The recent Peter Gabriel album consisting of cover versions of artist’s songs got us to thinking, “What if any pop artist from any time in history could contribute to a tribute album of one single artist? More importantly, which tune would best suit that artist? Armed with this new objective, we now embark on the task at hand. If you are still unclear on this, think for example of Beethoven coming back from the dead to do “Roll Over Beethoven”.
I wrote most of these but where Iman Lababedi, Mary Magpie and Helen Bach added theirs I put their initials at the end of the choice.
So this is it, strap in as we imagine a tribute album by The Clash as performed by everyone in rock and roll heaven, hell, purgatory, as well as artists currently bound to this mortal coil.
Garageland – The Silver Beatles – Still in the gutters of Liverpool, still obessessing about Chuck berry, their empathy would be complete. (IL)
White Man In The hammersmith Palais – The Wailers – Before Bob Marley became the leader they were rasta doo wop stars on the frontiers of Jamaican politics and pop and only looking for fun. (IL)
White Riot – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – I am thinking of the Lennon from “Some Time In New York City” agit pop as fast melodic dance. (IL)
“Broadway”-Elvis Costello-Strummer’s growl makes his version the trademark, but i’d love to hear how someone as capable as Elvis is of hitting those high notes, particularly on the fade out.
“Rock The Casbah” Guided By Voices-Bob Pollard is the king of all that is gloriously sloppy, and i’d love to hear him massacre this at the end of his set after he’s good and drunk.
“Train In Vain”-Big Star-It would make sense to hear the king of all power poppers take on the most accessible thing The Clash ever attempted.
“Rock The Casbah” -Sabah -The great Lebanese pop singer never gets the respect she deserves because she is under the shadow of classically trained Fairuz. But Sabbah always dug rhythm better and would rock the hell outta this (IL)
Jimmy Jazz”-Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians–The tune has that elongated middle part, just right for Robyn to go off the board and into one of his trademark improvised diatribes.
“London Calling” -Anarbor- So cool to hear an alt band take on a pure classic Anarbor has the muscle to pull it off. (MM)
“The Magnificent Seven” Public Enemy- -up the tempo a smidge and add some sound effects of bullets wizzing by.
“Lovers Rock”- Justin Furstenfeld. How amazing it would be to hear the vocal mumble through Justing clenched teeth. Yowza (HB)
“Stay Free”- Cheap Trick-“-This also has that power pop crunch that would lend itself well to a Robin Zander vocal.
“Clash City Rockers” – Hank Williams – It would have to be slowed down some, but at least we’d finally be able to figure out what those lyrics are saying. Hank could yodel the ”So don’t complain” part.
“Bankrobber” Ray Charles- Ray could transpose those bass notes into a killer boogie woogie piano riff, and add some of that soulful wailing of his. I can just hear him sing that part about “no need to comb your hair when it’s grey and thinning”.
“Complete Control” – Titus Andronicus – I could just hear Stickles roaring “See you in control” (yeah, I know the quote is wrong but I prefer it. (IL)
“Kingston Advice” Sonic Youth-The original version has those crashing guitars, but they sound so damn muted. Thurston and Lee would take care of that.
“The Street Parade” – Nick Drake-Just give him the basic outline and let him go with it. The lyrics kinda remind me of him and the vocal melody seems to be right within his range.
Capital Radio – Love Via Dance Machine – It is sugary and if you add teen beats it would be a complete sugra rush (IL)
“Lose This Skin” Lady Gaga-She could really sex this puppy up, and her vocal chops would make Ellen Foley proud.
“Rebel Waltz”-Leonard Cohen-Ole’ Leo would do this baby proud with that craggy voice of his.
“Brand New Cadillac”-Buddy Holly- Imagine The Crickets rocking this out old school with stand up bass and brushes. Yeah I know the Clash didn’t write this one.
“Clampdown” – The Who-With Keith and John, natch. Moonie could count out that righteous “1,2,3,4” after the intro.
“The Card Cheat”-Bruce Springsteen-The Boss would kill this thing, and he could bring us those Spector-esque production flourishes he’s so good at a’la “Born To Run” and “Hungry Heart”.
“Washington Bullets”- 3oh!3. This is a bit nuts but it would be insane to hear a white dance alt band rock this. Full techno twitter could take this anthem and make it a rave. (HB)
1-2 Gotta Crush on You- I love this song. Id like to hear it filthed up by Escape the Fate. Just raw screaming madness. woot! (HB)
“All The Young Punks”-Ian Dury- The subtitle is an indirect nod to the title of Dury’s first LP, so why not give him the tune?
“Drug Stabbing Time” –The Ramones-They could play it twice as fast.
“Hate And War”-Johnny Cash-June could chime in with that