Safe European Home - The Clash cover by The Greg

[Greg_L]

Absolutely. The first 3 albums are 3 of my favourite albums of all time.

Yes, they are fantastic. It's no secret around here that I'm a Ramones fanboy more than anything else, but The Clash are right there with them in my eyes. There's a new 12 disc box set coming out soon, or maybe it's already out, with new mixes and remasters and lost tracks and recording studio video and shit like that. Mick Jones says it's pretty much everything they've ever done, warts and all. I don't buy much music anymore, but I'll buy that.

I was actually joking. I hate all sport with a passion. Over here Rugby is American Football without the protection. It's shit! As for Football/Soccer, I cannot produce words to describe my hatred of it. They tried to make us play it at school. What the teachers didn't realise was, no fucker was going to make me run around in a muddy field.

Lol. I like sports. Well, I like football. I'm not crazy about any other team sports. Mostly just football. American football. I do like Rugby too, and I watch it when I can find it on TV, but it doesn't compare to our football. Maybe I'm just not getting good coverage of good rugby, but to my eyes, and I've watched a ton of football in my life, rugby is much tamer, slower, and less strategic than American football. And soccer is just fucking stupid. The field is too big, the action is too slow, the scoring is too infrequent, and the guys are all skinny wimps that flop and wail and act like their neck is broken any time someone even touches them.

 

[Mr Clean]

Yes, they are fantastic. It's no secret around here that I'm a Ramones fanboy more than anything else, but The Clash are right there with them in my eyes. There's a new 12 disc box set coming out soon, or maybe it's already out, with new mixes and remasters and lost tracks and recording studio video and shit like that. Mick Jones says it's pretty much everything they've ever done, warts and all. I don't buy much music anymore, but I'll buy that.

That I didn't know. Cheers

Amazon.com: The Clash - Sound System Boxset Available from today actually

I'm just going to order mine.

 

[Greg_L]

Cool! I'll pick it up one of these days. I'm really interested in the recording videos. I've seen a lot of stuff from the London Calling sessions. It's pretty wild. Supposedly this new set has video from the first album. That's gotta be awesome.

 

[rayc]

I stopped buying Clash albums after I bought Sandanista, (luckily for me that was a cassette double I bought in Bali so didn't splash serious cash). London Calling was a brilliant single album that hadn't been quality controlled so spread across 2 LPs (mind you even their non stop shelf stuff on that was pretty cool) but the proto rock/hiphop/codreggae mash that was most of the triple LP was just ramshackle self indulgence .
Back to the song in question - I think I'm most impressed with the way you captured Strummer's ad lib rant, yelp, thought bubble stuff.

 

[fritsthegirl]

Thanks dude. It's not easy. I spend a lot of time ignoring my other responsibilities.

All the better for us.

The Clash is genius and makes me want to set fire to stuff and be a total asshole. It's been ages since I listened to it, but it's totally awesome music. Kids should learn this stuff in school.

Tommy Gun & White Man in Hammersmith Palais are 2 of my favourites. I wanted to check out your cover of the latter, but I couldn't see it on your pages. Last time I walked past the Hammersmith Palais it had been demolished. I was in there once but I was too drunk to remember.

Anyways, enough of the anecdotes. You reproduced this, and played it so well. I really can't fault it in any way. Not that I even want to, I'm just saying, it's perfect. I find it amazing when someone can replicate something so well. Superb job singing. That was really, REALLY cool, thanks.

 

[Greg_L]

I stopped buying Clash albums after I bought Sandanista, (luckily for me that was a cassette double I bought in Bali so didn't splash serious cash). London Calling was a brilliant single album that hadn't been quality controlled so spread across 2 LPs (mind you even their non stop shelf stuff on that was pretty cool) but the proto rock/hiphop/codreggae mash that was most of the triple LP was just ramshackle self indulgence .
Back to the song in question - I think I'm most impressed with the way you captured Strummer's ad lib rant, yelp, thought bubble stuff.

Thanks Ray. Yes, Sandinista is a real mess. I think that triple album has enough good songs on it to make one good album. The rest is The Clash in a studio left up to their own devices. They were obviously just entertaining themselves. I think London Calling really deserves the heaps of praise it still gets to this day though. While I personally prefer the raw punk rock and roll of their first two albums, London Calling is a phenomenal snapshot of the band really finding their own way as they grew away from the, by then, dead punk scene. That album really shows that they were for real. It's a great listen from beginning to end. As far as I'm concerned those first 3 Clash albums are must haves, Sandinista is a throw away with a few good songs on it, and Combat Rock, while being better than Sandinista, is just so-so at best. The Clash being open to progress and growth and trying different things to not get stale made them very cool, but it also made them get pretty weird to listen to on their later stuff. I can pop on any of their first 3 albums and happily listen away. I gotta be really in the mood to listen to Sandinista or Combat Rock. And I won't even mention Cut the Crap.

 

[Greg_L]

All the better for us.

The Clash is genius and makes me want to set fire to stuff and be a total asshole. It's been ages since I listened to it, but it's totally awesome music. Kids should learn this stuff in school.

Tommy Gun & White Man in Hammersmith Palais are 2 of my favourites. I wanted to check out your cover of the latter, but I couldn't see it on your pages. Last time I walked past the Hammersmith Palais it had been demolished. I was in there once but I was too drunk to remember.

Anyways, enough of the anecdotes. You reproduced this, and played it so well. I really can't fault it in any way. Not that I even want to, I'm just saying, it's perfect. I find it amazing when someone can replicate something so well. Superb job singing. That was really, REALLY cool, thanks.

Wow thanks a lot. I just wanted to do it justice while trying out some new stuff and ideas.

