Yuen_Biao Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 The Clash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juju Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Hmm, its a tough one for me. The first band I really got into was The Police as a kid, first album I paid for with my own saved pocket money was Outlandos D'amour, and theres certainly an argument that both took a punk ethic, injected further musical influence into and developed their own sound. its just the direction they headed off from there thats the debate. To me, the clash had many moments of inspiration, but even to quote guns of Brixton, ok it summed up the mood of a time and place, but menbtioning death row? This is England, (deliverate pun intended) for heavens sake, and despite the single Dub Be good to me sampling the bassline riff, theres arguments that the bass riff was only ever stolen elsewhere to start with. Lets be honest, for every good track the clash put out, they wrote three shit ones with it, scattergun approach to music. They said more, but lets face it, mr public school strummer pretending to live with the ppor people in a squat whilst stealing riffs from another genre and writing a lot of dross, doesnt quite for me a genius make. Worthy, but I fear theres a halo effect that hangs over the clash these days thats a little undeserved. The police, again, once they dumped padovini after the first couple of singles "nothing achieving" and "Fallout", the latter being imho an excellent up tempo hi energy bit of punk, settled down in to a collection of three very credible and frankly excellent musicians who could create good solid marketable pop. In their heyday, they were really huge - people were tipping them to be bigger than the beatles if they'd continued. Their albums are largely excellent, stand the test of fime, with rarely a duff track in them, and de do do do being a song about obsession and stalking, is deeper than bicks lets on. They're both great bands. and pampirus, if you think they're both crap, your an evolutionary dead end, who will never get properly laid to a woman who wants your children if your ears are likely to make any headway in the gene pool. You have Darwin ears! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted May 21, 2008 Moderator Share Posted May 21, 2008 ...The Clash had many moments of inspiration, but even to quote guns of Brixton, ok it summed up the mood of a time and place, but ... That's the point, or mine at least- The Clash to me summed up the spirit of a time and place. The Police didn't - they were just a band who were popular for a time. One band or the other....personal taste, but the Clash had the extra thing that what they wrote and sang and were about was not just music, it was an outlook. Back 28 years ago or whenever it was, the US was much the same in terms of international outlook, and the news that I saw as a lad was that Nicaragua was a terrorist place, full of bad people, and then music, in the form of the Clash gave me Sandanista, and the alternative perspective. The Police gave me songs about, I dunno, an Invisible Sun, or a message in a bottle. They're just not on the same plane. The Clash stood for something, the Police made some tunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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