Something About England: Strummer/Jones (The Clash) song-by-song

"Deny" (5/5) might be my favorite off of the UK debut. Strummer profiles and picks apart a drug-addicted prostitute. I think the melody is great and so are the sparse guitar slashes . I kind of smile when Joe's belting out "You're selling your no-no all the time!" Lines that lead you into the meaning but don't hold your hand - "You said you ain't had none for weeks, baby I seen your arms".

The intensity ups with Mick Jones best guitar hero moment of the album - the coda where he picks the perfect pockets between Strummer's "raving idiot" commentary about ice cream/screams, boys girls, someone getting run over by a car, anything that happens to be on his mind. Mick's guitar unleashes exhilarating stinging and ringing melodic accents as he and (I think Paul) are singing "what a liar" over and over at the end. With Jones amazing lead guitar licks, his vocals, and Strummer's bellowing - it sounds a bit like a clashing confusion but it works perfectly for me.

 

Deny

I often forget about this song because I have the US-album. I wish it had been included on that album. It's relatively simple A > B punk, but the interplay between the deadpan "Deny, you're such a liar!" lyric and the bouncing rhythm that immediately follows it is fantastic. Borrows liberally from rock 'n' roll. For me, a memorable song.

 

Wow... between the debut album and Sandinista there is something like 5 years difference. No arguments are needed nowadays to affirm that the band had evolved by 1981. Just as valid with London Calling. The Clash did a lot of things in a very short time.
But it's a matter of waiting for us to get there

 

The jump from Give Em Enough Rope to London Calling is HUGE!

 

The Clash may have had a touch of sophomore slump but the Pistols were already finished in '78, The Buzzcocks were going strong, and The Damned had an atrocious album Music For Pleasure -their second album. No power, melody, hooks, riffs. I love The Damned though and they rebounded with my second favorite 1979 album Machine Gun Etiquette. So only The Buzzcocks didn't drop from album one to album two.

 

Totally!
It's amazing how that happened! They knew how to move creatively and leave everything there, in those 5 albums, all those singles and eps. And all in 5 to 6 years

 

Deny-another mid-table track for me. Very good, but doesn't hit the heights of Janie Jones or London's Burning, among others. I should give it a spin, but all I have is an awful budget CBS(?) CD that sounds like cr@p. Should find the vinyl. Are there any decent vinyl re-issues of the UK version? Assuming the original is expensive.

3/5

 

I agree. I don't think there is anyone here that would dispute that.

 

Our votes for "Deny"
1-1
2-1
3-6
4-11
5-3
Average: 3.5477

 

Today's song is "London's Burning", mostly written by Joe Strummer and credited to Joe Strummer & Mick Jones. Produced by MIckey Foote.

The Clash – London's Burning Lyrics | Genius Lyrics
Background:
"London's Burning"'s title recalls the old English nursery rhyme.*

"London's Burning"is about a young man with nothing to do but drive around aimlessly in the bleak landscape of the tower block ridden London. It was written after Joe had been walking the dead streets of London at night.

The lyric references the grim tower blocks some of the band had grown up in (not Joe, though) and also the empty blocks that Joe and others were squatting in.

It was written at a squat on the top floor of 42 Dorset Terrace,(some sources say "Orsette Terrace) where Joe lived with Keith Levine, Paul Simonon and Sid Vicious. Joe wrote it very quietly because his girlfriend, Spanish drummer Palmolive from The Slits, was sleeping. Mick and Joe did some light rewriting the next morning, at Mick's grandmother's apartment in a tower block with a scenic view of The Westway. Mick contributed the line about television being "the new religion." This is the first of several songs The Clash did that has led to the band's music being called "Tower Block Rock."
Joe:

Line Up:
Joe Strummer: lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Mick Jones: lead guitars, backing vocals
Paul Simonon: bass guitar, backing vocals
"Tory Crimes": drums

"London's Burning" was included on the following compilations:

• The Story of the Clash, Volume 1 (1988)
• Clash On Broadway (1991)
• The Essential Clash (2003)
• The Clash Hits Back (2013, Japanese bonus track)

Alternate/live versions:

• Polydor Demo, 1976, Sound System Extras (2013) -- audio and video
• Beaconsfield Film School Version 1976 -- released as B-side of Complete Control in 1977, re-released on Sound System Extras (2013)
• From Here to Eternity: Live (1999, recorded 1978 in London)

*London's Burning -- nursery rhyme

 

Polydor Demo:

 

Beaconsfield Film School Session:

 

Victoria Park, London, 1978:

 

Shortened video of the above audio from the Rude Boy film.

 

Here's an interesting video from 1979 with the album version of the song as music.

 

Video for the Beaconsfield Film School: 1976

 

London's Burning

Another great track.

4/5

 

The vocals are probably more reminiscent of Sex Pistols than anything that’s going before but it’s a great track.
5.

 

great great song , 4,5/ 5

 

London's Burning

3/5

Still feels like a throwaway, but it's a bit of a stomper and the punk snarl feels genuine (not like the 14 year olds on Hate And War).

 

4,5/5

 

I thought "Deny" seemed too long whereas this seems too short! This is so much the template for UK punk, it has all the lyrical touchstones - boredom, television, tower blocks plus Joe talks about speedin' around despite not owning a car, if you catch my drift. The vocal is Strummer at his most garbled. It's a classic.

 

True - off a cliff, regrettably.

 

London's Burning 4.5/5, bit of a plodder but lyrically inventive. A strong side closer.

Interesting to have two songs on one side with titles referring to boredom. Classic and hackneyed punk trope. Generally, boredom is only experienced by boring people, but then Joe was writing for his audience, I guess?

 

London's Burning
A total classic. Again, there's a snappy reggae beat to it (which I didn't notice back then). Brilliant.
5/5