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Monday 11 January 2010

Big Audio Dynamite 'I Turned Out A Punk'


It seems to me that Mick Jones always got the raw deal in The Clash. Admittedly, according to Joe Strummer Mick could be 'no fun to work with...like Liz Taylor in bad mood', and maybe he succumbed to Rock Star habits when The Clash were supposed to be different from that but even so... In 1991, years after the band had split and then become friends again, Mick was still viewed as the bad guy of The Clash. An NME interview asked The Manic Street Preachers what they liked about The Clash- 'Joe's lyrics, Paul's cheekbones, Topper's drugs, fuck off Mick' was the reply. Yes, the Manics could be deliberately gobby and provocative but it showed how pop culture sided with Joe and Paul, the political one with the heart of gold and drop-dead gorgeous one who did all the designs and played super low-slung bass.

And it was Mick's band. Mick started it with Paul. Mick wrote almost all the music. Mick wrote the tunes on the first album- the really punk one. Mick played almost all the guitars in the studio. Mick produced the records from London Calling onwards. Mick was the one looking ahead to funk, soul and hip-hop, who turned New York onto The Clash. I'm not slagging Joe and Paul you understand- I love 'em both dearly. I just think some people needed to cut Mick some slack.

Mick also had a far better second band than the others as well. Big Audio Dynamite's first lp is great- Medicine Show, The Bottom Line, E=MC2- and there's plenty in the rest of the B.A.D. back catalogue to go at. Mick has also turned out to be the archivist of The Clash. His exhibition of Clash and pop culture memorabilia looked fantastic. He knocks out some good songs still in his current band Carbon/Silicon (Why Do Men Fight? for example). The punk rock wars are over, I dunno who won, but I think Mick Jones is one of the good guys.

This song is from the end of B.A.D. Their latter days were a bit desperate, but on their last lp, F-Punk, there was this little gem. You'll have to turn it up loud (that's not a punk rock instruction, the mp3's a bit quiet).

I Turned Out A Punk mp3
Edit: apologies folks, there's something up with the file. I'll try to fix it.

3 comments:

Tim said...

Nice piece....I agree it was one of the last (and best) bleeps from the very late days of B.A.D.

They actually had some good stuff online for a while around '96 or so but it never got released.

best

Tim

Swiss Adam said...

I might have a look for some of the unreleased stuff. Thanks Tim.

Bazarboy said...

Mick could be a rock Diva
That's the chemistry between all the members of the band who created THE CLASH

Listen to a clash post Mick show and you'll see the difference...

So fuck of the manics streets bollocks

Who give a fuck (outside england) of this band anyway

Mick is great
And this days he is really fun