three with Joe

["BING E BONG"]

[riggers]

I'm a pretty big Clash fan, but I always thought 1977 was rubbish.

I only know bits of solo Strummer, never really did much for me.

Keys to Your Heart is just a great record, regardless of who was in the band, so that's my pick.

["BING E BONG"]

Oct 18, 2024 22:44:34 GMT riggers said:

I'm a pretty big Clash fan, but I always thought 1977 was rubbish.

Really?!?! It's one of my very favourites by the band. They never got more raw. It sounded incredibly exciting to me when I was 19.

[riggers]

I mean, it's ok as part of a manifesto but to these ears it pales next to most of the first album and the other early singles.

[Charlie O.]

This is the first I've heard "Love Kills" since... 1987, maybe? It's not as bad as I remembered it being, but it isn't very good. I could easily go another three decades plus without hearing it again.

I reckon I like "1977" more than riggers does, but it's still fairly minor, plus I prefer the CBS recording.

I'd stop short of calling "Keys To Your Heart" great, but it gets my vote here.

[fonz]

Was he going for the ‘Ian Brady look’ in those photos

[toomanyhatz]

With Charlie on this, almost word-for-word. Nothing to add, other than I have instant positive feelings toward the Chiswick label, if just for being the label of Philip Chevron and the Radiators. Add in Motorhead and the Damned too while you're at it.

[fange]

'1977' is the cat's pajamas. One of my fave things ever.

[rayge]

Of the bands I loved in the 70s and 80s, only the Smiths have aged more than the Clash. Strummer was a great frontman - I found him transfixing when I saw the band live in 1978 - and a fine bloke by most accounts (at least those of my friend Ed, who shared a house with him when they were both at art school), but he wasn't much of a wordsmith or vocalist, really, and his recording quality was depend on who he was working with.
Not familiar with any of these tracks: I never bothered with him after The Clash broke up, went with Mick Jones instead. LK doesn't float my boat all.
The 101ers were pub rockers, basically, weren't they? I must have heard KtYH in the 1970s, but had no memory of it. It's fine for what it is, but there's a reason I didn't buy it back then when I was purchasing hundreds of singles a year: I guess it was because it was looking backwards rather than forwards.
First hearing for the early Clash recording: is that Terry rather than Topper on drums? Sounds raw as in uncooked, rather than primal. The CBS recording is so much better than this, because it's actually produced. Far from my favourite single by them anyway: it's forced. It came over as an amphetamine rush back in the 70s, but they went on to much better things.

I didn't vote.
Can't really vote for any of these

[Stacy Heydon]

Disagree with Ray, Joe definitely had lyrical talent.
I was always underwhelmed by anything he did before and after The Clash though. 1977 is the best here by a distance, although the version that was the b side to 'white riot' is the one you need to hear.

[Sneelock]

Love Kills by a billion percent!

it makes me want to swing from things.