![]() In other words, London Calling not only replaced stylistic concision with experimentation (a move pushed even further with 1980’s Sandinista!) but marked the moment when The Clash became bigger than punk. Soon, whatever allegiance they still had to punk as a social movement was eclipsed by their newfound power as a band unto themselves. Installed in a makeshift practice space adjoining an auto body shop, they started rehearsing covers in styles seemingly outside their comfort zone: reggae, soul, rockabilly, pub rock. ![]() If the Sex Pistols had been suicide bombers, The Clash were ascendant generals, adapted to present terrain but romantically steeped in the past.Īs great as the band’s first two albums had been, they’d mostly worked off a blueprint of punk that by 1979 had started to look a little limited, even retrograde. If the Ramones’ take on “California Sun” and “Do You Wanna Dance” goofed on the naivete of early-'60s pop-rock, The Clash’s version of “I Fought the Law” was deadly earnest, a declaration of shared values with the rock myths that punk supposedly helped end. Not because they weren’t rebellious, but because they always seemed too absorbed by tradition and continuity to deliver the sonic and sociocultural rupture punk promised. Looking back, it’s funny that The Clash started out as a punk band.
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