London Calling

The Clash | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: January 25, 2000
• Label: Epic
• Copyright: (P) 1979 Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited
• Total Length: 1:04:58
• Genres:
• ASIN: B00138J234
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (462 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,836 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

162 of 171 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily one of the masterworks of rock and roll, February 28, 2004

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: London Calling (Audio CD)

This is one of the few rock albums ever released that is almost impossible to over praise. One can heap on the superlatives, pile on a few more, and still have room for even more laurels. It is probably by any standard one of the five greatest albums released in the rock era, unquestionably the greatest album released by a band with its roots in punk, the greatest explicitly political album ever released by someone who was not Bob Dylan, and one of those rare albums that doesn't seem to age at all. There isn't a weak cut on the album. In fact, the songs are not merely good but great.

Although The Clash started off as a punk band, they were never adequately defined by that phenomenon. Although rooted in the attitudes and political sympathies of the punk movement (and above all else, English Punk, as opposed to the earlier American Punk, was highly political; originator Malcolm McLaren was deeply influenced by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, and included many political ideas in promoting the Sex Pistols and his punk fashions), The Clash quickly outgrew the punk aesthetic. While most of the original punks were merely two-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust bands, the Clash almost immediately began effortlessly and seamlessly assimilating a host of musical influenced. They were the first rock band, for instance, to use reggae rhythms and not make them sound like a gimmick (compare The Clash's extraordinary "The Guns of Brixton" with Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker," which while good sounds a bit like a novelty song, while The Clash sound like they ripped the song off some Jamaicans). The songs are remarkably sophisticated and polished, even when they sound casually. For instance, check out the almost haphazard way "Jimmy Jazz" starts, as if the band can't decide whether to allow the opening riff develop into a full fledged song. Even when it gets fully underway, there is an effortless looseness to the song that persists throughout the impeccably orchestrated song. It is a masterpiece of nonchalant virtuosity.

Most of the songs are so brilliantly original to seem almost impossible. It isn't just that the songs are original; nothing else even remotely like many of them had ever been done before. Where is the predecessor of "Hateful"? Who cooked up "Lost in the Supermarket," with its amazing conglomeration of political and social ideas? Before hearing "The Right Profile," could anyone have imagined it possible to write a classic about Montgomery Cliff's car wreck? Even songs that remind one vaguely of previous songs manage to sound underivative. For instance, there is more than a little Phil Spector's wall of sound in "The Card Cheat," but where do those horns come from?

A mark of the genius of this album can be seen in the fact that although it is one of the great leftist albums of all time, the most reactionary rock fan could still love every song. It is unquestionably great political rock, but more than that it is just flat out awesome rock. It is almost as if The Clash recreated on this album all the rebelliousness contained in the first rockers of the 1950s.

These days, when every other album seems to be getting special expanded versions, this one truly could benefit from such treatment. The liner notes on the current U.S. edition are nonexistent. Hopefully this will be corrected at some point in the relatively near future.

174 of 188 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars London Calling-The Greatest Album of all Time, February 10, 2000

By 

Gundy Brain (The Friendly City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: London Calling (Audio CD)

The album that changed my life. In 1980 I was 17 years old living in Seattle--a total 70s rocker when I saw London Calling in Tower Records. It had the coolest cover I had ever seen--a black and white photo of Paul Simonon smashing his bass on stage. Something just clicked in my brain and instead of buying the latest Aerosmith album, I bought London Calling and at first the Clash were a total shock to my Led Zeppelin soaked system. Now in 1980, American rock radio consisted of songs that consisted of a really cool guitar intro, 1rst verse, chorus, 2nd verse, chorus, a really bitchin solo by Jimmy Page, Michael Schenker, or Ted Nugent, the 3rd verse, and the chorus. Usually the song was about partying, chicks (and sex), or enchanted forests and castles and such and if the song didnt sound like this we hated it. And here in my innocent hands was a record about revolutions, fascists, junkies, race riots, nuclear destruction, gangsters, rude boys, suburban alienation, consumerism, and Montgomery Clift for Gods sake! And all of this was played in all different styles--ferocious punk with snarling vocals, rockabilly, jazz, ska, and reggae. It totally blew away my perception of what rock music was supposed to be. (I became more aware of the world and what was happening politically thanks to the Clash)

This is one of those rare records that never lets up from beginning to end and is truly packed with with some of the Clash's greatest songs. Their cover of "Brand New Cadillac" is just smokin rockabilly, "Rudie Can't Fail" is irresistable reggae rock, "Clampdown" is just pure Clash style punk with angry lyrics and a thumping rhythm, "The Guns of Brixton" features Paul Simonon's bass as the lead instrument (and his vocal) and the result is a very cool reggae number about racial violence, "Wrong Em Boyo" reworks the old song "Stagger Lee" into a catchy ska workout.

There is also the ultimate Clash song, "Death Or Glory", which is a culmination of everything the Clash are. It is a kind of merging of their early punk thrash with the more sophisticated arrangements they were growing into at this point. About a gangster trying to settle down it opens with Joe Strummer's raspy voice singing, "Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world and ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl" Rock and Roll doesn't get any cooler than this.

London Calling is a band brimming with confidence--they can do anything--a band at its absolute peak. This is essential for anyone who loves rock and roll and has a sense of history, of where influential music was created.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The prophet Joe..., December 3, 1999

By 

Maurice Conroy - See all my reviews

This review is from: London Calling (Audio CD)

"When phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust..." cries Joe Strummer from the opening track "London Calling". I don't know about the U.S., but here in the UK we ARE drowning from the tenth-rate phoney Beatle-worshipping Oasis. How we deserve it! The Clash were knocked by us from the moment they arrived. It's only in retropsect that we realise that there will probably never be a band like this again. And never an album of this quality. Every track is brilliant. Why? Because the guys who made it were fundamentely cool, calm and collected. They could rock. They had funk and flavor because they absorbed reggae, jazz and dub. The lyrics are intelligent but not dull. The guitar work on this album showed how talented Mick Jones is as a songwriter, but he didn't have to add layer-upon-layer of gloss to prove his worth. Most of all, the Clash knew how to present an album, present an idea, present themselves. Take most every band and they lack in some crucial department. Take the Clash apart and they still stand up. This is an outstounding album. Trust me. All we have now on offer is watered-down weak-willed wannabes. London Calling - don't have no fear.