it was just initial overexcitement”
Still, aren't there times when you wonder just who your audience really is, and if you're really reaching them?
”All the tiet of people who you think are really into it, who have really got the ainst the people who are completely misinformed We just do the best we can to contain those contradictions, and hope enough of our lances at the wall clock It's nearly time to head out to the afternoon's sound check I pose one last question: ”When Joe disappeared, did you think it ht be the end of the Clash?”
Mick smiles wryly ”That Joe-what a bastard, eh? If he ever does that againuht the group ht it was a sha on with living
”It was bad ti It's very difficult to put your own needs first like that, but the only probleain Still, itto do It certainlywith hi else myself, but it will have to wait now
”We all decided we could start over with this band-Joe, Paul, roup out there onstage
”We should change our name, don't you think? How about Clash Two?” Mick mulls the idea over a bit ot it: How about Clash Now?”
HOW had THE CLASH ether? After all, punk never offered itself as a breeding place for enduring coily handsoirl's ”The Year's Ten Best Looking Men” list), ponders that question as he picks his way through a bowl of guacaetarians) shortly before leaving the hotel for that night's show
”You're talking about things like corruption, disintegration, right?” he says in his thick Brixton accent ”I tell you what I've seen do it to other groups: drugs I've been through all sorts of drugs; at one time I took them just for curiousity, and I learned-it's not worth it It's like a carrot held in front of you, and it's the downfall of a lot of bands we've known
”We just cut it out-we don't deal with that stuff anyo out and buy a record, or a present for irlfriend, or phone me mum up fro that anti-drug concern with the Clash's audience?
Sinaws another chip ”Sure I don't see why not I think that's part of e're about, is testing our audience”
Does he ever worry, though, about leaving the audience behind-worry that the bandin different directions?
”Well, I think it's this band's natural course to grow When we did London Calling we got a lot of flak, but that was just a war point for us canificent Seven'; it was the start of a whole newto wake people up, especially the ones who keep expecting us to do the sa; maybe it'll even make them chuck the bloody album out the '
”But we knew that's anted: to test the people who'd been listening to us We didn't want to be dictated by anybody else's interests That could've happened very easily after the first albuone off in a more commercial style, because of what the record cootten deadlocked into a hard punk thing, because of what the fans wanted We didn't do either one, and I suspect that's hurt us as much as it's helped We certainly had an easy formula that would've carried us for a while”
Does Simonon think the Clash still attracts land-the hardcore and Oi types?
”Yeah, a little, but by and large the music of those bands doesn't interest me I've listened to it, but so s they deal with, things like racisirlfriend around the face-I don't have any use for supporting that kind of thing
”You know, people ask me all the time if we're still punk, and I always say, 'Yeah, we're punk,' because punkto stick to anybody else's rules Then you look around and see all these bands that are afraid to break the rules of what they think punk is We're punk because we still have our own version of what it means That's what it is: an attitude And we'll stay punk as long as we can keep the blindfolds off”
”IS IT TRUE THAT Bob Dylan was in the audience last night?” Joe Strummer asks, as we settle down at the bar at the Clash's hideaway hotel, a couple of hours after the next-to-last of their five-night engagements at the Hollywood Palladium ”Somebody told ht that was a bit far-fetched But Dylan”