were The Clash punk? what were they?

bitzzyfitz · 12-03-2010 10:22am

AnimalRights wrote: »

Punk is most certainly not dead, I photograph/Video about 50 gigs a year.
It's mostly underground, DIY.
Of course it's not as big as it's hey day of the late 70s.

Tell me Punk is dead after looking at The World's biggest Punk festival held in the Winter gardens in Blackpool.
http://pix.ie/punkrock/album/350678

Punk (as a movement) was all about being original/diy/3-chords/havin a go/gettin rid of ''so called hippy bands''/lengthy guitar solos''/all those cliches. anything after that was just a copy. its influences are worldwide as we know it. punk arrived in dublin later than london/i was in the dandelion market every saturday and i gigged there. punk was a huge changing point in my life and i am still playing ''punk music'' in a band over 30 years later. my point was that the originality was gone when the ''leather jacket/mohawk brigade'' emerged and everybody looked like everybody else.

cheers

bitzy

smurke · 13-03-2010 11:47am

dregin wrote: »

My problem is with the fact that that quote you're using doesn't appear in this thread so has nothing to do with it.

It appears in the thread as a signature. I'm asking one person a question. Why can't you just ignore it?

Ro: maaan! · 13-03-2010 12:04pm

He's right you know. I missed that myself.

Although the post is from 2005. So you may not get a reply.

smurke · 13-03-2010 12:43pm

and I missed that!, thought it was a new thread, didn't pay attention to the date, ah well

bullpost · 13-03-2010 12:54pm

AnimalRights wrote: »

Tell me Punk is dead after looking at The World's biggest Punk festival held in the Winter gardens in Blackpool.
http://pix.ie/punkrock/album/350678

Wow - It might not be dead but judging by those photos its cetainly put on a few pounds and gained a few laughter lines since I went to the gigs way back when.

bassey · 13-03-2010 3:18pm

bitzzyfitz wrote: »

Punk (as a movement) was all about being original/diy/3-chords/havin a go/gettin rid of ''so called hippy bands''/lengthy guitar solos''/all those cliches. anything after that was just a copy. its influences are worldwide as we know it. punk arrived in dublin later than london/i was in the dandelion market every saturday and i gigged there. punk was a huge changing point in my life and i am still playing ''punk music'' in a band over 30 years later. my point was that the originality was gone when the ''leather jacket/mohawk brigade'' emerged and everybody looked like everybody else.

cheers

bitzy

Punk is youth and you're an old **** so **** off

Ro: maaan! · 13-03-2010 3:33pm

Easy on the personal insults. I'm gonna let that one go as it is probably just misdirected anger at the system.

It's also about the least punk thing you could have said.

AnimalRights · 14-03-2010 3:28am

smurke wrote: »

and I missed that!, thought it was a new thread, didn't pay attention to the date, ah well

SAME HERE LOL

bullpost · 14-03-2010 2:15pm

On a related note - Theres a tribute album to the Clash's Sandinista triple album. Its got artists like Wreckless Eric and The Coal Porters and camper Van Beethoven.

Its free until tonight here:

http://blog.guterman.com/2010/03/09/the-sandinista-project-once-again-free-for-a-limited-time/

Is it punk? Musically probably not but in spirit definitely.

smurke · 14-03-2010 10:56pm

bullpost wrote: »

On a related note - Theres a tribute album to the Clash's Sandinista triple album. Its got artists like Wreckless Eric and The Coal Porters and camper Van Beethoven.

Its free until tonight here:

http://blog.guterman.com/2010/03/09/the-sandinista-project-once-again-free-for-a-limited-time/

Is it punk? Musically probably not but in spirit definitely.

Cheers for the heads up

AnimalRights · 14-03-2010 11:48pm

D/l this and looking at the artists I feared the worst too, I was right, Ivan meets GI Joe by one Jason Ringenberg is some poxy C+W version...aaarrggghhhh
It's terrible.

Guess this is kind of an answer to how The Clash became, I mean once people like this who cover the tracks er cover 'em it's ex Punk time.

BaelNaMblath · 18-03-2010 6:40pm

Everyone says the clash is punk, but they're definitely a pop band.

jed cooper · 20-03-2010 5:13am

Its a hard sell to say the Clash were a Ska or Reggae band.. or even a pop band. They were a punk band (of course) but I bet if you asked them directly back in the day they would simple decline to answer. Being genre-less is the mark of great musicians with much creativity to give. The rules applied in this conversation do not apply.

In the UK back in the late 70's the Punk scene and the Reggae/Ska scene were very closely tied. Reggae was the preferred after-party music of the punk scene so its easy to see where the bands were getting their ideas.

The above list of tracks is incomplete.

Strongly Reggae/Ska influenced Clash songs:
-Revolution Rock
-Bank Robber (Robber Dub)
-Wrong 'Em Boyo
-The Guns of Brixton
-Rudie Can't Fail
-(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais
-Pressure Drop (a Toots and the Maytals cover)
-Armagideon Time (Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over) (a Willie Williams cover)
-Police & Thieves (a Junior Murvin cover)
Others...?

There are so many ska/reggae influenced songs from the Clash the task of listing them is difficult but in the above list the influence is obvious.

1979's London Calling has at least 4 Reggae/Ska influenced songs on it alone. Lets see what other Punk/Reggae things were going on that same year in the UK?
1979:
-The Slits release the album "Cut"
-The Specials release their first album "The Specials"
-Stiff Little fingers covers Bob Marley's "Johnny Was"
-The Police release "Reggatta de Blanc" (White Reggae) including the track "Bring on the Night"
-Madness release their first record.

08-04-2010 10:44pm

I think The Clash were musical chameleons, moving from pub rock to punk to ska to pop. There's a continuity there in the development of the sound that continues through to Big Audio Dynamite. Never saw them as a punk band really, and that isn't a dis - they just weren't constrained by the punk recipe book.

Randy Shafter · 09-04-2010 2:41pm

I'd say they started off as punk but as they progressed they didn't limit themselves to just playing punk rock. They took on board a lot of other genres and incorporated those styles into their music. IMO they were punk at the start yet they tried different genres as time went on and still put a punk spin on them so to speak.

arsenallegend · 13-04-2010 9:01am

their first album was certainly Punk from the production to the playing
but they did become a different beast and from Give 'em enough on became the greatest band in the world.

were The Clash punk? what were they?

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