flash-hammer's Full Review: Cut the Crap by The Clash
Dear Mr.Idol
In my review of your greatest hits record on www.Epinions.com, I said about your song ‘Flesh for Fantasy’ “If I ever buy a record from this day on with worse lyrics than “Face to face/and back to back/You see and feel/My sex attack” I will write a written apology”. And I just listened to the song ‘Fingerpoppin’ from the Clash’s final record, which I purchased the day after writing that review. I am very sorry, and Flesh for Fantasy contains the second worst lyric in any record I own.
Yours truly,
An apologetic fan
Cut the Crap would be the last ever album released by the Clash, and was a sad end to the discography of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time.
After Combat Rock, both lead guitarist Mick Jones and Drummer Nicky ‘Topper’ Headon were ejected. Headon because of his drug addictions and Jones for reasons that aren’t actually all that clear, but basically because he fell out with Joe Strummer, who was viewed as the public face of the band.
In fact, Jones and Headon were actually poised to find more musicians and call themselves The Clash, figuring that they had as much right to the name as Strummer and Simonon, but the two fell out, and Jones went on to form Big Audio Dynamite and Headon put out a solo album before being put to jail for drug offences.
Terry Chimes, the original drummer, who had taken over from Headon on the tour following his departure also neglected to join the band in the drummer’s seat.
With Bernie Rhodes back in control, a new drummer was enlisted in the form of Pete Howard, and Mick’s replacement was to come in the form of Nick Shepherd. For some reason it was decided that Joe wouldn’t play guitar, so another guitarist, Vince White, was enlisted, which turned out to be pointless seeing as Joe ended up with his guitar anyway.
The band embarked on the infamous ‘busking tour’, in which they toured the cities of Northern UK and busked in the streets. Back in the early days of the band, Strummer had been quoted as saying that he would rather go back to busking than work in a band he didn’t enjoy, and this is often taken as a sign that he wasn’t exactly enjoying himself.
But this was a nice gesture nonetheless from the band who had long abandoned their gritty punk image in favour of a pure rock and roll experience. The band went to work on new material, and talk of a new album was rife in the music press. But instead of the US, like the last few albums had been recorded in, or even the band’s home in London, but in a hole in Germany that Rhodes got cheap. The album’s recording was a farce, with the band rarely working as such, and almost everything being done by Rhodes. Nick Shepherd was most notably disappointed about it, but on select few occasions he did get to work with Strummer in the process of creating the songs, which isnt something he gets credit for on the record sleeve.
It was decided that the band would try and return to the punk sound that made them famous (probably because it was the two more talented musicians that the band were now minus), and Joe went back to the old ‘I’m so bored of the USA’ view on life, despite the fact that he had spent the last few years doing his best to become American.
1.Dictator – the record begins with a rapid fire drumbeat (which sounds coincidentally like a drum machine, but if it is Howard then fair play), and actually builds up into a decent track, with Joe’s lyrics sung from the point of view of a South American dictator who keeps the American’s happy by doing his killings in the woods so they don’t have to intervene. The chorus, sung football-chant style by the entire band, of “you know there once was freedom/you know how dangerous that can be” is actually really quite effective, and the tune is nice, the only thing spoiling the track is the other band. For whatever reason, Rhodes decided to hire a German session band to play over not only this, but the majority of the record, but this track is where it is most notable, due to the fact it sounds like a random horn selection played at completely random points in the song, completely destroying any hope of it being a good song.
2.Dirty Punk – a quite frankly horrible song, which is mainly about how cool it is to be a punk. Two songs in, and Jones is being horrendously missed already. Forgettable tune, with lyrics so crap you wouldn’t want to remember.
3.We are the Clash – a cheeky title probably aimed at Mick, the song actually does quite well until the chorus. It’s a song along the lines of Clash City Rockers about how cool and great the band are, but it just isn’t a Clash song. The rolled letter R of “rrrright wing, left wing” stinks of Johnny Rotten, and the chant-chorus, like every one of them on this album, sounds more like a Sham 69 chorus. A particularly poor one at that.
4.Are you red…y – originally titled the far more sensible ‘Are you ready for war’, Rhodes made one of those unfathomable decisions to change it to this monstrosity of a name that makes not the slightest bit of sense, and just makes me hate an already mediocre song even more. The song is, as you may have guessed, about bracing for war, and its crap. The lyrics uninspired and the song weak.
5.Cool Under Heat – a cool riff that starts the song soon gives way to one of the more bland, and compared to some of the songs here, that’s a compliment, songs on the album. Its almost 100% of those football terrace chants, and a collection of some of the most uninspiring ones the band recorded.
6.Movers and Shakers – a song that wasn’t tampered with too much, and follows a hard up lad who will take on any job for money, and any money for food. Its one of the few occasions the terrace chants actually work, with the downbeat nature of the song making it one of the more interesting tracks on the record, along with the menacing guitar at the start.
