1) London Calling- Hearing this the first time was when I first realized this band had a lot more to say than “You can stand by me, or not at all”
2) Brand New Cadillac-Breathtaking—If you’re not bobbing your head up and down by the last verse, you need to be checked for a pulse. Amazing Jones guitar solo with just a hint of feedback at the end.
3) Jimmy Jazz-Initially confused by it and still am.
4) Hateful-“I’m Waiting For the Man” by the Velvets still tops it on the smarm-o-meter, but “Hateful” rocks infinitely harder.
5) Rudy Can’t Fail-First it was The Specials with “A Message To You Rudy” and now this, who is this Rudy?
6) Spanish Bombs-Hearing this for the first time was the exact moment I knew that this was a great record.
7) The Right Profile-Washed up Hollywood actor-very cool and original topic for a song.
8) Lost In The Supermarket-Isolation in a maximum consumption world with a supermarket as the metaphor.
9) Clampdown-I remember Pete Townshend of the Who stating this was a current favorite of his. Clash would be opening for the Who at Shea less than three years later
10) Guns Of Brixton-Surprisingly, not a favorite of mine. Probably because I can’t relate to it.
11) Wrong Em Boyo-Love the false beginning and re-start—More ska leanings. A strong suit of this album is in that it incorporated many diverse styles of music. I didn’t know it at the time, but this approach goes all the way back to the first LP for them and they would expand upon that going forward.
12) Death Or Glory-This is the one that has the bad word in it. I used to scramble for the volume knob on the stereo to turn it down at that very moment in the interest of household tranquility.
13) Koka Kola-Not so veiled reference to the recreational drug of choice during the eighties and the violence that accompanies it.
14) The Card Cheat-Very Spector-ish, especially with the baritone sax and reverb drenched snare drum. The band recorded every track twice in order to achieve that massive sound.
15) Lover’s Rock-Used to skip over this one, but lately it’s a fav. Go figure.
16) Four Horsemen-Seems a little forced just to prove they still have balls on such an eclectic record. Still great tho’ .. Huge vocals by Strummer here, spitting the words out with such rapid fire you can almost see the veins sticking out of his neck.
17) Im Not Down-Mick Jones had more of a pop leaning than Joe did, and that was good because it made for a fine balance.
18) Revolution Rock-Full blown reggae-ska tune which seems like a one take marvel.
19) Train In Vain-The radio played it and I was immediately smitten. Thing is that there is nothing else on the album that even remotely sounds like it. Initially, that disappointed me but that feeling did not last for long. There would be much more to explore here. A lot more. Within two weeks we were full blown fans with all the records, desperately trying to decipher Joe’s vocals so we could sing along.