The Clash

In the past few weeks we've been listening to more and more punk of the 70s, and to be honest most of it hasn't impressed me.  The Ramones and Talking Heads were pretty good but they didn't impress me enough as to make me transcend into "punkdom."  The Sex Pistols definitely didn't help as I have never liked them or the music they made, yet when we listened to The Clash, something was awakened inside of me....more or less, that made me realize that all punk wasn't horrible as I had previously presumed it to be.  

As we listened, four songs stood out to me the most: "I Fought The Law," (previously recorded by The Bobby Fuller Four), "London Calling," "Rock The Casbah," and "Should I Stay Or Should I Go."  The song London Calling really is a great song in my opinion.  I like the intense and hardcore aspect it has to it unlike some of the "punk" bands of the US.  Also, although I am not a huge lyric person one line really stood out to me in this song: "London calling, now don't look at us, Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust."  To me this pretty much sums up the early 70's in London and all over the world for people of that age group; the need to rebel.   On a completely unrelated note, the beginning of Rock The Casbah with the keyboard/guitar duo really makes the song for me.

(...plus this video is awesome)

(British teeth really are that bad...but the bass line is absolutely ridiculous)

All in all The Clash really changed my opinion towards some kinds of punk...but honestly I'm not sure as to the fact if I'll ever really appreciate all of it.

-Brooks Gonzales