A Lot Of People Won’t Get No Supper Tonight

A London Calling postscript. On 7th December 1979 The Clash released London Calling as a single. I wrote about the song in the first of my posts about the album here so don’t intend to add much to that. Except this, the video, filmed by Don Letts on a wet night on the Thames on a barge at Cadogan pier. Letts didn’t know the Thames was tidal and that the pier, barge and boat he was filming from would rise and fall- and then it started to rain heavily. Despite all this The Clash, all in black with brothel creepers and quiffs, filmed against the black of the night, give it all.

The B-side to London Calling is Armagideon Time, a cover of a Willie Williams song from 1977. This is politicised righteous Clash rock reggae, the world where a lot of people are going  hungry and aren’t getting any justice, where they are gong to have to stand up and kick it over. Joe had been talking before the recording about the ideal length of time a song should last- two minutes and twenty eight seconds according to Strummer- and at that point in the recording of Armagideon Time Clash fixer/road manager Kosmo Vinyl can be heard on the studio mic telling the group their time was up.

Strummer responds instantly ‘OK, OK, don’t push us when we’re hot!’ all of which adds to the take. Mick later added some electric sitar and there are the noises of fireworks and bombs going off. Armagideon Time is yet another Clash B-side that stands alongside their A- sides in terms of quality and passion. For the 12″ they pushed it even further with a nine minute dub excursion.

Justice Tonight/ Kick It Over

If You Catch Me At The Border I Got Visas In My Name

A month ago I watched the excellent documentary Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., a film about the life, music and politics of M.I.A. The film is made up of home video footage, TV appearances, time spent with Justine Frischmann and on the road with Elastica, interviews and various shaky, hand held video camera and phone clips. It’s a fascinating document, energetic and gripping. Much of the film centres around a visit to Sri Lanka which Maya extends longer than intended and the impact this has on her convictions and politics and the effect this then has on her music, her view of herself as an immigrant and a Londoner. As her music becomes more popular and widespread she walks into various controversies. She is accused by the US media of being a terrorist sympathiser (her father was a founding Tamil Tiger). She is set up by the New York Times and responds by tweeting the journalist’s mobile phone number. She is invited by Madonna to appear with her at half time during the Superbowl and gives the whole of Middle America the middle finger. Her ambition and attitude are evident from the star and she comes across very well too, likeable and genuinely questioning her own attitudes and beliefs. She has swagger and self- belief and has made some of the best pop songs of the 21st century.

I’ve posted this before but it never gets tired, a thrilling pop- rap blast riding in on that Mick Jones Straight To Hell guitar sample, Diplo’s production and M.I.A.’s lyrics about people’s perceptions of immigrants (hence the gun shots and cash registers of the chorus).

Paper Planes

The best use of a Clash sample? Maybe so. Norman Cook and Beats International made very good use of Paul Simonon’s bassline for Dub Be Good To Me in 1990, with Lindy Layton’s sweet vocal and The SOS Band’s song.

Dub Be Good To Me (LP version)

In 1994 Deee Lite sampled the wheezy organ from Armagideon Times for Apple Juice Kissing, a song about kissing on the back row of the movies and therefore a much less political song than Paper Planes, Straight To Hell or The Clash’s cover of Willie Williams’ reggae tune but all part of life’s rich tapestry. And a very smart use of a Clash sample too.

Apple Juice Kissing

Kissing In The Back Row, That’s How We Missed The Movie

Another Clash sampling song to start the week, following last week’s threesome and  also suggested by Drew. This  time it is from the righteous reggae rock of Armagideon Time, a two note organ riff played by Blockhead Mickey Gallagher and used as the basis for one of Deee Lite’s hippy-dippy house grooves Apple Juice Kissing. It’s a big jump from ‘a lot of people won’t get any justice tonight’ to ‘kissing in the back row, that’s how we missed the movie’ but it works really well.

Deee Lite are seen as a one hit wonder and there’s no doubting Groove Is In The Heart’s power to rock a party twenty five years after its release but there was more to them than that one single. The What Is Love? Holographic Goatee Mix is a bubbling, dancefloor treat.

 

Willie Williams ‘Armagideon Time’

You realise you’re into the record buying lark deeply when you start trying to track down the original versions of songs covered by your favourite bands. Two decades ago I started collecting the songs The Clash covered, on vinyl wherever possible. In these internet times it’s a lot easier. I held out from buying a cd player until about 1996, which made things doubly hard. Once I started buying cds tracks became easier to get hold of due to the re-issue culture cd encouraged, although the price was often extortionate. I remember looking at an Equals compilation in Market Street HMV which had Police On My Back on it for £16.99. More recently Paul Simonon compiled a cd for Trojan containing most of the Clash cover originals, which is where this is taken from, although I’ve since duplicated it on a couple of reggae compilations. I still don’t have all the Clash cover songs on vinyl, although my 7″ of Bobby Fuller’s I Fought The Law has taken a battering over the years and was well worth the £5.99 I shelled out. This is Willie Williams’ brilliant Armagideon Time, famously covered by The Clash as the B-side to the London Calling single.

19 Armagideon Time.wma