The Clash - London Calling
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 14.12.1979
As someone living in a country where the news moves at a frantic pace, from one negative report to the next, and then another, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking “this is the end of the world as we know it”. And yet the country keeps going, and at the end of the day each person has to decide what kind of content they choose to expose themselves to, and what they are better off keeping their distance from.
A powerful embodiment of this mindset appears in Joe Strummer from "The Clash", whose third album "London Calling" was released on December 14, 1979.
Strummer, born in August 1952 in Ankara, Turkey, under the name John Graham Mellor, came from a wealthy upper-class family. His father served as a secretary to the British Foreign Secretary. Despite this background, he despised the wealthy and openly challenged them. That same Joe Strummer was obsessively addicted to news consumption. The result was the album’s title track "London Calling", an apocalyptic song that deals in various ways with the end of the world, hunger, war, and the protest of ordinary people against the British establishment.
Strummer developed his love for rock music through records by Little Richard, "The Beach Boys", and Woody Guthrie, which he listened to obsessively. In his early days he played the ukulele, and at the age of twenty one he became the lead singer of "The 101ers". A year later the band broke up, and Strummer moved to London, where he formed "The 101ers" with his flatmates, playing covers of American rhythm and blues and blues songs.
At the end of May 1976, shortly after a performance by "The 101ers", Strummer was approached by musician Mick Jones and manager Bernie Rhodes, who were searching for a new singer following the breakup of "London SS", Jones’s former band. A month earlier, bassist Paul Simonon had already joined the emerging group. Simonon grew up in Brixton, a deprived neighborhood shaped by waves of new immigrants.
Rhodes gave Strummer 48 hours to decide whether he wanted to join a band intended to compete with "The Sex Pistols". That was all the time Strummer needed to say he was in.
Drummer Terry Chimes became the band’s regular drummer, at least in the early stages. The name "The Clash" was suggested by Paul Simonon, inspired by newspaper headlines in which the word clash appeared again and again in connection with riots driven by economic hardship and unemployment in Britain at the time.
Strummer and Jones shared the responsibilities of writing and composing most of the band’s songs.
After their debut studio album, "The Clash" replaced drummer Terry Chimes with Nicholas "Topper" Headon, who remained part of the band until its eventual breakup.
Following their second album "Give 'Em Enough Rope", released in 1978, the members realized they wanted to be more than just a punk band. During their United States tour in 1979, they chose opening acts from the rhythm and blues world, including Bo Diddley, Sam and Dave, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and the punk rockabilly band "The Cramps".
This shift away from strict punk and toward broader musical directions led "The Clash" to split from their manager Bernard Rhodes, and forced them to leave their rehearsal space in Camden Town and relocate to a studio known as "Vanilla Studios".
In May 1979, the members of "The Clash" arrived at "Vanilla Studios" with no new original material. Mick Jones and Joe Strummer, the band’s primary songwriters, were suffering from a severe creative block. For nearly a year they had been unable to write new songs. Out of this drought, the band imposed a strict routine on themselves. They gathered at the studio every afternoon for rehearsals, took breaks to play football in order to release tension, fueled themselves with a few pints of beer, and then returned to the studio to continue recording late into the night.
This approach proved effective. The discipline and high-intensity playing helped the band solidify as a unit and regain the confidence they so desperately needed. From that point on, everything began to flow more easily.
The recording sessions lasted only about six weeks, with most songs captured in one or two takes at most. The result was the first double post-punk album, a bold and diverse statement that blended punk, reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans rhythm and blues, pop, lounge, jazz, and hard rock.
“We were full of bullshit, and now we’re going back to the drawing board,” Joe Strummer told NME. “We were screwed, but not screwed enough to stop.”
The album’s songs are largely rooted in London, built around narratives that combine fictional characters with real life inspiration. Figures such as the underground criminal "Jimmy Jazz", and "The Guns of Brixton", which captures the growing sense of frustration in the neighborhood over heavy police presence, economic recession, and social tension, reflect the atmosphere of the time.
Across the album, these urban narratives explore themes of sex, depression, and identity crisis.
Some tracks extend beyond the city itself, touching on broader political and historical contexts, including references to “evil presidents”, the lingering impact of the Spanish Civil War in "Spanish Bombs", and the way constant consumerism led to political apathy in "Lost in the Supermarket".
The album cover captures bassist Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar on the stage of the Palladium in New York during a performance in September 1979. The pink and green lettering of the album title serves as a direct homage to the cover of Elvis Presley’s debut album.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music