What better day than today, February 7th - International Clash Day - for each of us share which Clash tune first turned us into a fan of the band.
Perhaps more than any other band out there at the time, the Clash had such a deep catalog that every new Clash fan could conceivably have their own favorite song without any two fans choosing the same song.
Okay, that's actually not true, but it isn't as untrue as you might think. Even so, I suspect most folks will go with "Should I Stay or Should I Go" because, duh, it got the most radio play, sold the most copies (especially in the UK), and remains one of rock's truly great songs.
The first Clash tune to sink my dingy, though, was "Clampdown", as it was the first tune that lived up to the reverential press coverage I'd been devouring. It was the first composition to capture both the band's militant musical ferocity and their ability to unleash a damn fine pop hook when they set their minds to it.
What's so great about "Clampdown" is that you can play it in just about any setting and people will respond favorably, yet, as immediate as the song may be, it sure as hell isn't the type of song you'd shoot for if you sat down to write a hit.
Thing is, for as riveting as the studio version is, they never fail to bring a new intensity to the song live, as if playing it for the first time.
What truly makes the song special, though, is its place within the sequence of the album. If anybody else had come up with a stunner like this, they'd have opened their album with it, but the Clash have the solid brass clackers to save it for the end of Side Two, between "Lost In The Supermarket" and "The Guns of Brixton".
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happy clash day