The First Great Post-Clash Song 4

We're wrapping up the series that saw Joe Strummer and Mick Jones' bands each get two nominations for First Great Post-Clash Song. "V. Thirteen", though part of a batch of songs co-written and co-produced by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones for the 1987 Big Audio Dynamite album No.Ten Upping Street, has a sound that is all B.A.D. That's good and that's not-so-good. Mick Jones' appeasement of the eighties fashionistas, with their thin, mechanical palette, can make his songs sound badly dated. Fortunately none of these limitations can overwhelm V. 13 though, with its Strummerized lyrics and Jones' keening hook. In fact, this song may represent the last echo of the Clash to be heard in the former memebers' music till into the ninties.

V. 13 (Mick Jones - Joe Strummer)

"Goodmorning Sodom and Gomorra
Goodmornig sinners
No that wasn't your radio set on the bleep again"

Sodom and Gomorra
Let the DJ play
'Cos I'm only gone tomorrow and here today

Lotta rockheads on the block
Dougie died and Sue got frocked
If the stove is hot then I ain't lost
And Rosa says my star is crossed
Little Jamie writes V. Thirteen
Comes in by the door goes out by screen
He don't listen to me he knows everything
Girls on the avenue ask me to sing

Sodom and Gomorra
Let the DJ play
'Cos I'm only gone tomorrow and here today

The paper drags and folds me down
Like a paper cup I fly around
I've been eating food that ain't been checked
And the Russian rain is beating down my neck
Screen blackout on the southern war
Cue talk breakdown on point forty four
There must be a place the preacher say "I guess"
But a drifter will tell you no place is best

Shout for all the people who have nothing to say
'Cos were only gone tomorrow and here today

Was a one off dirt jam when England came good
One night in a thousand they've played knock on wood
We used to go roamin' go roamin' around
When you don't look for something it's sure to be found

Sodom and Gomorra
Let the DJ play
'Cos I'm only gone tomorrow and here today
Shout for all the people who have nothing to say
'Cos were only gone tomorrow and here today
Sodom and Gomorra
Let the DJ play
'Cos I'm only gone tomorrow and here today
Yes I'm only gone tomorrow and here today

"Sodom and Gomorra this is London gov."

Here's a live B.A.D. take on V. 13


Here's Joe Strummer doing V. 13 song live in 1988 with Latino Rockabilly War

The First Great Post-Clash Song 3

Next up on our (non-chronological) list of possible Great Post-Clash songs is the 1988 Joe Strummer and Latino Rockabilly War (Bass - Jim Donica, Drums -Willie MacNeil, Guitar - Zander Schloss) song "Trash City", one of several songs Strummer wrote for the soundtrack of the Keanau Reeves vehicle Permanent Record.



The song itself is little punkish rockabilly number with some Latin percussion and very little actual war. While Strummer's lyrics occasionally fizzle ("First I got a hot dog in a nightmare zone") and his performance starts off a bit restrained, "Trash City" does build to an almost Clash-strength and only gains power in repeated listenings.

Trash City (Joe Strummer)

In Trash City on Party Avenue
I got a girl from Kalamazoo
In Trash City on a transit line
I put you on hold but you're looking fine

In Trash City on Party Avenue
I got a girl from Kalamazoo
In Trash City on a transit line
I put you on hold but you're looking fine

When I see your car at the donut house
Wanna see a movie 'bout a creeper on the house
Wanna go bowling wanna chuck some rocks
Wanna come to my house and change all the locks

In Trash City on Party Avenue
I got a girl from Kalamazoo
In Trash City on a transit line
I put you on hold but you're sure looking fine

Sing you a song like rubber on a turn
Fifty-seven records that you know you ought to burn
Garbagemen don't care for the blues or rock n' roll
It's five o'clock in the morning in a coffee shop in Seoul

First I got a hot dog in a nightmare zone
Then I vandalize a cheap payphone
Crying to the girls won't you leave me alone
Makin' love in the graveyard with cockroach bones

In Trash City on Party Avenue
I got a girl from Kalamazoo
In Trash City on a transit line
I put you on hold but you sure look fine

First I got a hot dog in a nightmare zone
Then I vandalize a cheap payphone
Cryin' to the girls won't you leave me alone
Ain't makin' love with cockroach bones

Down on transit avenue
I got a girl from Kalamazoo
Down on Transit Avenue Panama Time
To hold to be real fine

ONE TIME!!

