Search This Blog

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

The Clash - London Calling




Deserted island. Ten albums. What do you do?

When asked this old question, which is becoming rapidly outdated, the two albums I always fall back on are, Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Gaffiti,” and Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” That way I covered my two favorite bands, and my two favorite albums. But also, being pragmatic, the double albums always felt the best way to maximize the amount of music to enjoy on that deserted island that I have been thinking about for years.

An obvious third choice for the island, The Clash “London Calling.” It is a great album, and it is a double album, it only makes sense to include it on the island.

One time, I was sitting down trying to write a review for the album “London Calling,” and as I do, I am trying to pinpoint the conversation to a single song. So, I puzzled over this difficult question “what is my favorite song from The Clash’s ‘London Calling.’” That was five years ago.

I have been thinking about this for a long time.

There is a very good reason why “London Calling” is considered one of the greatest albums of all time, actually there are several reasons, but a primary key to this, is the consistent quality through out the album. There are nineteen songs in total:
  • London Calling 
  • Brand New Cadillac 
  • Jimmy Jazz 
  • Hateful 
  • Rudie Can’t Fail 
  • Spanish Bombs 
  • The Right Profile 
  • Lost in the Supermarket 
  • Clampdown 
  • The Guns of Brixton 
  • Wrong ‘Em Boyo 
  • Death or Glory 
  • Kola Kola 
  • The Card Cheat 
  • Lover’s Rock 
  • Four Horsemen 
  • I’m Not Down 
  • Revolution Rock 
  • Train in Vain 
Every single song on the album is an eight or nine out of ten. I am probably being too hard by not awarding a single ten out of ten, but that is just how I feel. Regardless, every single song, nineteen of them, all lean on the great side of the spectrum of quality. What a total success of song writing.

Early work on the album was leading it towards a concept album about crime in London, with characters like the card cheat, and Jimmy Jazz is a crime boss, “Clampdown” tying in nicely to that theme as well. As I understand it, the plan was to focus on songs about London, and as they explored ideas they ended up covering a lot of topics, just as London is a large metropolis with a lot going on, “London Calling” rapidly became an album about a great many things.

One thing leads to another, and one song about the thing or event affecting London can lead to tangents about something else, and “London Calling,” the album, has a number of songs which are not connected to the city but are connected to The Clash and the sort of things they were thinking about. I felt the need to add this paragraph, just in case someone points out a song like “Spanish Bombs,” which is clearly about the Spanish Civil War and nothing to do with London, like I am not an idiot, I know that, but it is connected tangentially as it is a politically charged song that is probably linked to another song of similar theme on the album like “London Calling,” well kind of anyway.

The point is, a lot is tackled in “London Calling” and the ideas there in expand beyond the largest city in the United Kingdom.

The titular song “London Calling” is a perfect blend of the various themes within the album’s whole. Obviously, this song is about London, the city, but it plays to multiple purposes. I have often read that “London Calling” is an Armageddon song, about not only about a disaster ending the metropolis of London but also the world. I never really believed that, or the theories suggesting that it was about a natural disaster whipping out London. I knew there was something else there, something political, something personal.

One way to look at “London Calling,” the song, is to assess it as a war devastating London, however it is highly doubtful that a literal war is what Joe Strummer is singing about, more likely it is a symbolic one, like a clash between the rich and poor. 1979 was a very different time and a common attitude from the youth of that era, was that there was no future and the world, at least England, was on a slippery slope edging nearer and nearer to disaster. Furthermore, the punks of that time had no faith in the previous generation whatsoever to fix these problems, and even less confidence in the government, whom they saw as a major source of their distress. There were literally no jobs, and debt was out of control. The near disasters like the Three Mile Island was a nuclear scar that strongly resonated with Joe Strummer, and this calls in the earlier mentioned fan theory about a calamity destroying a city.

There is this idea that punk music is shallow, and I think a lot of it is. A lot of punk music is raw emotions from confused youths trying to express their dissatisfaction with a world they clearly do not understand. I should not think this way, because I know better, but I sometimes find myself thinking like that, and I remind myself of The Clash. I always tell others that The Clash are the greatest example of deep complexion punk rock, and it would be foolish of me to forget them when discussing the genre.

Looking at the album and song “London Calling” and there is a lot of highly intellectual talking points being addressed all at once. Economic tribulations, political turmoil, fear of technological devastation, poverty, crime, and culture all wrapped up at once. It is a complete masterpiece of music and art, and as far as I am concerned the brightest gem in the whole of punk rock. The greatest example of unbridled rebellion being beautiful and brutal.

Lastly, after five years of thinking about it, my favorite song from “London Calling” is “Lost in a Supermarket.” Maybe I’ll do a review on that song in another five years.

- King of Braves

Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Cranberries - Forever Yellow Skies



I try to think a few reviews ahead, helps me keep a schedule, but also it gets me thinking about what I should write. I had the early part of this year mapped out. Talk about my favorite album of last year, talk about a couple female fronted European metal bands, finally talk about Of Monsters and Men, and then March; St. Patrick’s Day is in March, might as well embrace my Irish heritage and talk about an Irish band, The Cranberries are super Irish and I like a lot of their songs, I should do that. Furthermore, no one ever talks about my favorite Cranberries song “Forever Yellow Skies” I should do a review on that.

That was my plan.

Then on January 15th of this year, Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan died.

My plan has not changed, but this review has likely just become a lot more topical.

