Disc of the day
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Good-natured powerpop gets two-thumbs-up from MOJO messageboarder.
Features Disc of the day
The Clash
Cut The Crap
(CBS, 1985)
Even in MOJO’s Clash Month™, I bet you weren’t expecting this...
In rock lore there is a special circle of hell reserved for The Clash’s despised, airbrushed-from-history Cut The Crap, which was credited to a replicant version of the group created after guitarist Mick Jones was booted out to form Big Audio Dynamite in 1983. But when Jon Savage, the current capo di tutti capo of rock critics calls it an “ambitious and moving state-of-the-nation address with innovative use of rap rhythm and atmosphere,” doesn’t it deserve another listen? Fronted by Joe Strummer with manager Bernard Rhodes co-writing and co-producing, it was an anomaly then and remains so; intended to be a simultaneous look back and leap forward, the resulting farrago of crunching drum machines, cheap synth, ‘77-vintage punk guitar and terrace chanting at times echoes its own working title, Out Of Control. But if you need intestinal fortitude to listen to the baffling We Are The Clash and Dirty Punk, the reflective Three Card Trick and the single This Is England stand up with the Jones-era songs. Strummer’s in splenetic, idealistic form and his theme is, as ever, justice for all and an equitable distribution of wealth, so beneath all the postcard punk baroque Ceefax bluster (not to mention Rhodes’ crash-the-plane-into-a-mountainside hubris), it’s still The Clash, dammit. ’83-’85 guitarist Vince White has expressed hopes that Strummer’s vocals could one day get a Free As A Bird-style rebirth using live instruments. What do you say, Mick Jones?
Ian Harrison
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 10/10/2008
Further Listening
Big Audio Dynamite – No.10 Upping Street (CBS, 1986)
The Who – It’s Hard (Polydor, 1982)
Rancid – …And Out Come The Wolves (Epitaph, 1995)
Previous Disc of the day
-
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Good-natured powerpop gets two-thumbs-up from MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 02/07/2009
-
Nic Jones - Game Set Match
Hatchet-direct performances by the lost voice of English folk. "Anyone for tennis?" asks MOJO messag
6:00 AM GMT 02/07/2009
-
Dan Penn - Nobody's Fool
One of soul's greatest songwriters steps into the limelight...
6:00 AM GMT 01/07/2009
-
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
Mid-period Dinos. Unfashionable but oh so lovable.
6:00 AM GMT 26/06/2009
-
Keith Moon - Two Sides Of The Moon
Who drummer bares posterior in words and music.
6:00 AM GMT 24/06/2009
-
Chico Hamilton Quintet/Elmer Bernstein - Sweet Smell Of Success
Double noir delights from jazz and orchestral giants!
6:00 AM GMT 23/06/2009
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Comments
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It sounds better on vinyl than cd. True!
Posted by simon F at 1:52 PM GMT 10/10/2008 Report Abuse
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Come off it! Cut the Crap was rubbish then and it's rubbish now. Granted, two or three songs on here are ok - This is England, Dictator and North And South - but, generally, the album sounds like Sham 69 on ketamine. On top of that, the best song from that era - In The Pouring Rain- wasn't even recorded for the album. It is available on the soundtrack for The Future is Unwritten. Track it down - Strummer's last great creative gasp in the name of The Clash.
Posted by Frank Jotzo at 8:37 AM GMT 11/10/2008 Report Abuse
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I'm glad Cut the Crap's been made a Disc of the Day. Sure, the album's not perfect with it's overcrowded production (less is sometimes more, Mr. Rhodes!) and We Are the Clash is a joke of a song but I think the stuff on here is better than the weaker moments on Sandinista! (the kids singing Career Opportunities, for example) and Combat Rock (Red Angel Dragnet, with that odd Travis Bickle impression). At least there's a sense of urgency to the lyrics and music, a world away from the long songs on Combat Rock.
It's a pity this album has been removed from the history of the Clash. It's still the Clash, it's still got Strummer and Simonon at the band's core. It might not be the Clash at their peak but I'd take a half decent Clash over any 'punk' band of today. Regardless of his faults at least Strummer sounded like he meant what he sang!
And, does anyone else find it ironic that This is Big Audio Dynamite and Cut the Crap both employ 80's synths and sampling when one of the reasons that Mick Jones was sacked from the band was that he wanted to go in a more dance/rap direction?
Posted by Andrew Marsden at 10:53 AM GMT 12/10/2008 Report Abuse
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