John Richards

Good morning! It's Friday, February 5th---International Clash Day! You're listening to The Morning Show with John Richards! --- Joe Strummer admitted in an interview with Melody Maker in 1988 that he had nicked the bassline from the Queen hit "Another One Bites The Dust" (which in itself shares many similarities with another disco classic, Chic's "Good Times").

That's Mick Jones singing lead vocals on this song. -- The song became a firm live favorite for the band, introduced to their live set in December 1979 and played consistently until Mick Jones was fired in 1983. The music video is taken from one of these many live performances, a February 1980 show in Lewisham filmed by Don Letts and featuring an amusing introduction from Joe Strummer: "We'd like to take the soul train from platform one... and if you don't want to come, there's always the toilet!": www.youtube.com

A "Rudie" is a "Rude Boy," which is a term for the first English generation born to Jamaican parents who had emigrated to England - the so called JamEnglish generation. These "Rude Boys" were often looked down upon as irresponsible, which is the theme of this song, but others would celebrate their ways as a rebellious expression of freedom. -- The lyrics to "Rudie Can't Fail" are a celebration of rude boy culture brought out of, according to singer Joe Strummer, "a summer going to West Indian blues dances and drinking Special Brew for breakfast," which explains the lyric "drinkin' brew for breakfast."

OneAmerica® is the largest immigrant and refugee advocacy organization in Washington State: weareoneamerica.org --- "Of all the songs that The Clash recorded together, 'Straight to Hell' represents perhaps the band’s finest hour. Opening with Mick Jones’ distinctive guitar signature and sustained by drummer Topper Headon’s queasily insistent bossa nova beat, the song offers a panorama of the wretched of the earth." www.rebelnews.ie Joe Strummer once declared the song to be their “absolute masterpiece.”

In this song, M.I.A. plays up the stereotype of a menacing illegal immigrant, forging documents and threatening violence. It was inspired by her efforts to enter America on a visa (she is a British citizen of Sri Lankan descent), which resulted in a months-long bureaucratic morass, something she attributed to her dark skin and exotic real name: Mathangi Arulpragasam. -- Musically, the song is built on a sample of the 1982 Clash song "Straight To Hell," which also deals with immigration and xenophobia. The sample was DJ/producer Diplo's (Wesley Pentz) idea.

How did the Clash influence my parenting? Repeated play of “Police on My Back” taught my sons the days of the week! Happy International Clash Day from Boyne City, Michigan! Love, Geep, Henri, and Luc --- This is a cover of The Equals 1968 song. "We used to play the Equals' version on the tour bus, Mick was the first one to play it to me" said bassist Paul Simonon. "We recorded it at the Power Station, just the three of us, me, Mick (Jones, guitarist) and Topper (Headon, drummer). Paul put his bit on later in Wessex," noted singer Joe Strummer.

This London group started in 1965 and was one of the few racially mixed bands of that time. One of the founders of the band was Eddy Grant of "Electric Avenue" fame. Here's The Equals performing "Police On My Back" in 1967: www.youtube.com

"When we came to the US, Mick stumbled upon a music shop in Brooklyn that carried the music of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the Sugarhill Gang... these groups were radically changing music and they changed everything for us," noted Strummer. --- With a little imagination, Joe Strummer's vocal delivery can be considered "rapping," which would make it the first rap track ever written by a white rock band under this loose interpretation - it was recorded in March 1980, six months before Blondie's own attempt at the genre with "Rapture."

This was one of Joe Strummer's favorites - in the post-Clash era he continued to play it with his new band The Mescaleros, and it was also played at his funeral.

Unlike most Clash songs, which were written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, "The Guns Of Brixton" was written by bass player Paul Simonon, who decided to get in on the songwriting himself. It became one of the band's best-known songs and a staple of their live set. Simonon takes lead vocal duties on the song, which is about gangsters in his hometown of Brixton in South London.: daily.redbullmusicacademy.com

Beats International were a British dance music band and hip-hop collective, formed in the late 1980s by Norman Cook (later in his career known as Fatboy Slim). -- Cook said of this song, "I used the bassline from The Clash song 'Guns Of Brixton', which was me tipping my hat to The Clash as I was such a big fan."

This is the one writing credit that original guitarist Keith Levene got from The Clash on the first album. He claimed to "have a hand" in every song on the first album, but this is disputed by the rest of the band. Joe Strummer always claimed that Levene was too busy doing drugs (heroin and speed, allegedly) to rehearse and hence his subsequent sacking from the band.

“This is a public service announcement…with guitars!” You have the right not to be killed Murder is a crime Unless it was done By a policeman And number two You have the right to food money Providing of course You don't mind a little Investigation, humiliation And if you cross your fingers Rehabilitation..." For a list of resources to help end police brutality, go here: www.kexp.org

“This machine kills fascists” was emblazoned on folk singer Woody Guthrie’s guitar, and he used his weapon of choice to compose timely songs of protest, which still remain relevant. One of those tunes is “All You Fascists Bound To Lose” which Guthrie wrote in 1942. -- Rhiannon Giddens from the Carolina Chocolate Drops sings and plays fiddle with the Resistance Revival Chorus, an activist and musical group that formed out of the 2017 Women’s March-- video here: youtu.be www.resistancerevivalchorus.com

This song by British synth-pop band Heaven 17 was banned by the BBC due to concerns by their legal department that it libeled Ronald Reagan, since he was the new US President at the time of the song's release. -- Here's a live version on the BBC, many years later: www.youtube.com

This was originally a reggae song written and first recorded by the falsetto singer Junior Murvin in 1976. The Clash, who were huge reggae fans, covered the song. It's the first example of The Clash incorporating reggae into their repertoire, something that can be heard in original songs like "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" and "Guns of Brixton."

