The Clash – London Calling (1979)

This was always an album which was going to be replaced on CD before the vinyl was sold, and this special edition to mark the 25th anniversary of the album was a welcome Christmas present.

I bought this album while at university, and have listened to it regularly since then, and I've deliberately chosen an old favourite as the 600th review.

For me, it was the album where I 'got' The Clash. The first album has a couple of great singles and a lot of filler, the second album felt to be more developed but without anything as immediate as the on first one, but allowing themselves the indulgence of a double album allowed the band to develop as songwriters and versatile players. In little more than an hour, there's almost everything, without a weak song in the nineteen on offer.

It obviously kicks off with the title track London Calling, for me the band and Joe Strummer's finest moment and one of the great three minutes in pop music, showing that the old punks still have it, but there's also the rockabilly of Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac and Hateful, some lazy blues in Jimmy Jazz, sublime reggae, not just in Paul Simenon's fantastic Guns Of Brixton, Revolution Rock, and the ska beat of Rudie Can't Fail and Wrong 'Em Boyo. There are perfect pop songs with the Clash's political sting in Spanish Bombs and Lost In The Supermarket. There's even a proto-power-ballad (perhaps) in The Card Cheat.

In listening, so much strikes me about the band. What a rhythm section Simenon and Headon were (Brand New Cadillac), and what about Mick Jones as a lead guitarist (Lost In The Supermarket)? They aren't even scared to bring in the horns where they're needed on a number of songs. Did I mention what a brilliant front man Strummer was?

And to put the icing on the cake, I can't think of a better 'hidden' track than the glorious pop love song Train In Vain, credited on this album, but casually added on to the end of side 4 of the original 2LP set.

This 25 year cash in reissue includes The Vanilla Tapes, the previously lost rehearsal tapes made in early summer 1979, and found during a house move by Mick Jones in 2004. They're recognisable versions of the songs on London Calling, obviously recorded on low quality equipment, showing both how developed these songs were before getting into Wessex Studios with producer Guy Stevens, and what a fantastic job Stevens did of presenting the band's songs at their very best.

There's also a DVD, The Last Testament - The Making Of London Calling, which I haven't watched for years and don't remember much of.

But it's that original hour from 1979 which still has the impact 46 years later. It's my favourite album from a favourite band (I did used to say I preferred Sandanista, but that was just a contrary conceit), and I never tire of it.

Link to full album

5* - a superb album, a real must-listen.