Every Friday night it’s the same thing. It’s one in the morning, I’m slightly lit and feeling randy. I ask my wife if she’ll have a go and she complains, “You have such a one track mind! I don’t wanna listen to London Calling yet again!”
She says I love The Clash too much. But you can’t love The Clash too much.
Can you?
The Clash A to Z part 2: Clash covers, Clash covering, Clash mashed, and a few Strummer tributes. This time, no Zip file. Sorry. Forgot to compile it as I went along and now I’m just too damn lazy. I’ll return all your money if you’re dissatisfied.
A is for Artgel. Rudie Can’t Fail-ArtGel (live)
B is for Blitzkreig Bop (Ramones cover)-Joe Strummer (live).
C is for Clampdown-Hot Water Music
D is for Death or Glory-Jesse Malin
E is for Escapades of Futura 2000 [Original 12″ Version]-Celluloid and The Clash. A too-rare-to-believe example of a hip hop song sampling The Clash. With all their great hooks, I find it astonishing that they weren’t sampled more, at least in the days before all the copyright lawsuits over sampling. After all, Garbage did it on “Stupid Girl”, but they credit Strummer/Jones as partial authors of the tune. See if you remember which Clash song they ripped.
F is for fall . . . If I Should Fall From Grace of God (Pogues cover)-Joe Strummer. People forget sometimes that The Clash were initially being upstaged by The Sex Pistols and The Pogues. They all came up together. Y’all really should read the new book, “Redemption Song.” It’s full of cool stuff and well written.
G is for Guns of Brixton-The Bandits.
H is for The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff)-Joe Strummer
I is for Brand New Cadillac-Incognegro
J is for Janie Jones-Babyshambles. I’m not a Libertines fan, and I think Pete Doherty tries too hard to be a ’70s punk (or Johnny Depp–can’t tell which he’s trying to be), but this song is the only one on this page that may actually be better than the original, because at least here we can understand the brilliant lyrics!
K is for Guns of Brixton-Jeff Klein
L is for London Calling-Chord
M is for mash up! The Whole World Romantically Clashed-OutKast vs. The Romantics vs. The Clash
N is for numerals. Lonely Mother’s Son-The 101ers. The 101ers was the group Joe was with before Bernie Rhodes got him to form the Clash. This song is the first version of “Jail Guitar Doors.”
O is for Oye Como Va-Joe Strummer.
P is for Know Your Rights-Pearl Jam
R is for Rock the Casbah-Richard Cheese. I just had to put this in. I know it’s crazy weird. I could have used the Rachid Taha version, but the new Joe Strummer “soundtrack” album should be purchased and I don’t want to facilitate stealing it. Trust me, “The Future Is Unwritten” is a great album.
R is also for Straight to Hell-Josh Rouse.
S is for Strummer tribute songs! Joe Strummer-Cowboy Mouth
Rebel Song (Ode to Joe Strummer)-Her Majesty. This tune has a definite U2/Joshua Tree vibe, dunnit?
T is for Train in Vain-Third Eye Blind. I’m not a huge fan of this band, but this is a serviceable cover.
U is for U2. New Year’s Day (U2)/Guns of Brixton-Bedouin Soundclash
V is for video. Follow the link to youtube for Should I Stay Or Should I Go?-Tony Blair.
W is for White Man in Hammersmith Palais-Mike Peters. This is from a Pink Gun Records tribute available on emusic. It’s full of pretty faithful Clash covers, like this one, which doesn’t add much to the song but for the fact that Mr. Peters is coherent and it’s nice to hear the lyrics so crisp. This is, after all, probably my favorite song in the history of songs. I can’t hear it often enough.
X is for nothing. So check this out: Roadrunner-The Clash. I think Joan Jett’s version of this tune is my all-time favorite, even if it is pretty mainstream, but the Sex Pistols version, where Johnny Rotten forgets the words and just starts muttering and cursing, is a close second.
Y is for you’re gonna be mad but Z is not for Zip file. Zo zorry. Go clock Zs.
The links for The Clash A to Z Part 1 are still up. Find ’em here.
