Don Letts has compiled an album for the Late Night Tales series, a twenty one track dub excursion that pulls together all sorts of strands, strains and offshoots of dub, punk and post punk. Among the highlights are a bunch of cover versions. Capitol 1212 and Earl Sixteen cover Love Will Tear Us Apart, a dubbed out version of the song with a cool vocal and buckets of echo.
Wrongtown Meets The Rockers deconstruct The Clash's Lost In The Supermarket, bassline and FX, a snatch of melodica carrying the topline. The Easy Star All Stars break out the sitars for a very stoned version of Within You Without You. Gaudi and The Rebel Dread tackle Big Audio Dynamite's E=MC2, samples from Performance and a mangled, cut up vocal while the bassline prods and pushes Don's old band's song along.
Black Box Recorder's cover of Uptown Top Ranking, a Prince Fatty cover of Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit (becoming Black Rabbit), Zoe Devlin Love's lovers rock take of The Beach Boys Caroline No and Yasushi Ide's version of Ain't No Sunshine further blur the boundaries, drawing wobbly lines between then and now. Matumbi and Dennis Bovell, Ghetto Priest, John Holt and Mad Professor all show up. None of this feels like a novelty or a joke, it's all part of a much greater whole, a celebration of the culture that has seeped from radios and Dansettes in the 60s and 70s to whatever device or platform you're using to listen to music at the tail end of 2021.
Sandinista! was released forty years ago yesterday. This video of The Magnificent 7 appeared online, previously unseen footage of Joe, Mick, Paul and Topper in New York in 1980, the fans and police in the streets around Bonds Casino, the band playing on US television and at a press conference all smoking like it's going out of fashion, some brilliant fan level scenes from the floor of the venue, security man Ray Jordan in among the crowd, and superb footage of the stage invasion at the end, Mick's hand and guitar disappearing into the throng- all put together by Don Letts. The video is here in case you're reading this on a phone and the embedded video isn't working.
Sandinista! is a an album that grows and grows as the years go by. On it's release in 1980 it mystified fans and press alike, thirty six songs over six sides of vinyl. Only three years on from their debut, recorded in the white heat of 1977, Sandinista! is the band's sprawling soup of influences and experimental spirit writ large, from the pioneering rap/ funk rock of The Magnificent 7 to the dub soundscapes that make up side six. In between they play rockabilly, blues, a waltz, reggae, fiddle led- folk, plenty of dub, gospel, Mickey Gallagher's kids singing Guns Of Brixton, majestic late 70s rock (Somebody Got Murdered, Up In Heaven and Police On My Back), a backwards track, a Motown song celebrating the UK independent scene, one of the hidden gems of their career in the shape of the calypso- rock- reggae groove of The Street Parade, a disco tribute to Studio 54 and the Cold War sung by the drummer and two songs that are so far from White Riot that they could be the work of a different group- Broadway and Something About England. Sandinista! is the mixtape, the playlist, the shuffle function, the rarities/ outtakes box set, decades before these things happened. Sandinista! is a work of madness and a work of genius, a beautiful mess, an album that still has the capacity to surprise, songs that suddenly reveal themselves in a new way. It demonstrates the breadth of their vision and ambition, a Clash radio station playing song after song after song. One song sounds especially relevant to life in the UK at the fag end of 2020, more and more prescient as this country has lurched from 1980 to 2020 in the blink of an eye...
The rise of the far right in the 1970s is well documented, marches by the NF in areas of London largely inhabited by immigrant communities, as much a reason for the formation of Rock Against Racism as Eric Clapton's racist claptrap on stage where he celebrated the words of Enoch Powell. Since the Brexit vote in 2016 English exceptionalism has taken centre stage, the idea that there is something that sets England apart from every other country is the driving force behind the current bunch of chancers and idiots in the cabinet and seem to be Johnson's main negotiating tactic in the last minute Brexit trade deal talks taking place right now. They genuinely believe that once England is free from Europe and has 'freedom' and 'sovereignty' the nation will rise unshackled, back to the glory years of Churchill, the war and Spitfires flying over the white cliffs of Dover. The Brexit vote was partly fuelled by anti- immigrant rhetoric, the same feelings that fired up the far right in the 1970s. The factors involved- EU freedom of movement, Tory austerity policies after the banking crash of 2008, the view that immigrants from Eastern Europe have stolen jobs from British workers, Gordon Brown and his encounter with 'that bigoted woman' in Rochdale in 2010- aren't very far away from National Front campaign leaflets in the 70s.
Something About England nails all this in its title and then depicts this racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and English 20th century history in a three minute forty- four seconds long song. As the music hall brass band parps into earshot, Mick opens the song with these lines-
'They say immigrants steal the hubcaps Of the respected gentlemen They say it would be wine and roses If England were for Englishmen again'
The song then lurches into a different area, an out of tune guitar chord and some crashing rimshots and Mick continues with his tale...