Jamaican reggae singer Junior Murvin died in 2013 in relative obscurity, but his important anthem lives on.: www.theguardian.com

Go here to purchase this extraordinary album from June, 2020: saultglobal.bandcamp.com

Read a tribute to SAULT's two beautifully crafted albums of 2020: pitchfork.com

Go here to the official website of X-Ray Spex and Poly Styrene: www.x-rayspex.com --- And, don't miss them performing "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" live: www.youtube.com

"London's Burning" (named after the popular nursery rhyme about the Great Fire of London in 1666) is mainly about the punk scene's main choice of drug at the time: amphetamine sulphate, AKA speed ("I can't think of a better way to spend the night, than speeding around underneath the yellow lights"). "I decided quite quickly that the up wasn't worth the down," noted singer Joe Strummer.

Here's video of Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and The Edge of U2 inducting The Clash at the 2003 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: www.youtube.com -- www.ratm.com

One of the more popular songs by The Clash, this one uses a very unusual technique: Spanish lyrics echoing the English words. -- Singing the Spanish parts with Joe Strummer was Joe Ely, a Texas singer whose 1978 album "Honky Tonk Masquerade" got the attention of The Clash when they heard it in England. -- Ely said, "I'm singing all the Spanish verses on that, and I even helped translate them. I translated them into Tex-Mex and Strummer kind of knew Castilian Spanish, because he grew up in Spain in his early life. And a Puerto Rican engineer (Eddie Garcia) kind of added a little flavor to it. So it's taking the verse and then repeating it in Spanish."

This 1991 tune samples the 1981 song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which was written by Big Audio Dynamite II singer Mick Jones during his tenure with The Clash, and Lionel Richie's 1983 single, "All Night Long (All Night)".

This song was originally recorded by the Jamaican group Danny Ray and the Revolutioneers in 1976. Danny Ray sampled the Jackie Edwards song "Get Up" on the track, so Edwards and Ray are the credited songwriters of "Revolution Rock."

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs is an Argentine ska band from Buenos Aires. Watch an excited crowd rocking to a live performance of this Clash classic: www.youtube.com

Leaving the Notting Hill Carnival riot is 1976, Strummer and Simonon pondered on why white kids weren’t fighting the good fight too: “Black man gotta lot a problems / But they don’t mind throwing a brick / White people go to school / Where they teach you how to be thick.” It was a deliberate foghorn to the masses. Take direct action. Read the story behind "White Riot": faroutmagazine.co.uk

On January 24th, 1979, The Clash released their first single in the U.S. with "I Fought The Law" (written by Sonny Curtis of Buddy Holly's Crickets, later popularized in a version by the Bobby Fuller Four). Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were inspired to learn the song after hearing the Bobby Fuller version on a jukebox owned by a San Francisco recording studio where they had been recording overdubs for their second album.

In a 1991 interview, Joe Strummer remembered that he "wrote the lyrics in a disused ice cream factory I'd broken into. It was just behind the Harrow Road in Foscote Mews. I wrote it in the dark by candlelight and the next day took it to rehearsals and Mick put a tune to it."

Originally, this 1977 song was called "I'm So Bored With You", and was one that guitarist Mick Jones had written before he joined The Clash. In the first meeting of Jones with singer Joe Strummer after the latter joined the band, Jones played Strummer several of his songs, and when he played him "I'm So Bored With You," Strummer apparently misheard the lyrics as "I'm So Bored with the USA." Thinking that this would form a great song about the social ills of America, Strummer started coming up with new lyrics before Jones could explain that actually it was about his then-current on-off relationship.

Kosmo Vinyl (Mark C. Dunk) was a longtime associate and sometime manager for The Clash. That's him, introducing The Clash at Shea Stadium in 1982.

Good Morning John, I was a senior in high school when I saw both shows at Shea where the Clash opened for The Who which I really wanted to see as I was and still am a huge Who fan. It was The Who’s first tour after Keith Moon died with Kenny Jones on drums. I saw the clash at least 20 times in the Northeast they were rough live but they were great. Thank you very much for the reminder. All the Best, Matthew from Staten Island, NY -- This album was recorded at Shea Stadium in New York City on October 13th, 1982. It was the band's second night opening for The Who. --

The (English) Beat and General Public vocalist Roger Charlery, aka Ranking Roger, died of cancer in 2019 at age 56. Here's a KEXP remembrance: www.kexp.org

Good pick, Joe! -- This was The Ramones' debut single in February, 1976. The Ramones' famous chant, "Hey, Ho, Let's Go!" is a big part of this song. They wanted their own chant after hearing "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers, which had the chant "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, Night." Joey Ramone explained: "I hate to blow the mystique, but at the time we really liked bubblegum music, and we really liked the Bay City Rollers. Their song 'Saturday Night' had a great chant in it, so we wanted a song with a chant in it: 'Hey! Ho! Let's Go!'. 'Blitzkrieg Bop' was our 'Saturday Night'."

Françoise Hardy is a pop and fashion icon celebrated as a French national treasure. Her first single, "Tous Les Garçons et les Filles," sold over two million copies and made her a European star overnight. Outside music, Hardy also established herself as a fashion model, actress, astrologer, and author. Though she has recorded songs in several languages, it was her early French tunes -- that ranged across pop, jazz, blues, and more -- that helped to establish her as a legend..: www.allmusic.com

Bob Dylan references this classic artist in the song "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" off his great 2020 album, "Rough and Rowdy Ways": pitchfork.com