In the early nineties, The Cranberries found great success from their first three albums, “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” (1993), “No Need to Argue” (1994) and “To the Faithful Departed” (1996). It is these three albums that I best remember The Cranberries for, in fact I have very little memory of their three follow up albums, I might have to revisit those sometime soon. All the songs I remember come from those first three albums, songs like “Dreams,” “Linger,” “Zombie,” “Ode to My Family,” “Ridiculous Thoughts,” No Need to Argue,” “Hollywood,” “Salvation,” “Free to Decide” and not as famous “Forever Yellow Skies.”

They had a lot of hits song, I kind of forgot how good they were.

One thing I do remember was The Cranberries temporarily breaking up in 2003. I was always under the impression the reason for breakup had to do with Dolores choosing to spend more time raising her children but looking at it now, I have learned that her solo career began not long thereafter. Nonetheless, The Cranberries did reform in 2009, but I would not hear about it until 2012 with the release of their album “Roses.” I bought that album when it came out, I was really curious to find out what The Cranberries had been up to up to that point. It was a nice album, but I did not love it, none the songs stuck with me, at least not yet; sometimes a few more listens changes things.

Now I just learned The Cranberries released a new album last year titled “Something Else,” now I have even more homework. As I look over The Cranberries career I see there is a lot I do not remember, and a lot I am sure I have never heard. I am going to have to rediscover the Cranberries sometime very soon. Fequently I benefit a lot by writing these as it forces me to sit down and look things and I learn a lot, I discover many things I have missed.

The third album, 1996’s “To the Faithful Departed” was one of the four albums I owned, and it possibly The Cranberries’ most popular album. “Hollywood,” “Salvation: and “Free to Decide” were all huge hits when the album was new, and all of them are well remembered by fans, however my favorite has always been “Forever Yellow Skies.” I am a rock and roll guy, that should be obvious by now, and I like songs with some force behind them. I like my ballads too, and I really like songs like “No Need to Argue,” but I tend to like a quick drum beat and some exciting energy coming from the vocals, and to the best of my knowledge no song in The Cranberries arsenal fits that description better than “Forever Yellow Skies.”

The intro to “Forever Yellow Skies” is immortal in my memory, it pops out instantly with those drums, but more so with that bassline, when that hits the high times begin and away we fly into yellow skies. Classic of The Cranberries, Dolores wails away with her Irish accent somehow pushing through and giving it all that radiant charm we all love. It is a fast passed and fun song, and I have never grown tired of listening to it over the thousand plus times I must have listened to it by now.

I would love to simply give Dolores and the crew full credit for such an upbeat song, but I would be remiss if I did not mention the lawsuit.

Another Irish rock band active in the nineties, Blink, sued The Cranberries because “Forever Yellow Skies” was, they believed, a rip-off of their song “It’s Not My Fault.” Blink won the lawsuit after it was determined that the two songs were too similar for it to be a coincidence, and I hate to agree because I love The Cranberries and “Forever Yellow Skies,” but I must. The iconic intro of “Forever Yellow Skies” is identical to “It’s Not My Fault,” most notably, and most importantly, the bassline is the same, and that bassline kind of carries the whole song. It is the same bassline during the bridge as well. That part of the song is clearly lifted from Blink’s largely forgotten song.

The howling in “It’s Not My Fault” is wildly different both in content and final sound of “Forever Yellow Skies” but the style of strong belligerent passion being loudly shouted is similar in emotion. Ultimately, I can understand why Blink sued, and also, why they won. 

Blink - It's Not My Fault

Not to be an apologist for The Cranberries, and I cannot claim to have any unique knowledge into the creation of “Forever Yellow Skies,” but, it is entirely possible that someone from The Cranberries, perhaps the bassist, heard something, and then recreated it without thinking.

I remember Ozzy Osbourn talking about this once. He stated that he did not listen to other hard rock and metal bands, because if he heard it, he would start to think about it and then would write something like it, unconsciously. Given Ozzy’s age and consumption of mind altering substances over his life, he might be forgiven at this point for having an untrustworthy memory, and it is probably very wise of him to guard himself from this sort of unintentionally intellectual theft, but the reality is, human memory is generally horrible, and it is very easy to absorb something and recall it later without realizing it. In the end however, wittingly or unwittingly, “Forever Yellow Skies” is a modified version of Blink’s “It’s Not My Fault.”

Despite this disheartening fact, I do not believe that it takes very much away from the enjoyment of “Forever Yellow Skies.” In the end, we the fans, now have two songs to enjoy, one very good and the other excellent.

We have experienced many celebrity musician deaths recently, and I try not to jump on these things when they happen because I do not feel I have anything unique to add to the sadness of the departed, nor do I wish to clumsily garner attention to my whimsical writings for the wrong reasons. But, since I am talking about The Cranberries anyway, I might as well have a short section about Dolores death.

The cause of Dolores’ death have not been released yet, and I am curious to learn what it was, because she has left us at the age of forty-six, which is far too young. I have not felt the sting of most celebrity deaths because many of them lived long full lives, but I find this one more upsetting because Dolores was comparatively young compared to most. So, basically, that sucks, and I do not have anything more meaningful to offer. I did not know Dolores personally, she was a cool person, who made songs I liked, what could I possibly say to ease the pain of her loved ones?

The only solace I can give is this, a legacy has been left behind. There are accomplish that. There are few who get to be remembered as great artist and Dolores does get to have that. People are going to be listening to Cranberries songs forever. In that strange sense, she gets to live forever.

- King of Braves