Listen:

EPISODIX:

Posted:

April 26, 2017

Music:

All songs by The Clash from London Calling (CBS/Epic Records), December 1979 UK, January 1980 US

• “Rudie Can’t Fail”
• “Lost in the Supermarket”
• “Clampdown”
• “The Right Profile”
• “Train in Vain”

Notes:

From the official Clash website, regarding the cover of London Calling: “…featured a photograph of Paul Simonon smashing up his bass guitar onstage at the New York Palladium. The shot was taken by Pennie Smith, whose portraits of the group have also appeared on the cover of the Clash LP Sandinista! (1980) and Combat Rock (1982).”

Some home-movie type footage of the band recording at Wessex studios, with Guy Stevens doing some nutty stuff with a ladder and piano:

A neat little piece on how soccer, as Jim mentioned, played a part in London Calling.

Though we didn’t discuss it on this episode (as we focused on albums as they were released originally), there is a pretty amazing ‘legacy’ edition of LC that features many of the original demos and recordings from Vanilla and a film that was created by Don Letts.

Patrick had two books that helped him prepare for Clash Week. Both are great and highly recommended: