The band may have exemplified the political conscience of the punk movement more forcefully than other bands, but it had little loyalty to the music of punk and its rigid musical boundaries (and if you don't think punk rock is about as rigid as rock music gets in terms of the music itself, you're wrong). Their first album made as great of an impact on the British punk scene as anybody else's debut did, but it says something that the band was considered sell-outs by many even before that album came out (thanks to signing with CBS Records). And yet, I cannot help but enjoy the band immensely overall, and if I don't buy into all of the hype, I sure buy into a lot of it.Īside from The Rolling Stones (and maybe Metallica), it would be hard for me to think of a band more encumbered by a well-intended narrative constructed for them than The Clash. They didn't make that many albums (however long two of them were) or last very long, and not all of the albums they made were especially noteworthy. That's not to say that they deserve some of the accolades given to them when they were active and in the decades since: the title, 'The Only Band That Matters' (nonsense) the greatest punk band of all time (more nonsense, given that they only made one clearly punk album, however nice it may be) the creators of the greatest album of the 1980's (spectacular nonsense, given that London Calling, the album that so often gets this title, came out in 1979). He Who Plays Punk Will Later Make Sandinista The Clash Completely confused by the rating system? Go here for an explanation.

The clash sandinista review