'Well I saw a dirty overcoat At the foot of the pillar of the road Propped inside was an old man Whom time would not erode'
Mick carries on describing the homeless man, blue lights and sirens going off as it's kicking out time at the dancehall, and he hopes the old man will be able to 'explain the gloom'. At one minute Joe interjects, the voice of the old man. It goes back to Mick for a line and then at one minute fourteen there's a crashing run down the piano keyboard and Joe takes over, singing verses that describe the old man's life in the first half of the 20th century- 'the fourteen- eighteen war... the sorrow afterward', the poverty in northern England (as described by George Orwell, an author Joe must surely have read), the Jarrow hunger marchers, the rich with their garden parties and mouths full of cake, the Second World War (portrayed here not as the great patriotic pinnacle of English exceptionalism but as 'five long years of bullets and shells/ we left ten million dead'). The survivors return not to cheering crowds and flags or the sunlit uplands of post- war Britain but instead...
'The few returned to old Piccadilly We limped around Leicester Square The world was busy rebuilding itself The architects could not care'
The music is vaudeville music, a sort of punk/ Edwardian music hall hybrid and a choir of ghostly backing voices make an appearance, the dead of the wars and those dispossessed by government social policies as Mick plays a vicious guitar line. Joe's last verse dissects the English class system, something never far away for a man who hated boarding school with a passion and what it did/ does to generations of British youth.
'There was masters and servants and servants and dogs They taught you how to touch your cap But through strikes and famine and war and peace England never closed this gap'
All that strife, war, death, destruction and unrest and the English class system remained cast in stone. The forelock tugging, cap doffing deference Joe describes is as true now as it was in 1980, the generations of English voters who go to the polling station and place their X next to the name of anyone with a posh accent and Eton education, saddling us with Johnson and his ilk. Joe's role as the old man, spitting his lines out at Mick in the song and the listener through the speakers, comes to a conclusion as the music stutters to a halt, the old man worn out by his memories-
'So leave me now the moon is up But remember all the tales I tell The memories that you have dredged up Are on letters forwarded from hell'
The reprise sees the band come back in softer and more mournful, Mick's voice returning, the streets deserted and the lights going out, before the kiss off final line...
'Old England was alone'
And that's where we are right now, shunned by Europe and estranged from our neighbours, a country with little self- awareness that has become a laughing stock, looking at itself in a mirror and seeing what it wants to see, not what the reflection really shows us.
Sinead O'Connor is back, a single released on Friday that is as powerful, moving and heartfelt as anything she's done in the past. Never one to shy away from real life issues and always prepared to wear her heart on her sleeve Trouble Of The World is a cover of a traditional song made famous by Mahalia Jackson (who was on the stage at the March On Washington in August 1963 and was the person who drove Martin Luther King to go off his script when he made his I Have A dream speech- 'tell it Martin, tell them your dream' she is said to have told him). The cover was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and all the proceeds will go towards BLM. It was produced by David Holmes in Belfast, a place steeped in it's own history of civil rights and protest. The video was directed by Don Letts. Buy it at Bandcamp.
I posted this song earlier this year, back in April which seems a long time ago now, but it's worth posting again and going back to. The Emperor's New Clothes is a song about more personal issues- fame, boyfriends, pregnancy, advice being offered, people's views of her and how she should look, being a single mother- but as Sinead knows the personal is also the political.
A London Calling postscript. On 7th December 1979 The Clash released London Calling as a single. I wrote about the song in the first of my posts about the album here so don't intend to add much to that. Except this, the video, filmed by Don Letts on a wet night on the Thames on a barge at Cadogan pier. Letts didn't know the Thames was tidal and that the pier, barge and boat he was filming from would rise and fall- and then it started to rain heavily. Despite all this The Clash, all in black with brothel creepers and quiffs, filmed against the black of the night, give it all.
The B-side to London Calling is Armagideon Time, a cover of a Willie Williams song from 1977. This is politicised righteous Clash rock reggae, the world where a lot of people are going hungry and aren't getting any justice, where they are gong to have to stand up and kick it over. Joe had been talking before the recording about the ideal length of time a song should last- two minutes and twenty eight seconds according to Strummer- and at that point in the recording of Armagideon Time Clash fixer/road manager Kosmo Vinyl can be heard on the studio mic telling the group their time was up.
Strummer responds instantly 'OK, OK, don't push us when we're hot!' all of which adds to the take. Mick later added some electric sitar and there are the noises of fireworks and bombs going off. Armagideon Time is yet another Clash B-side that stands alongside their A- sides in terms of quality and passion. For the 12" they pushed it even further with a nine minute dub excursion.
