Oh, The Clash. Now here's a band I can sink my fangs into. My hollow, venomous cobra fangs.
"Gee, why do you hate The Clash so much?"
Really, I don't, strictly speaking. I have always had a real problem with them being labelled a Punk band. They damn sure started that way, but by the 3rd album the punk had been worked out of their systems and they had gotten down to the business of just making good rock music. Somewhere after that, however, they started believing their own press and bought into the whole "only band that matters" label. What did that get us? A triple-album. OK, people look back to the 70s and groan at the self indulgence of double albums (especially live ones) and wonder what the fuck went wrong. Now how the hell can anyone justify a triple album? Not even from Frank Zappa will I put up with that kind of shit. Especially when it's largely political bla-de-blah. I almost never will stand for politics in my music, whether I agree with said politics or not. Perhaps the greatest crime committed here, though, is the fact that "Police on my back" is the one and only good song to be culled from one hour, fourty-four minutes, and twenty-nine seconds of what is otherwise an exercise in self-indulgence, masturbation, and enjoying the smell of one's own farts. And it's an Eddy Grant cover. At 3:15, that leaves 1:41:14 of pure, unequivocally feculent trash. How into yourself do you have to be to do that to people? And guess what? They never lifted themselves back up from their slide into shitsville. This album is a headstone for what this band used to be as much as it's a triple-sized monument to their own willful failure. Queen had naked midgets with mountainous trays heaped with coke strapped to their heads, The Clash had the pleasure of listening to themselves bray about politics for almost 2 hours. They couldn't even get extravagance right. Fucking assholes.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
HATE IT! part 7 - Sandinista!
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4 comments:
1:44:29 for a triple album is a mere 24:29 longer than the 80 minute CD that (unfortunately) defines many current releases. Funny how ~30 years ago, this much music was considered arrogant and pretentious, while now it's typical.
I remember when Bryan Adams' Waking up the Neighbours came out, there was a sense of pride that he used the (then) full 72 minutes available for a CD. I worked in a chain record store that played the CD non-stop, and it was like 72 minutes of Hell, several times a day.
"the best writers have said very
little
and the worst,
far too much."
-- Bukowski
Ah, how I love Bukowski! Great quote to put in there. Thanks.
Well, I almost agree with you. "Police on my back" is great. I like "Magnificent Seven" and a few others whose names elude me as well. I'm not sure what I would rate this, but it's at least two-thirds shit. I'm inclined to believe a sub-par album can be culled from it, but that's wishing too much. They really went too far here.
Actually, they did cull a sub-par album from it. There was a one LP "sampler" or "best of the album" or whatever you want to call it. It was sent to radio stations, if I remember the story right. It was still a scabrous and infected gash of an abomination.
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