The Clash were great!

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cordura21

cordura21

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Yesterday I found 2 cassettes of a compilation called "The Clash on Broadway" and I put them on my car. What a great band they were!
The songs were spectacular, and I feel I am gonna be flamed but I have to say that they were so fun that was one of the closest things to the Beatles.

Anybody has good advise or links about recording techniques regarding The Clash?

I know many will say that the recordings were pretty rough, and I agree completely. Most of the singing is out of tune, and the bass player sucked now and then (but he also kicked ass in things like Guns of Brixton). They had a great drum sound which I think guided the band, followed by Mick Jones guitar playing.
I also found that the recordings have lots of space and pretty bass melodies. I really dig more modern punk sound, specially Rancid, but the air on those songs is great cause you can hear the melodies playing together.

Anyways, just to start someting. BTW, when I started the cassettes I relived something I didn't hear from a long time: the exciting sense of anticipation created by those tapes full of hisssssss. When you started to hear all that hiss then you knew something cool was coming. Way cool!

Cheers, Andrés
 
They were a cool band. It's was sruprising for a punk band that they wrote such cool pop tunes like 'Train in Vain". One of the dudes started up Big Audio Dynamite after that. They had a couple of hits.
 
May I recommend the book "The Last Gang in Town," a very informative book about the Clash. I learned something odd about them from that book, which I can't remember the details of exactly, but something about how their drummer Topper Headon wrote the band's only top-10 hit, which was "Rock the Casbah." It was the only song he ever wrote for the group.
 
He did almost the whole track. Check this interview to Joe Strummer on LA Times, 1988:

"Meanwhile can I interject something about "Rock the Casbah" here? The true genius of "Rock the Casbah" is Topper Headon. I was in Electric Ladyland (studio) and he said, "Look, I've got this tune, can I put it down?" I said, "OK, Tops, let's put it down . . . ." He ran out in the studio and banged down the drum track to "Rock the Casbah." And then he ran over to the piano and he banged down the piano track to it, and then ran over to the bass and he banged down the bass part. This is, like, I suppose, within 25 minutes, and "Rock the Casbah" is there, boom. Topper Headon did that in 25 minutes. And now he's serving 15 months in (prison) . . . . For partially supplying the heroin that killed some guy."
 
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I cant help you....

But I had to say that Joe Strummer and the Clash were the reason I got into seriously making music. The Clash used to bill themselves as "The only band that matters" and sometimes I think its true!!!

I saw and met Joe last year at a show....

He STILL has it!!!!!

I think much of the guitar sounds really shine from the fact that the Clash was strictly 1 Telecaster/2 Les Paul band which automaticly gave each other some room to play off each other in the mix. The fiery intesity helps as well.;)

heylow
 
HEE HEE

I meant 1 Tele/1 Les Paul!!!! (slow down there guy:D )

heylow
 
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