Joe Strummer and LRW - Trash City (live ,1988)

P.S. As is so often the case, I follow a few steps behind Punk Friction.

The First Great Post-Clash Song 2

I took some upbraiding for suggesting that "Love Kills" is the First Great Post-Clash song, with the dissenters saying either it isn't a strong enough Strummer work or (more frequently) that the song cannot match the inventiveness or the tunes of the early singles of Mick Jones' B.A.D. (Big Audio Dynamite).


The story goes that before the sun had set on the day in 1983 he was fired from the Clash, Jones already had an early B.A.D. line-up (then called TRAC) in place. B.A.D. (Mick Jones - guitars and vocals, Don Letts - sound effects and vocals, Dan Donovan - keyboards, Leo Williams - bass, Greg Roberts - drums) created a sound fit for the eighties; with high-tech instrumentation, hip-hop accents and traditional pop song-writing.


Having this single on Def Jam does gives further credit to the fascinating role of the Clash in early hip-hop history, particularly their influence on the fierce, political work of Public Enemy.



As a Huge Clash Fan (Strummer Division) I've never felt comfortable with B.A.D. It's likely the sampling, the lengthy songs, the lack of guitar and the abundance of keyboards but mostly it's that infernal synthetic drum sound. That hollow-sounding, programmed beat tied Mick's very impressive work to the worst of eighties' production excesses.


All my biases (a result of having survived the eighties) aside, "The Bottom Line" is clearly excellent - the tune is unforgettable, Mick's guitar still rings out and those dopey lyrics are kinda charming. The best argument for this being the Last Great Clash Song is that the Clash did rehearse it, under the title "Trans Cash Free Pay One" before they self-destructed. Makes you wonder what could've been...

THE BOTTOM LINE (Jones)


The horses are on the track

Theres a new dance thats going around
When the hits start flying you gotta get down
All the young people dance round the square
That old time groove is really nowhere

When you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up of the floor
Don`t know what you`re waiting for

A dance to the tune of economic decline
Is when you do the bottom line
Nagging questions always remain
Why did it happen and who was to blame?

When you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up of the floor
Don`t know what you`re waiting for

They`ve been doing it down at the zoo
And I can show ya heres what to do
All of the States and over UK
Even the Soviets are swinging away

When you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up of the floor
Don`t know what you`re waiting for

The road aheads` clear as a motorway
Give us this day our daily bread and send us on our way
Perchance to dream or take a holiday
Romeo oh Romeo
You gotta have your say

So when you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up off the floor
Anything you want is yours

When you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up of the floor
Don`t know what you`re waiting for

So when you reach the bottom line
The only thing to do is climb
Pick yourself up off the floor
Anything you want is yours

Part two - Part two
I`m gonna take you to part two part two

{MRML Readers: What claim does this song have to being first Great Post-Clash Song?}

Remember if you like what you hear, not only are most of the B.A.D. albums in print there are also a multitude of compilations available from Amazon, Itunes or your local retailer.

Live version are often better, however those syth drums are omnipresent...

The First Great Post-Clash Song?

Regarded coldly in the modest post-Clash canon,"Love Kills", Joe Strummer's contribution to Alex Cox's 1986 bio-pic Sid and Nancy, deserves a moment's consideration.

Sure there's some stiff playing, a bit of eighties production gloss and Mick Jones' glorious return was supposedly wiped out in the mix but that's a cool riff, the lyrics are witty and that hook, with it's haunting back-ups, is simply devastating.

The Clash: Twelve Inch Mixes

"This is Disco Clash..." goes the standard slag, if you want any more you can sing it yourself.



Not much to add that the liner notes below won't tell you, other than this was released in the early nineties, after a re-mix of "Guns of Brixton" and later an ad-sponsored re-release of "Should I Stay of Should I Go" brought the Clash back into critical and commercial grace.





Of course this was the golden era of the cassette single (maxi-single?), so of course this was released on Chromium Dioxide.

Many people have tried their own Clash remixes (see "This is Dub Clash" here), here's another example.




P.S. Thanks to schoolcraftbump for the CD scans