Recently, a best friend of mine placed a blog on Bebo about his 5 favourite albums of all time. Which got me thinking- In my 20GB of music, do I have 5 all time favourite albums? Simple answer- No, I have many, pretty much one for each genre. However I can say that one stands out to me as THE MOST influential album of all time.

Yes, although Jimi Hendrix, Plant and Page, Shaddix, Ramone and Lynott, there will always be undoubted legends; as far as I’m concerned they don’t even come close……
As 2009 draws to a very bleak close I feel that this album could not be more appropriate, in fact it is as relevant and as reflective of the times today as it was on the year of its release on the 14th of December, 1979. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, if you hadn’t already guessed; I am of course referring to The Clash’s “London Calling.”
This album is striking from the off- the iconic cover image of Paul Simonon smashing his bass and the green and pink writing is just as recognizable as “Abbey Road” or “Dark Side of The Moon.” It enjoyed success as the first double album for the price of a single album, innovative for its time and notably so. And we’ve not even got to the music yet…….

To understand why “London Calling” was so relevant and iconic you have to understand the back drop. Musically, 1979 was completely different from today. In order to be successful in the rock era of the 1970s you had to be a masterful musician and write your own music- there was very little industry help and NO technological interference. Britain in the 1970s and the end of 1979 was meant to herald a new hope in with the coming of a new decade. But instead with the coming of Mrs Thatcher on the 4th of May 1979, things were only ever going to get worse. Britain was a country crippled by strikes within every sector, mass unemployment, a dying industrial sector and the worst race riots in decades. Police brutality was all too common and record numbers of British citizens, many of them young people were claiming benefit. “Labour isn’t working”- Yeah you’re not joking there. Naturally, Mrs Thatcher- a capitalist, pro-American Conservative was only ever going to make a bad situation worse- but that’s another story…..

The punk scene of 1976 was slowly dying too, being taken over by the “New Wave” and “Two Tone” bands such as Madness and The Specials. The icons of the decade lay dead too- Vicious for 2 months, Marc Bolan and Elvis for 2 years, Hendrix had been dead for 7 years and David Bowie had killed off both Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane by then……..Prog rock lay in tatters too and the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who had fallen victim to drug abuse and personality clashes.
So in a way, “London Calling” signalled the end of many things- the end of one of the most culturally diverse decades of the 20th Century, and the beginning of the Thatcherite, cut-throat, wealth-orientated of world we recognize today. It signified and mourned the death of punk, but with a much more mature and masterful sound and message than say the Sex Pistols or The Ramones. And some have said- and I agree- that it hailed the end of rock and roll itself and the start of a new era in rock. And it’s never been the same since….. Bassist Paul Simonon’s bass smashing is significant in more ways than one, a working title of “The Last Testament”, and a song entitled “4 Horsemen” The Clash made it clear that “the end was nigh.” If you think about it, it’s never been the same since…. And it probably never will…..

Sadly “London Calling” also signalled the musical peak of the band- although they carried on to release a further 3 albums the group dynamic was never quite the same as drug addiction, personality clashes and a chameleon style attempt to adapt into “the electronic 80s” lost the band members, fans and ultimately led to their demise in 1985.
But WHAT a swansong!! Right from the striking opening chords of “London Calling” to the last beat of “Train in Vain”, the listener is whirled round through heavy rock, to punk, to rock’n’roll, ska, reggae, pop, funk, jazz and even piano based power ballads, all catchy and musically masterful but with a deep and powerful meaning behind them.

From the apocalyptic visions of “London Calling” and protest to the police brutality of “Clampdown” to the jovial acoustic chords of “Spanish Bombs”- a tribute to the fallen of the Spanish Civil War, and the reggae and ska beats of “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” and “Guns of Brixton,” which despite their catchy upbeat riffs and bass lines tell of the racial discontent and gang warfare in the group’s native West London.
The Clash was the first group really to prove it was possible to be outwardly political without shoving it down people’s throats. “Rudi Can’t Fail” is a catchy two-tone tune telling of the bands time spent being unemployed, on the dole and seeking solace in alcohol- a sentiment familiar to many young people today while “Koka Kola” is a fast paced prophecy of the Capitalist world to come, exposing the debauchery and nightmarish visions of the “corridors of power”, which we of course know all too well with the current Banking crisis. The sorry tales of “The Card Cheat”- a salute to “all of the men who have stood with no fear in the service of the King”- A sentiment and sadness which hangs as a constant black cloud over the society of today…..
So please, I beg of you, put down your Fall Out Boy and listen to true masters at work. Listen, learn and appreciate- because there will NEVER be anything quite like this again………

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