I'm sure other people's blogs will mark the death of drummer Hal Blaine at the age of 90 as well as this one. Hal Blaine was one of the most recorded drummers in history, a man who played on over 6000 singles and 40 number one singles including those by The Byrds, Simon and Garfunkel, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas And The Papas and The Supremes. He covered for Dennis Wilson on Pet Sounds. But the bottom line is he's the man who did the intro on this...
The result of a dropped drumstick apparently, a mistake that became one of rock 'n' roll's most instantly identifiable sounds, amplified by Phil Spector's production. The boom-ba-boom-crash sound was borrowed by, to name but two, The Jesus And Mary Chain...
Coincidentally some of us were discussing the Johnny boy song on Twitter on Sunday night and I discovered that there's a Don Letts directed video for the song I'd never seen before. It's here.
Don Letts is a man who looms large in The Clash story- the dj who played dub for the punks, the man who dressed the bands who couldn't afford Malcolm's clothes, the film maker who went with them to New York and the cover star of Black Market Clash (later expanded into Super Black Market Clash), a compilation of B-sides and assortments. One of the highlights inside these two albums is Pressure Drop, an amped up take on the Toots And The Maytals song (and originally the b-side to 1978's English Civil War). The Clash's enthusiasm for reggae was a gateway into Jamaican music for many fans. Joe often worried about covering reggae songs, stung by Lydon's criticisms, and he referred to them as trash reggae but this cover is way more than that.
I was listening to Big Audio Dynamite's third album, Megatop Phoenix, released in 1989. In 1988 Mick Jones contracted chicken pox which then spread to his lungs causing double pneumonia. He was close to death, in intensive care and in a coma for several days. Hence the phoenix of the title. It was also the last album made by the line-up of Mick, Don Letts, Leo Williams, Dan Donovan and Greg Roberts last album. BAD had already pioneered sample based songs, using drum machines, films and hip hop and reggae influences. By 1989 they were soaking up house sounds too. The album shows the quality of the group's songwriting, the wide range of Mick's lyrics (James Brown, love and romance, the UK, football, the emerging house scene, Victor Tretchikoff's famous Green Lady painting, Tower Bridge and World War II all make appearances) and the scope and wit of the sampling- Charlie Watts' drumming, Bernard Cribbins, The Great Escape, Noel Coward, George Formby, Alfred Hitchcock, The Who and The Pretty Things and James Brown (again) are among the credited ones. House music is all over the lead single Contact, essentially a verse-chorus house song sung by Mick and the song House Arrest is pretty convincing too- pianos, jackhammer bass, whistles. There are songs which are cut and paste experiments and songs which are more crafted. It's an album that intends to be modern. It's not easy to get hold of currently and doesn't seem to be in print- but if you go second hand you'll find an overlooked but fine lp. Rewind is sung by Don Letts, digital reggae inspired, diverting off into Tenor Saw's Ring The Alarm at one point and including part of the later song Stalag 123 played backwards. Ideas busting out all over the place.
Don Letts was Mick Jones' right hand man in Big Audio Dynamite, never more so than on this B-side to Just Play Music! in 1988. This has a ragga vibe, a stuttering drum machine rhythm and Don's vocals about everyday hassles- ringing phones, toothache and headache, shaving cuts and much worse.
I've been giving the idea of an imaginary Big Audio Dynamite compilation album post some thought but don't want to step on The Vinyl Villain's toes with his series. There's much more to B.A.D. than just the first album. They did have a knack for choosing the right songs for their singles though.
This is a bit good and thanks to Echorich for the tip off- a remix of Out Of The Black from Neneh Cherry's excellent album Blank Project. The songs on the album are really stripped back and percussive, Neneh's singing blues and jazz influenced. This remix by Hot Chip's Joe Goddard puts some clubby sounds and dynamics into it, alongside Swedish popstar Robyn.
And tying recent postees together neatly, in this Big Audio Dynamite video for C'mon Every Beatbox, Neneh Cherry busts some moves and cuts some rug. I always love the way Mick and Don sing alternate lines in this song (and there's a guitar solo pinched from Jimi Hendrix). Surely this was where Roddy Frame got his inspiration for Good Morning Britain from too.
Medicine Show was/is one of Big Audio Dynamite's best songs- one of the best singles of the 1980s if you ask me- and a show of post-Clash songwriting and production strength from Mick. Six minutes of choppy guitar riffs, drum machines, spaghetti Western samples triggered from Don Letts' keyboards and proper funny lyrics. It sounds like good fun and was innovative too. The United States got a different version, or at least a remix. I don't know why- it doesn't sound especially American or FM radio, the guitar riff is chopped up a bit and song has less of a flow than the original. Of interest to the completists among you (and thanks to Dubrobots).
