Combat Rock [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

The Clash | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 25, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1982
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Epic/Sony
• ASIN: B00004C4L3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,951 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #6 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > British Punk
  • #88 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Punk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The final album by the Clash's original Strummer/Jones incarnation is also their most inconsistent. There were musical and ideological rifts developing within the band, and it shows: the experimentation is almost as wild as Sandanista!'s (and the biggest experiment is heading away from their punk shiftiness and into a commercial rock sound), but they seem to be enjoying it less. The band's stabs at funk and poetry aren't terribly successful, but it all came together for two massive hits: "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" has the biggest, stupidest, most perfect riff this side of "Louie Louie," and "Rock the Casbah" pulls the band's politics, fine-honed sarcasm, and saw-toothed guitar sound into the service of a dance-floor beat. --Douglas Wolk

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: CLASH
Title: COMBAT ROCK
Street Release Date: 01/25/2000
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing July 20, 2005

By race_of_doom VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

I usually hate it when people cry "underrated!!" like it's going to do anything, but I feel that "Combat Rock" (as well as "Sandinista") deserve the complaint.

The first Clash record I seriously fell in love with was "Sandinista." It was wildly experimental, fun, and almost always consistently interesting. It was after that album that I started listening to their more appreciated work (the two albums -- you know which ones).

What stopped me from listening to this album was the surplus of negative reviews and opinions attached to it. People seem to like it even less than "Sandinista," and there are a lot of people who find that triple album repulsive.

But I finally gave it a listen. "Know Your Rights" sounds like a tossed off one-note experiment at first. I was a bit disappointed. But by "Car Jamming," something happened.

I really, really liked it! It's so catchy and weird at the same time. In fact, that goes for the entire album, minus the more "normal" hits -- catchy and absolutely weird. (Sell out? Pfft.) Take the last track for example. "Death Is a Star." Does that even sound like the Clash?

No, not really. In fact, not at all. But for what it is, it's not half bad! That's the beauty of The Clash circa "Sandinista!" and "Combat Rock" -- they tried so many genres and almost always succeeded in some various way. And if they didn't, it was at least an interesting failure.

This one is like "Sandinista!" edited down to a single disc, making it an extremely cohesive album. In fact, it's probably their most cohesive album. Even more so than the perfection of "London Calling."

Hell, even the hits ("Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah") are great. They're not as overplayed as some on here make them out to be....

Every single song has something to offer. "Inoculated City" is perfect pop, "Overpowered by Funk" is The Clash doing (good) disco, "Ghetto Defendant" is an interesting mess of tense drumming, seemingly computerized voices and tight rhythms.

And last but certainly not least, we get "Straight to Hell" on here. What's not to like? Read more ›

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No Sell-out December 3, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

If I read any more ignorance about this being The Clash's "Sell-out" record I'm going to go mad. Listen, selling out is putting out the same record 10 times and being afraid to take chances. The Clash were way ahead of their time with this experimental album, and while there are a few missteps ("Should I Stay", "Overpowered By Funk"), there is also absolute brilliance on this album: "Ghetto Defendant", "Straight To Hell", "Inoculated City", and yes even "Rock The Casbah". "Death Is A Star" has out of tune vocals which somehow almost makes it avant-garde. I put this album up there with "The Clash" and "London Calling". Remember, "selling out" is someone deciding what is, and is not, punk. Punk is someone deciding for themself they're not afraid to take chances, even if they might fail. The Clash, here, try and succeed. Buy this.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I'll take this over the Offspring anyday... October 28, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

Is it their finest hour? No, but Combat Rock far surpasses the third rate, so-called 'punk rock' of recent years. I'll never forget the teenage me watching the Clash on late-night live tv playing 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go'; I was completely in awe---fatigues? A mohawk? I didn't even have cable, this was unbelievably exciting stuff. Today, when I hear 'Rock the Casbah' on the radio during one of those insidious 'remember the eighties' hours, sandwiched between one-hit wonder novelty nonsense, I'm angered that the Clash aren't acknowledged in their proper context---a British punk rock band who wrote brilliant pop songs, introduced reggae music and culture to white kids, and changed my life for the better.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE CLASH'S WORST ALBUM ... PURE GENIUS August 2, 1999

By adamess

Format:Audio CD

Why do so many people think that the Clash sold out with this record? Because a few of the songs became Top 40 hits? Gimme a break. "Combat Rock" is probably the band's worst offering ("Cut the Crap" has been officially excommunicated from the band's discography, so we won't count that), and is still an incredible feat. The production on this album is stunning to say the least, and it blows away anything else that was released in 1982. The band's two "sell-out" singles, "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" are absolutely marvelous. "Straight to Hell" is quite possibly the most haunting song that the band has ever recorded (it ranks right up there with "Rebel Waltz"). The band derives dialogue from the screenplay for "Taxi Driver" in "Red Angel Dragnet," which also shows that they have excellent taste in movies. The album's shorter tracks, like "Atom Tan" and "Inoculated City," are catchy as hell and some of the liveliest work the band has ever done. Do yourself a favor and buy this gem. The Clash are STILL the only band that really mattered, and are STILL one of the most influential bands of the past half-century.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The avant-garde in disguise June 18, 2005

By A. Chiseler

Format:Audio CD

What other band's "sell-out" album features spoken-word contributions from Allen Ginsberg, guitar from Tex-Mex troubador Joe Ely, doleful musical treatises on colonial fallout and the decaying American cityscape, and homages to Scorsese and the Guardian Angels and a journalist who disappeared in the Cambodian jungle during the Vietnam war? What other band would try to tackle all of that while synthesizing Duane Eddy, Dr. Alimantado, The Funky Four Plus One, The Last Poets and The Who?

This record also happened to include two humonguous radio hits, "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" As a result, rock nerds have deemed it uncool for the last quarter century. Listen to them at your own peril.