7.This is England – the ‘last great Clash song’, features some classic Clash lyrics about the declining state of the country, attached to, as Nick himself puts it “a juggernaut of a guitar riff”. He also mentions that Strummer himself declared that “this is the only part of the whole record with any bollocks to it”, which might well be true. The riff is cheesy but excellent, and the chanted chorus is probably the most effective on the record. While it features that most vile of all creations, the synth, it does it in such a way that it actually adds to the track.
8.Three Card Trick – Another of my ‘favourites’, this features the chanted chorus of “you wont fall for that/when love and honour is a baton in the ribs/you wont fall for that/ just like your mummy and your daddy did” . I actually do have to admit to liking this song a bit. The Strummer of old’s nice lyrical touches shine through occasionally on this track, which automatically escalates it above the majority of the record.
9.Play to Win – a downright puzzling song, which the majority of which is made up of Strummer and someone else (often speculated as Simonon) slurring over a game of space invaders, with the chanted chorus of “I long for the praire/or the wild frontier/we got a ticket to the space age/we’ll be the bandit pioneers” as downright stupid as it sounds.
10.Fingerpoppin - see the top of the page. It actually sickens me that this disgrace of a song made a Clash record. Its about going out on the pull, a subject that I never thought I would see the Clash deal with, let alone in such a dreadful manner. Lyrics include “this finger points for the next dance/this finger points for a new romance”. Joe, what were you thinking?
11.North and South – the album momentarily gets respectable again. This melancholy track makes it clear on where the band stood on the UK’s North and South divide issue, and the song is actually a well written chunk of music that would go in any Clash record.
12.Life is Wild – another disgrace of a song. “Has anybody got a cigarette/a guitar and a blank cassette” no, but I do have a horrible record called Cut the Crap. While this is pretty brief, I actually refuse to write about this disgrace of a song anymore.
13.Do it Now – this is a strange song in that I don’t think it was actually on the record originally, but was added when it was re-released in 94. possibly the B-Side for This is England, it isnt a very good song, about London being very exclusive and punks being looked down on etc. I do have to admit liking the lyric “do you play for Arsenal/ or are you in the top 10/WHAT you’re the average punter?/get and don’t come back again”.
The thing that really kills the record for me isn’t the horrible session band that play over all the songs, it isn’t the lack of Mick’s naturally song writing talent. It’s the lack of hope. Every other Clash record brings up issues that are wrong, and encourages you to fight them, not to settle for what is there. This sounds defeated. Movers and Shakers is a prime example. It is promoting doing anything to get by, what happened to the Career Opportunities belief of not accepting crappy jobs? Even the best songs suffer from this, and that is what makes it so un-clash like a record. Strummer later said that his soul was almost totally destroyed at that point, and was just doing what Rhodes told him, and Rhodes, despite his claims to have wrote all the songs on the band’s debut, was nowhere near the songwriting genius the Strummer was used to in Mick Jones.
Special hatred from me goes towards whoever designed the sleeve. The front is a picture of a stereotype Mohawk punk on some corrugated iron, which is bad enough, but it’s the inside of the sleeve that makes we want to kill someone. Opposite a Black and white photo of the new look band (taken a year before work began on the record) is one of the most embarrassing things I have ever seen. Amongst a few (as in about 2 songs worth) or lyrics, the random text of ‘PLAY TO WIN’’DIRTY PUNK’ and huge ‘?’ and ‘!’ is probably the most disgusting paragraph of text ever written.
CLASH COMMUNIQUE OCTOBER㥝
Wise MEN and street kids together make a GREAT TEAM…
But can the old system be BEAT?? no…not without
YOUR participation…RADICAL social change begins on
the STREET!!. so if your looking for some ACTION…
CUT THE CRAP and GET OUT There
Typed exactly like that. If I ever meet someone who says “hey, I wrote the liner notes to Cut the Crap” I would actually punch them.
At the end of the day, Cut the Crap is an interesting record for fans of the band. Its clear to see just how much influence Mick had on their music, as his next appearance, on This is Big Audio Dynamite, released the same week as this, is a far more solid recording.
But this isnt a record I would recommend to many people. For those who want to hear all of the Clash’s work, then its budget price and few decent songs make sure it isnt a complete disaster, but do not go into it with any expectations or you will probably end up hating the band.
The group were so desperate to get back to their punk roots that they seemed to forget all of the influences gained in the last few years. As well as any musical skills learnt from Mick.
For those that care, its often speculated just how much Paul contributed to the Clash’s recordings in general, and in an interview Nick made it clear that he didn’t do all that much in the way of bass playing on this record, however he did contribute to all of the chanted chorus’.
The band actually disbanded before this was even released, but an interesting note is that This is England was the album’s only single, and it proved to be one of the most successful chart wise. Up until the famous re-release of Should I Stay or Should I go, the Clash’s highest single position was 11, and This is England shot in at 26.
The band have since essentially disowned the record, which I think is a shame for the lads brought in.
I wouldn’t recommend those who aren’t big into the band into listening to this, it might just put you off them for life.
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