A Difficult Clash

The Clash.

For many, those 2 words mean something very special indeed, "Voices Of A Generation", "Spirit Of Punk" or similar. For me, I've generally over the last few years had one thought about the band-

"The most over rated band in history".

That's sacrilege for some people, I understand that, I just don't get them, never have, and probably never will.

It's not that I don't like punk, I generally love it. I am very much both feet in the "punk had to happen" camp. Being born in the early 70s I was too young to really know about that first wave of punk, which, when you look closely at it, lasted a phenomenally short time, just a few months, but post-punk and new wave made a big impression on me as I was growing up, and I came to love The Sex Pistols, who, for me, ARE punk.

I've tried to "get" The Clash, I really have, but every time I settle down and put on one of their albums, it never takes long for me to start thinking the same thought  - "I could be having much more fun if I was listening to The Sex Pistols or The Jam".

Many people say how they ingenuously fused punk and reggae. Well I'm partial to a bit of reggae also, but I don't want my reggae to sound like punk, and I don't want my punk to sound like reggae. For me, it spoils them both.

So, that should make my thoughts on The Clash clear, shouldn't it? Well, not quite, for there is this other part of me that regularly thinks that what music needs today (and not for my benefit, but for the kids, 'cos that who music should be about), more than anything else, is a band like The Clash, flying the flag for this generation.

The Clash sang about life, about politics, about what was happening in ordinary people's lives, and so many kids formed their opinion about how life, and Britain, should be, based on these songs, and those by their contemporaries, such as The Jam, Stiff Little Fingers and, dare I say it, early UB40 (Check out their 1981 single "One In Ten" and tell me that's not damn fine social commentary). Politicians talked about the country and no kid would listen because it was more than likely a pompous old toff or The Iron Lady talking down to them in a way they couldn't relate to. When The Clash and their ilk talked about the problems in this country, the kids listened, these were real people who they could relate to (although largely The Clash weren't quite as "punk" as they would have you believe).

We've just spent 6 years going through the worst economic crisis for decades, we've had riots in the streets of our major cities, we've been at war in various parts of the middle east non stop for over a decade, our politicians have been found out to be largely a bunch of crooks and cheats who will sting the tax payer for every penny they can lay their hands on, but who the hell is out there making impassioned music about all of this and helping our kids to understand it all from a "man in the street" point of view? Not a single damn person or band from what I can see.

Now I'm sure that there are plenty of bands singing about all this, but I'm equally sure they are being heard by one man and his dog. They are certainly not getting TV time and hitting the high end of the charts like they were 30/35 years ago (although that's probably another rant sometime about TV and radio "not wanting to upset their sponsors").

I see there is a new box set out of The Clash, covering pretty much everything they ever did, and by all accounts it's a mightily impressive, lovingly constructed package. I won't be buying it though, because I know exactly what would happen if I started listening to it - I'd just wish I was doing something else (anything else) instead. But how I wish someone would grab the bull by the horns and be the new Clash, and inspire a generation to think about the larger world around them. I wonder if I'd like them?