V.A. Saturday And Meeting Paul Simonon

Last Saturday Paul Simonon and Dan Donovan DJed at Then Golden Lion in Todmorden, a night billed as The Casbah Club. I had a ticket and a promise from the generous hosts that we could get a moment with Paul before he played. My love of The Clash (and related offshoots) goes back decades and the thought of a chat with Paul, a brief moment for a photo and a signature was a little mind boggling and I was a little concerned I'd be a babbling idiot- or that it wouldn't happen. As promised though, Gig got us a few moments with Paul and Dan after they'd had some tea upstairs in The Golden Lion. I don't think I was a complete bumbling idiot but I did tell him (succinctly I think) what his band meant to me and that he must hear that all the time. 'It changed my life too', he said. He was lovely, happy to have a chat and sign my copy of White Man (In Hammersmith Palais) and pose for a picture. It turns out, in real life he looks and sounds just like Paul Simonon. And in an instant you realise you're standing next to the man who is on the cover of London Calling smashing his bass, the man who wrote Guns of Brixton, the man who named the band and who is in all those photos. It was quite a moment. 

Not long after Paul and Dan appeared downstairs, playing all kinds of songs to a packed and enthusiastic audience of punks and rockers young and old, any of whom were amazed that an actual member of The Clash was DJing in a pub in Todmorden. The set was wide ranging, reggae and 60s pop, garage and blues and ended up quite thumpy, in some ways not what everyone expected. It was a very good night. 

In 2006 a various artists compilation called Revolution Rock: A Clash Jukebox came out on Trojan- twenty one songs that inspired The Clash, that were on the jukebox in Rehearsals Rehearsals and that led to some famous Clash cover versions. The Clash were a great gateway band, introducing scores of fans to the source material, the songs of Vince Taylor, Willie Williams, Junior Murvin, Bobby Fuller, Lloyd Price, Danny Ray, The Maytals, The Rulers, and James Booker. The album was compiled by Paul and he provides extensive sleeve notes about each song and who brought it to the table. It opens with Jonathan Rchman's Roadrunner and clatters through The Troggs, Desmond Dekker, Bo Diddley, The Kinks, Roger Miller, The Ramones and Booker T And The MGs, Clash inspirations and sources. These three were all covered by the band...

Brand New Cadillac

Vince Taylor and The Playboys released Brand New Cadillac as a B-side in 1959 Bowie said that Taylor was part of the inspiration for Ziggy Stardust. In the sleevenotes to Revolution Rock Paul says the song dates back to 'that period when Mick and me were living in this squat in Davis Road in Shepherds Bush... when Joe met us there we used to play it a lot'. The Clash covered it for London Calling, the second song after the opening title track.

Pressure Drop

Pressure Drop was a 1969 single by Toots And The Maytals and was on the 1972 soundtrack to The Harder They Come, a Clash favourite, as noted by Paul in the sleevenotes. The Clash covered it on the B-side of 1978 single English Civil War in fine Clash- reggae style. 

Armagideon Time

Armagideon Time was a 1979 single by Willie Williams, a song built on Coxsone Dodds' Real Rock riddim. The Cash covered it the same year, their long, heavier extended groove making it to the B-side of the London Calling single. 'A lot of people won't get no justice tonight'.

A Lot Of People Won't Get No Supper Tonight

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.

Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over

If You Catch Me At The Border I Got Visas In My Name

A month ago I watched the excellent documentary Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., a film about the life, music and politics of M.I.A. The film is made up of home video footage, TV appearances, time spent with Justine Frischmann and on the road with Elastica, interviews and various shaky, hand held video camera and phone clips. It's a fascinating document, energetic and gripping. Much of the film centres around a visit to Sri Lanka which Maya extends longer than intended and the impact this has on her convictions and politics and the effect this then has on her music, her view of herself as an immigrant and a Londoner. As her music becomes more popular and widespread she walks into various controversies. She is accused by the US media of being a terrorist sympathiser (her father was a founding Tamil Tiger). She is set up by the New York Times and responds by tweeting the journalist's mobile phone number. She is invited by Madonna to appear with her at half time during the Superbowl and gives the whole of Middle America the middle finger. Her ambition and attitude are evident from the star and she comes across very well too, likeable and genuinely questioning her own attitudes and beliefs. She has swagger and self- belief and has made some of the best pop songs of the 21st century.

I've posted this before but it never gets tired, a thrilling pop- rap blast riding in on that Mick Jones Straight To Hell guitar sample, Diplo's production and M.I.A.'s lyrics about people's perceptions of immigrants (hence the gun shots and cash registers of the chorus).

Paper Planes

The best use of a Clash sample? Maybe so. Norman Cook and Beats International made very good use of Paul Simonon's bassline for Dub Be Good To Me in 1990, with Lindy Layton's sweet vocal and The SOS Band's song.

Dub Be Good To Me (LP version)

In 1994 Deee Lite sampled the wheezy organ from Armagideon Times for Apple Juice Kissing, a song about kissing on the back row of the movies and therefore a much less political song than Paper Planes, Straight To Hell or The Clash's cover of Willie Williams' reggae tune but all part of life's rich tapestry. And a very smart use of a Clash sample too.

Apple Juice Kissing

Kissing In The Back Row, That's How We Missed The Movie

Another Clash sampling song to start the week, following last week's threesome and  also suggested by Drew. This  time it is from the righteous reggae rock of Armagideon Time, a two note organ riff played by Blockhead Mickey Gallagher and used as the basis for one of Deee Lite's hippy-dippy house grooves Apple Juice Kissing. It's a big jump from 'a lot of people won't get any justice tonight' to 'kissing in the back row, that's how we missed the movie' but it works really well.



Deee Lite are seen as a one hit wonder and there's no doubting Groove Is In The Heart's power to rock a party twenty five years after its release but there was more to them than that one single. The What Is Love? Holographic Goatee Mix is a bubbling, dancefloor treat.

Willie Williams 'Armagideon Time'

You realise you're into the record buying lark deeply when you start trying to track down the original versions of songs covered by your favourite bands. Two decades ago I started collecting the songs The Clash covered, on vinyl wherever possible. In these internet times it's a lot easier. I held out from buying a cd player until about 1996, which made things doubly hard. Once I started buying cds tracks became easier to get hold of due to the re-issue culture cd encouraged, although the price was often extortionate. I remember looking at an Equals compilation in Market Street HMV which had Police On My Back on it for £16.99. More recently Paul Simonon compiled a cd for Trojan containing most of the Clash cover originals, which is where this is taken from, although I've since duplicated it on a couple of reggae compilations. I still don't have all the Clash cover songs on vinyl, although my 7" of Bobby Fuller's I Fought The Law has taken a battering over the years and was well worth the £5.99 I shelled out. This is Willie Williams' brilliant Armagideon Time, famously covered by The Clash as the B-side to the London Calling single.

19 Armagideon Time.wma