This Dreadzone song, from their early days on Creation, pays homage to spaghetti westerns and features a vocal appearance from Miss Alison Goldfrapp, and is very good indeed for a Sunday morning in August. Where's that sun gone? It's been pissing down here for days.
Third post in a row in what seems to be turning into an accidental 'what the punks did next' theme week. Greg Dread (Big Audio Dynamite, Dreadzone) has recently unearthed and shared a track he put together back in the mid 80s, Big Audio Dynamite's live show intro music. It's a five minute track with snippets and samples from BAD's back catalogue all layered over a drum machine set to 'loud and fast'. The band would ususally appear at around the two minute mark but this goes on for another three. It won't embed but you can find it and download it here. Via the marvels of social media Greg said I could share it. Thanks Greg.
As a bonus this is BAD performing The Battle Of All Saints Road live on the telly in 1988. Mick suave in leather biker jacket and grey trousers, Don giving the one fingered/keyboard-playing salute...
What a good band they were.
Dreadzone are currently rocking a dancefloor somewhere in the UK, celebrating their twentieth anniversary.
Big Audio Dynamite live at Teatro Carlos Gomes in Rio in 1987, seven songs mixing guitars, keyboards, dance beats and samples, all fired up and taking off. Interspersed with the odd bit of interview footage with Mick and Don.
Medicine Show, C'Mon Every Beatbox, Hollywood Boulevard, Wind Me Up (Poontang), Sambadrome, The Bottom Line, B.A.D
I don't know if you're getting bored of all the Clashery round here and elsewhere (and you really shouldn't be, it's The Clash) but this has gone up on Youtube recently in five parts, one part for each album. Mick, Paul and Topper interviewed recently together and Joe from Don Lett's Westway To The World documentary back in the early 00s. Brought to you in association with Google Play I'm afraid ('give me Honda, give me Sony, so cheap and real phoney'). But that's the way of the world now isn't it.
'You know, I don't think I'm going to let you stay in the film business'
Big Audio Dynamite's E=MC2 is a big Bagging Area favourite, with it's guitar riffs, drum machine, samples and lyrics all piling up on each other. Inspired by the films of Nicolas Roeg (Performance, Walkabout, Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Insignificance) the song is littered with vocal samples from Performance (provided by Don Letts' primitive sampler) and lyrics that reference those films (provided by Mick Jones). Albert Einstein pops up (from Insignificance) the 'scientist eats bubblegum' and gives the song its title. BAD had other great moments but this is up among them as their best.
The line giving this post its title is from Performance, said by Chas (James Fox) to Turner (Mick Jagger). Jagger was at his counter-cultural peak when Performance was filmed in 1968- freed from jail the year before on drugs charges, a Street Fighting Man, shagging Anita Pallenberg (then Keith's girlfriend) in the opening sequence of the film, all long hair, lips and Sarf London drawl. In 2013 he's just a wanker who says he liked Margaret Thatcher and couldn't understand why anybody wouldn't. Enjoy 'Glasto' Mick.
Poking around the internet I found this, the lead track from a tribute to Joe Strummer album called Shatter The Hotel, all the tracks being reggae and dub versions of Clash songs. It's actually pretty good with several standout versions and worth tracking down if Clash covers are your thing. You can get it at emusic and on Amazon. The album's proceeds go to Strummerville which supprts several worthwhile Strummeresque causes. If you like the Easy Allstars cover albums of Pink Floyd and Radiohead chances are you'll like this too and many of The Clash's songs take easily to dub and reggae-isation. This one is London Calling, covered by Dubtronix ('Dubstep, future garage and beyond' his website says, and hopefully 'weddings, parties, anything, and bongo jazz a speciality' as well), with the great Don Letts and Dan Donovan (currently playing keyboards in reformed Big Audio Dynamite) guesting. Skanking.
This popped up on the mp3 player on the way home today, and fits in nicely with the Joe Strummer and Return To Brixton posts we've had at Bagging Area this week. The Bottom Line was one of the stand out tracks from B.A.D.s 1985 debut album This Is Big Audio Dynamite, and showed Mick forging ahead after being kicked out of the band he started, teaming up with reggae punk Don Letts. B.A.D. pioneered, certainly for a British band, using drum machines with guitars and using samples from films. Medicine Show, The Bottom Line and E=MC2 showed Mick in a burst of creativity, and all three and most of the rest of the album sound great today. This is the 12" version of The Bottom Line, stretched out over seven and half minutes but not feeling a second too long, and picks up from where the album version finished with 'I'm gonna take you to, I'm gonna take you to, I'm gonna take you to... part two'.