I went to London in 1995 and honestly the best part of the trip for me was actually seeing in person all the things mentioned in Clash songs. Not that I, Joe American, could relate to any of it, but it was cool to actually go to "The Prisoner lives in Camden Town", and "White Man in Hammersmith", and "Knives in W11, sten guns in Knightsbridge" and stuff like that. Everywhere I looked was something mentioned in a Clash song. Very cool.

I think I'll redo White Man...it's such a great song.

 

[ShanPeyton]

Listened to this a few times yesterday Greg. Awesome stuff! Can't go wrong with a clash cover.

 

[Greg_L]

Listened to this a few times yesterday Greg. Awesome stuff! Can't go wrong with a clash cover.

Haha yeah thanks dude!

 

[ido1957]

Sounds great Greg - everything properly levelled on my headphones. Good tones as well. You and Rami are like one man bands (and engineers/producers) whereas most of us can play one thing badly.

 

[TripleM]

I thought it was great.

I might turn up the vocal tracks a db or two. maybe even less.

The clean lead-ish guitar is getting covered just a bit.

Minor points. It sounded real good.

edit - Maybe a little click around 2:06? Might be on the vocal track.

Loved the tom rolls in the outro. Liked how the instruments went out, leaving the vocal and one guitar, then came back.

 

[Greg_L]

Sounds great Greg - everything properly levelled on my headphones. Good tones as well. You and Rami are like one man bands (and engineers/producers) whereas most of us can play one thing badly.

Haha, thanks ido. Don't sell yourself short, you're really good at what you do.

I thought it was great.

I might turn up the vocal tracks a db or two. maybe even less.

The clean lead-ish guitar is getting covered just a bit.

Minor points. It sounded real good.

edit - Maybe a little click around 2:06? Might be on the vocal track.

Loved the tom rolls in the outro. Liked how the instruments went out, leaving the vocal and one guitar, then came back.

Thanks TripM. That little guitar line is left low on purpose. It's barely audible in the original version, so I kind of did it that way too. I'll look for the click. Thanks again.

 

[Chili]

Sounds great. Not too familiar with the Clash, I vaguely remember Rock the Casbah (thank god), but the 80's are a big blackhole for me.

Guitars sound rich, creamy, full and charged. Better watch my metaphors But really nice. I hear the toms as well. Always like how you get them to ring even on a fully loaded song like this.

I thought there were some spots where the vocals get a little buried. Maybe that's how the original goes, idk. But that's about the only crit I 've got.

Radio ready, man.

 

[Greg_L]

Sounds great. Not too familiar with the Clash, I vaguely remember Rock the Casbah (thank god), but the 80's are a big blackhole for me.

Guitars sound rich, creamy, full and charged. Better watch my metaphors But really nice. I hear the toms as well. Always like how you get them to ring even on a fully loaded song like this.

I thought there were some spots where the vocals get a little buried. Maybe that's how the original goes, idk. But that's about the only crit I 've got.

Radio ready, man.

Hey thanks a lot Chili.


So I was thinking of hosting a little mix contest with this song. Grand prize will be some CDs or something. Anyone wanna try? Should I put the tracks up?

 

[Mr Clean]

Hey thanks a lot Chili.


So I was thinking of hosting a little mix contest with this song. Grand prize will be some CDs or something. Anyone wanna try? Should I put the tracks up?

I'd love to have a mix with this but sadly I don't have my studio back up yet. Still waiting to move house and being messed about by solicitors. I'm sure you'd get loads of interest in this though. Do it!

 

[Mick Doobie]

Very cool how you can hear everything separated so well and clearly represented in it's own right.

The backup vocals sound really good. Any pitch adjustment? Did you sing (some of) them straight through or comp them from one take?

 

[Greg_L]

Very cool how you can hear everything separated so well and clearly represented in it's own right.

The backup vocals sound really good. Any pitch adjustment? Did you sing (some of) them straight through or comp them from one take?

Thanks Mick. God no, there's no pitch adjustment. Lol. The backing vocals are actually terrible, but they work together. It's 4 backing vocal tracks. I'm gonna put the raw tracks up for people to mix if they want to. You'll be able to hear the raw backing vocals, warts and all. I do pretty much everything one pass through. Sometimes I'll flub a line or a note and I'll just punch that phrase, or sometimes even just a word, back in. What I don't do is sing it a bunch of times and piece a track together from that. I don't "comp" takes. I don't really oppose that tracking technique, it's just my voice doesn't usually last long enough to do it. If I don't get it right in the first few takes, I gotta wait till the next day usually. With this song, I've been singing it in bands and in the shower for 25 years, so I already had it down about as good as I can do it.

 

[Chili]

So I was thinking of hosting a little mix contest with this song. Grand prize will be some CDs or something. Anyone wanna try? Should I put the tracks up?

Yeah, definitely put the tracks up. I think Mix This would be the right spot for it. Coordinate with Jimmy if you have problems. That's his gig. If you need a judge, let me know.

 

[Greg_L]

Yeah, definitely put the tracks up. I think Mix This would be the right spot for it. Coordinate with Jimmy if you have problems. That's his gig. If you need a judge, let me know.

Cool thanks Chili. I'll keep that in mind. It depends on how many mixes get done. I don't foresee many people taking part. The last one I did had tons of entries though, so if it goes that way I'll definitely get you in on it.

 

[JG96]

Good stuff! The Clash is rad. Can complain about the mix. Its funny hearing a song from the late 70's with 2013 production. EDIT: I would love to see this in the mix this. I would love to do some mixing when I have some free time. I'll test those impulse verbs you sent me. Also we have the same cable box Greg!