Funk Out!
A reminder to myself: you can pass this by.
On October 13, 1982 the Clash opened a show for the Who on the Shea Stadium stop of their farewell tour. They were a band at the peak of their game. They had released five astonishing albums in a row, including two that are widely featured in critics’ picks of punk’s best (the eponymous debut and London Calling, considered the best rock ‘n’ roll album of all time by some); they had finally broken into the top of the charts with “Rock the Casbah”; and though they were on the verge of imploding as a group, the tension crackled in their live shows. They were the new rock heroes opening for retiring rock heroes. Heirs apparent. Within months they’d be history.
The Shea Stadium show is part of a wealth of live Clash material being released in October of this year. Anyone who knows me more than a day understands I still believe they’re the only band (with the possible exception of the Beatles) that ever really mattered. So this news makes me ecstatic. It even makes up for the torturous experience of sitting through “Prozac Nation” last night.
Besides, by then American political grandstanding and mudslinging will be at an all-time high. The Clash live at Shea Stadium will be a nice distraction. God knows, I’ll probably need it.
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An aside: Robert Christgau on the Clash.
Give ‘Em Enough Rope: “…these familiar contradictions follow upon the invigorating gutter truths of the first album for a reason — they’re truths as well, truths that couldn’t be stated more forcefully with any other music.”
The Clash: “Cut for cut, this may be the greatest rock and roll album (plus limited-edition bonus single) ever manufactured in the U.S.”
London Calling: “Warm, angry, and thoughtful, confident, melodic, and hard-rocking, this is the best double-LP since Exile on Main Street.”
Black Market Clash: “First side combines B’s and a U.K.-only album cut from ’77-’78, when everything they did was touched with the desperate euphoria of revolutionary holdouts, with two garageland covers, the Toots appropriate and the Booker T. a stroke. Second is spacy Clash dub plus hooks, with the yearning ‘Bankrobber’ more lyrical than anything else they’ve committed to plastic. Yet.”
Sandinista!: “…if this is their worst — which it is, I think — they must be, er, the world’s greatest rock and roll band.”
Combat Rock: “…the babble surrounding Robert De Niro on ‘Red Angel Dragnet,’ for instance, may well be the first evidence ever that Taxi Driver has something real to say about urban oppression.”
Funk Out! has 3 responses
Jim says:
8 August 2008 at 2:22 pm
Are you planning on making the trip to the show? If you are, I can hole you up at my house. I live less than 2 hours from Shea.
Jim says:
11 August 2008 at 9:14 pm
1982. Ha. Missed the date.
I thought there was going to be some special re-union of each band’s remaining members for a last concert before Shea gets torn down. I did hear somewhere that Billy Joel is going to play the last concert at Shea.
Harry Haller says:
11 August 2008 at 1:25 pm
I wish I could grab a time capsule and be hurtled back to that time. We could see the show together, and afterward you could tell me how much greater Rush was as a band, and then I’d rant and you could subdue me with some of your Gracie moves.
Wait. Maybe it’s a good thing I can’t get a time capsule.