Comments on: Not really a ‘fan’ any more…

By: GSS

GSS — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:07:27 +0000

Hmmph.

You are just annoyed becuase I said you were “trying to be funny” in the dream thread.

Not content with retailitaion on the board, you have brought your bile and venom here.

Desist I say!

By: Mack

Mack — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:19:41 +0000

Just so you know, you are one hundred percent correct about the Clash (Somebody got Murdered is the only song I can even listen to on Sandanista) and Joy Division. Your opinion about the VU’s is close. Loaded in fact IS better than the Andy Warhol album. But your head is completely up your ass about all the rest.

By: Sousob Bob

Sousob Bob — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:54:18 +0000

Hi, it’s SSB

I agree about the White album by the way, and like your Chicken shit song.

But how can you say “Jaws of Life” is the best Australian album ever?

Ben Lee has already said that his album was the best, and now you are just confusing the issue.
Midnight Oil’s 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 is an album I would defend, with the exception of the last song “Somebody ‘s trying to tell me something”, which I don’t think is very good….

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:16:44 +0000

Heh. But I like the quicksand, here. . . After your post, Steve, I remembered that the Clash’s “first album” in the US was different to the actual first album released everywhere else (which was only available as an expensive import in the US for a number of years). As a fourteen year-old with limited resources, I was already immersed in the US version for nearly a year before I could get together the cash for the “import.” This helps explain my feelings about the first album. The US version does not have Deny, Cheat, Protex Blue or 48 Hours on it (three of the four of which I am not so fond of). The US version DOES have Complete Control, White Man in Hammersmith Palais, and I Fought the Law (two of the three of which are my favorite Clash songs). And somehow, it always fit together for me as a complete work – even if Garageland is not my favo(u)rite tune, it will always and forever be “the end of the album,” the point where I can lean back and catch my breath.

I’d summarize my fourteen year-oldish response to the Pistols as “hey, a punk band! F***ing awesome!” My fourteen year-oldish response to the first Clash album was, “hey, a punk band! F***ing awesome! And I want to play guitar, sing about politics and change the entire world!” Made all the difference to me, somehow.

By: kpunk

kpunk — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:08:35 +0000

Hmm, I wasn’t going to comment on this because I saw the warning signs for the quicksand that it is. But I have to go with Janet in defending the Clash’s first album. I love the Clash, but recognize that there is a lot of crap that never made the cut. To my mind, however, the first album is consistent all the way through.
And your equation of the Pistols to Bill Haley and the Comets is pretty good one, especially as they both also created a lot of goofy crap that is kind of embarrassing except they somehow pull it off by sheer gall (see Friggin’ in the Riggin’ for example).

By: GSS

GSS — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:51:19 +0000

I like the idea of your “Hermits to the Beatles” comparison but it doesn’t really fit the Clash / Pistols equation to my mind. Really the Pistols are more like the ‘Bill Haley and the Comets’ of punk. They had the basic idea and then everyone else came along and did it so much better.

By: Fraser Pearce

Fraser Pearce — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:49:50 +0000

It’s almost disturbing how much my taste in music overlaps with yours.

I was listening to Closer and Unknown Pleasures while watering the garden last week. I used to skip Atrocity Exhibition but listen to it these days. I’m less into Unknown Pleasures than I used to be. I love the production on Closer.

I agree about Teenage Werewolf. I assume you are not very keen on anything A Date With Elvis and after (inclusive).

The Clash’s first album I still like, but I always thought (and still do) that the Clash were Herman’s Hermits to the Pistols’ Beatles. I also think that Pearl Jam were Herman’s Hermits to Nirvana’s Beatles. But the thing is I think that Herman’s Hermits had some redeeming features. Not Henry the Eighth, however.

Actually, these days I’ll try to draw something I like out of just about anything. The snare sound…whatever.

By: GSS

GSS — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:30:19 +0000

Eh, The Clash self titled. Let me think about it….

“Janie Jones”
“Remote Control”
“I’m So Bored with the USA”
“White Riot”
“Hate and War
“What’s My Name?”
“Deny”
“London’s Burning”

“Career Opportunities”
“Cheat
“Protex Blue”
“Police & Thieves”
“48 Hours”
“Garageland”

Really I could leave about half of this. I really like Jamie Jones, White Riot, I’m So Bored, Career Opportunities, Cheat, Protex Blue, Police and Thieves. As for the rest…let’s not and say we did?

And thinking back, I used to lift the needle up and drop down on the songs I liked, anyway. Trashed all my records doing that.

By: Janet

Janet — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:33:54 +0000

See, now I am surprised that you would not put the first Clash album on your list. It has been almost thirty years since I first heard it, and it still blows my effing scalp off. . . but interestingly, that is one of the few albums I would be willing to defend in that way. I agree with you about how hard it is to defend most albums (of any era, then or now) passionately, down to the last song. I’d qualify this only slightly, by saying that some of the albums that I will still listen to with great pleasure include some with totally naff tracks (like That Petrol Emotion or Mission of Burma or most of the Clash albums), BUT that I recall listening to fondly (i.e., there is a great sentimentality of thinking “oh, remember back when I used to listen to this”), OR that I remember the ‘sucking tracks’ being the stuff that you needed to sit through to get to the good stuff. Vinyl had a way of promoting delayed gratification in that way! Perhaps this is my discontent with all things digital = I can no longer force myself to sit impatiently, with anticipation, to build up to those special tracks that I really want to hear.
Ah well. Long comment. But how right you are about these things. . . (first Clash record excepted)