Disc 16 is...Black Market Clash
Artist: The ClashYear of Release: 1983
How I Came To Know It:After years of wrongly hating the Clash through high school, a bunch of people showed me the error of my ways. Sheila, Casey and Nick for the Clash as a band, but for this album in particular, I think it was a music appreciation night with Nick that flipped the switch.
How It Stacks Up: We've got 5 Clash albums. I like them all, and I'd put "Black Market Clash" at about 3rd - or right in the middle.
Rating: 3 stars.
The Clash are known as the act that launced punk into the mainstream. It is a well-deserved reputation, but what I like most about this particular album - Black Market Clash - is its variety.
"Capital Radio One" kicks things off with that driving angry sound that made the Clash famous, and it is a great track for sure. However, I really love the reggae influences on this album - which I think are more prevalent here than on any other Clash record.
"Pressure Drop" sounds like a straight up reggae track to my untrained ear. My favourite track, "Bank Robber" has a real reggae feel to it. "Bank Robber" was the track that my friend Nick played that really hooked me on this album. I love the opening line:
My Daddy was a bankrobber
He never hurt nobody
He just liked to live that way
He loved to steal your money It is such a great expression of basic rebellion, delivered in a totally non-threatening way. You almost want this guy's Dad to rob your bank.
This album also has a very cool instrumental "Time Is Tight" which once featured on my "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" mixed CD (where I picked songs that were hard to identify with the artist.
I love this song's use of surfer guitar. It is another example of how "Black Market Clash" is a great departure point for the Clash - it is too bad that the departure turned out to be the end of the band shortly thereafter.
Still - we ended up with Big Audio Dynamite. Not exactly the Clash, but who hasn't partied down at the Globe? Ah, but that is for another CD Odyssey entry, my friends...
Best tracks: Bank Robber, Capital Radio One, Time Is Tight, Pressure Drop
2 comments:
I don't know this album as well as some of the other Clash albums. But really, do they have any bad albums? I think not.
Technically speaking, this is a collection rather than a conventional album. Not a "best of" per se, but rather an assortment of rarities and B-sides recorded between 1977 and 1980.
Randall Gerlach
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