The Essential Clash (2CD)

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The Clash
The Essential Clash (2CD)

[ Sony / 2 CD ]

Release Date: Friday 6 September 2019

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It's somehow fitting that the first Clash collection to be released in the wake of frontman Joe Strummer's December 2002 death should be the closest anyone's ever come to a truly definitive non-box-set anthology. The two discs essentially work chronologically, starting out with a dose of old-school UK punk from the days when the Clash were messengers of political fury and icon-shattering rock & roll fire (the raging "White Riot" and gloriously snotty "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A."). We can hear the incorporation of reggae rhythms with "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" and Junior Murvin's street-fighting tale "Police & Thieves," and the beginnings of the Clash's infatuation with American music on the Bobby Fuller cover "I Fought the Law."

Disc two finds the band truly at the peak of its powers, featuring tracks from London Calling and Sandanista, where both the lyricism and the stylistic palette were brought to a new level (the punk-rap of "The Magnificent Seven," the Caribbean lilt of "Rudie Can't Fail"). It's to this compilation's strong credit that it not only includes a healthy portion from the most "difficult" Clash album (Sandanista), but some vital tracks from the odd-ends collection Black Market Clash (the dubbed-out Robin Hood tale "Bankrobber," the snarling "Capital Radio One"), making The Essential Clash much more than a greatest-hits collection.

Tracks:

1-1 White Riot (Single Version) 1:59
1-2 1977 1:39
1-3 London's Burning 2:09
1-4 Complete Control 3:12
1-5 Clash City Rockers 3:47
1-6 I'm So Bored With The U.S.A. 2:23
1-7 Career Opportunities 1:51
1-8 Hate & War 2:05
1-9 Cheat 2:05
1-10 Police & Thieves 6:00
1-11 Janie Jones 2:04
1-12 Garageland 3:09
1-13 Capital Radio One 2:09
1-14 (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais 4:00
1-15 English Civil War 2:34
1-16 Tommy Gun 3:14
1-17 Safe European Home 3:49
1-18 Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad 3:00
1-19 Stay Free 3:37
1-20 Groovy Times 3:30
1-21 I Fought The Law 2:35

2-1 London Calling 3:18
2-2 The Guns Of Brixton 3:12
2-3 Clampdown 3:50
2-4 Rudie Can't Fail 3:27
2-5 Lost In The Supermarket 3:47
2-6 Jimmy Jazz 3:55
2-7 Train In Vain 3:10
2-8 Bankrobber 4:31
2-9 The Magnificent Seven 5:28
2-10 Ivan Meets G.I. Joe 3:05
2-11 Stop The World 2:33
2-12 Somebody Got Murdered 3:34
2-13 The Street Parade 3:26
2-14 Broadway 4:54
2-15 This Is Radio Clash 4:10
2-16 Ghetto Defendant 4:45
2-17 Rock The Casbah 3:40
2-18 Straight To Hell 5:30
2-19 Should I Stay Or Should I Go 3:06
2-20 This Is England 3:50