The Clash Album: “Give 'Em Enough Rope”

Clash fans are snobs. They overanalyze everything and are hyper critical, which is one of the reasons this album has such a bad reputation. What other band's principle biography -- "Last Gang in Town" -- spends 400 pages tearing members apart and calling them phonies? Of course, fans have a reason to expect greatness. The Clash produced three of rock's best albums. Give Em Enough Rope isn't one of them but even a flawed Clash album trumps almost all the competition. There's classics aplenty here. I've owned the album at least 15 years and still get a thrill from the snare shot and guitar riff that kicks off "Safe European Home," which remains one of punk's best anthems. Same goes for the "Guns on the Roof," "Drug-Stabbing Time," "English Civil War," "Tommy Gun," and "Stay Free." The problem is a slight lack of material. Some of the songs are filler. Also, Strummer goes overboard on outlaw imagery, losing some of the rage he showed on the first album while not yet finding the subtle, sharp observer voice he displays on later works. But why quibble? Play it loud, overlook some of its weaknesses and enjoy the ride.

When all the other major British punk bands died in 1978 and were replaced by tepid New Wave, CBS (the Clash's label) tried to push the band into the US market whether they liked it or not. They shipped the band to New York and set them up with Sandy Pearlman, a metal producer w/ a commercial track record.

The result is not nearly as good as it could have been. First of all, Pearlman hated Strummer's voice and buried it disastrously low in the mix. Secondly, he packed the sound with distortion, booming drums, and overdubbing, making all the songs sound similar and muddying the impact of the Clash's considerable guitar fury. Thirdly, the lyrics Strummer wrote are histrionic, cranky and soaked in melodrama: it looks unkindly on British punk, their own career and certainly the world at large.

The situation the Clash were in was not a pleasant one -- they were being accused of selling out and of being phonies, and being pushed into a clean sound they loathed. The music falls apart under the war between producer and band.

That said, some of the songs are fantastic, and would have been truly world-class with better production: "Safe European Home" is a great mixed paean to Kingston, "Tommy Gun" is a chilling take on terrorism, "Drug Stabbing Time" has an undeniable rock groove and "Stay Free" is a world-class romantic history of the band by Jones along the lines of "I'm Not Down" on London Calling.

All in all, worth a listen (especially at only $9.50) but it's a bit of a letdown.

Sure, this album represents a stagnation from their self-titled debut. But the truth is that there wasn't any room for them to grow in the genre they had already mastered. This album combines magnificent punk anthems with the seeds of their early experimentation.

"Safe European Home", "English Civil War", "Guns on the Roof", "Tommy Gun" and "Cheapskates" are towering chant-along punk anthems matched in the genre only by similar fare on their debut.

"Julie's in the Drug Squad", and "All the Young Punks", on the other hand, show the earliest signs of the all-encompassing musicality that would come to define the Clash.

"Stay Free" is a great little song showing the band's first foray into the Jones-led pop style that they'd later perfect on tracks like "Lost in the Supermarket", "Train in Vain" and "Somebody got Murdered."

"Last Gang in Town" is another great song. All said, the only disappointing track is "Drug-Stabbing Time"

While it's not their best, it'sgood, and I for one, am extremely happy to have this album in the Clash collection.

The Clash's sophomore release, "Give 'Em Enough Rope," is an album that has been long overlooked and is long overdue for some serious recognition. The album stacks up to anything else that the band released, and continues in the band's tradition of political incorrectness and indispensable fury. Angst is bursting from every track. The opener, "Safe European Home," is one of the highlights of the band's catalog, and the Beatles-esque "Julie's in the Drug Squad" is some of the band's most innovative and wittiest work. The Clash obviously had catchy guitar hooks and infectious melodies in their pockets like most people have pennies. The beautifully crafted and moving "Stay Free" and the closing track "All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)" feature some terrific harmonizing by the band. The production on this album is much better than on its predecessor, but this only adds to the album's remarkable intensity. I'll say it again: the Clash are STILL the only band that ever mattered, and are the most influential band of the past 25 years.

This is a great album by The Clash. Many of my favorite songs originated on this album. Guns on the Roof is a very powerful song, with great lyrics and strummers yelling to boot. I would very much suggest this album.