Combat Rock
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| Combat Rock | |||||
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| Studio album by The Clash | |||||
| Released | May 14, 1982 | ||||
| Recorded | Ear Studios, London, September 1981, Electric Lady Studios, New York City, November 1981 – January 1982, Wessex Studios, London, April 1982 | ||||
| Genre | Punk rock | ||||
| Length | 46:21 | ||||
| Label | Epic | ||||
| Producer | The Clash | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| The Clash chronology | |||||
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Combat Rock is a 1982 album released by The Clash. It was the last album to feature the classic line-up before Mick Jones left, and Topper Headon was kicked out for his heroin addiction.[1]
The album includes many different styles of music, continuing the trend from London Calling and their previous album Sandinista!. In the United Kingdom the album charted at #2, spending 23 weeks in the UK charts. The album reached #7 in the United States, spending 61 weeks on the chart, and was certified platinum.
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[edit] Album information
Combat Rock was originally planned as a double album with the working title Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg, but the idea was scrapped after internal wrangling within the group. Mick Jones had produced the first cut, but the other members were dissatisfied and producing duties were handed to Glyn Johns, at which point the album became a single LP. The original cut has since been obtained and subsequently bootlegged.
Pennie Smith shot the cover photo for Combat Rock on a deserted railway line outside Bangkok while the band was on their "Far East" tour in 1982.
Following along the same note as Sandinista!, Combat Rock's catalogue number 'FMLN2' is the acronym for the El Salvador political party 'Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional' or FMLN.
In January 2000 this album along with the rest of the Clash's catalog was remastered and re-released.
According to author Marcus Gray, the song Red Angel Dragnet was inspired by the January 1982 shooting death of Frank Melvin, a New York member of the Guardian Angels.[2][3] The song contains extensive quotes from the 1976 movie Taxi Driver's main character Travis Bickle, delivered by Kosmo Vinyl. Bickle sports a mohawk in the later part of the film and that hairstyle was adopted by Joe Strummer during the album promotion.
The song, Ghetto Defendant, features Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who performed the song on stage with the band during the New York shows on their tour in support of the album.
Original U.S. pressings of the album had the full length track "Inoculated City" lasting 2:43. This version contained the audio from a television commercial for a toilet bowl cleaner called "2000 Flushes." After the maker of the product complained of copyright infringement the track was edited to 2:11. Approximately 100,000 copies of the first version were pressed with custom designed record labels. However the majority of copies sold had the edited track and were re-issued on a standard dark blue Epic Records label. The full length track also appeared on the B-side of a US "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" single. Early US CD copies had the edited track. But when the album was released as a remastered CD in 2000 the full length track was restored though no mention of this was made anywhere on the CD package.
[edit] Reception
Professional reviews:
- Q (12/99, pp.152-3) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...their biggest seller, but the beginning of the end."
- Alternative Press (3/00, pp.74-5) - 3 out of 5 - "The penultimate Clash album...employing lessons learned in the previous three years....their most commercially rewarded release....containing [their] most poignant song 'Straight To Hell'."
- CMJ (1/5/04, p.10) - Ranked #5 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1982".
[edit] Track listing
All songs were written by The Clash. except noted.
[edit] Side one
- "Know Your Rights" (Strummer/Jones) – 3:39
- "Car Jamming" – 3:58
- "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" – 3:06
- "Rock the Casbah" – 3:44
- "Red Angel Dragnet" – 3:48
- "Straight to Hell" – 5:30
[edit] Side two
- "Overpowered by Funk" – 4:55
- "Atom Tan" – 2:32
- "Sean Flynn" – 4:30
- "Ghetto Defendant" – 4:45
- "Inoculated City" – 2:43 (some copies of the album have an edited version lasting 2:11)
- "Death Is a Star" – 3:08
Tracks 1, 2, 4 and 6 from side one and tracks 1, 2, 4 and 6 from side two are sung by Joe Strummer. Track 3 from side one is sung by Mick Jones. Track 5 from side one is sung by Paul Simonon. Tracks 3 and 5 from side two are sung by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer.
[edit] Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg track listing
- "The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too" - 3:45
- "Kill Time" - 4:58
- "Should I Stay or Should I Go" - 3:05
- "Rock the Casbah" - 3:47
- "Know Your Rights" (extended version) - 5:04
- "Red Angel Dragnet" - 6:12
- "Ghetto Defendant" - 6:17
- "Sean Flynn" - 7:30
- "Car Jamming" - 3:53
- "Inoculated City" - 4:32
- "Death Is a Star" - 2:39
- "Walk Evil Talk" - 7:37
- "Atom Tan" - 2:45
- "Overpowered by Funk" (demo) - 1:59
- "Inoculated City" (unedited version) - 2:30
- "First Night Back in London" - 2:56
- "Cool Confusion" - 3:10
- "Straight to Hell" (extended version) - 6:56
[edit] Certifications
| Certifier | Certification | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| RIAA (U.S.) | 2x Platinum | 2,000,000 |
[edit] Personnel
- Mick Jones – guitars, vocals
- Joe Strummer – guitars, vocals
- Paul Simonon – bass, vocals
- Topper Headon – drums, piano and bass on "Rock the Casbah"
[edit] Additional musicians
- Allen Ginsberg – guest vocals (on "Ghetto Defendant")
- Futura 2000 – guest vocals (on "Overpowered by Funk")
- Ellen Foley – backing vocals (on "Car Jamming")
- Joe Ely – backing vocals (on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?")
- Tymon Dogg – piano (on "Death Is a Star")
- Poly Mandell – keyboards (on "Overpowered by Funk")
- Gary Barnacle – saxophone (on track "Sean Flynn")
[edit] Notes
- ^ Letts Don; Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon, Terry Chimes, Rick Elgood, The Clash. (2001). The Clash, Westway to the World [Documentary]. New York, NY: Sony Music Entertainment; Dorismo; Uptown Films. Retrieved on 2008-02-06. Event occurs at 71:00–75:00. ISBN 0738900826. OCLC 49798077.
- ^ Gray (2004) p. 380
- ^ Time Magazine article January 18th, 1982 Guardian Angels' Growing Pains
[edit] References
- Gilbert, Pat [2004] (2005). Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash, 4th edition, London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1845131134. OCLC 61177239.
- Gray, Marcus [1995] (2005). The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town, 5th revised edition, London: Helter Skelter. ISBN 1905139101. OCLC 60668626.
- Green, Johnny; Garry Barker [1997] (2003). A Riot of Our Own: Night and Day with The Clash, 3rd edition, London: Orion. ISBN 0752858432. OCLC 52990890.
- Gruen, Bob; Chris Salewicz [2001] (2004). The Clash, 3rd edition, London: Omnibus. ISBN 1903399343. OCLC 69241279.
- Needs, Kris (2005-01-25). Joe Strummer and the Legend of the Clash. London: Plexus. ISBN 085965348X. OCLC 53155325.
- Topping, Keith [2003] (2004). The Complete Clash, 2nd edition, Richmond: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 1903111706. OCLC 63129186.
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