The first time you heard CtC

[Dr. Medulla]

There was no first time for me. I have always known CtC, as CtC has always existed. I was born knowing it.

Pity me.

For your own well-being, I wish you had been aborted.

[Heston]

I bought it on vinyl the day it was released. It was the first Clash album released since I'd gotten into them, so I was very excited, especially after hearing the This Is England single. I rushed home on the bus, slightly confused by the wretched sleeve and the sinister inner-sleeve communique.

I distinctly remember the opening bars of Dictator, and thinking there was something wrong with my copy, there seemed to be eight songs going on at once. My eyebrows suddenly raised at the first off-key horn squonk, and I realized this was no London Calling.

In time I grew to like it, though it was really put in the shade by the first BAD album at the time.

You must of been excited the first time you heard it hes...ya know because theres no drummer.

I don't mind drums, just drummers.

[JoseUnidos]

My Second biggest musical purchase disappointment (the first being X's" Ain't Love Grand").

Burning House of Love is aces, though

Yep, a fine single, that.

[rcs]

My Second biggest musical purchase disappointment (the first being X's" Ain't Love Grand").

Burning House of Love is aces, though

Yep, a fine single, that.

amen to that, brother J-Uni

[Marky Dread]

The first time I heard CtC was when Bernie gave me a demo tape of the proposed songs pre samples . I then bought the vinyl album. Upon realizing the demo tape sounded nothing like the real deal I felt conned by Bernie so I threw that stupid tape in the bin.

[bazarboy75]

First time (surely 1989/1990) i heard ctc i found tie and fingerpoppin intro very catchy. Didn t aware by the clash history at the time only noticed that each clash album was different from the precedent so... After get it in cd i discover bad and the story of this album and took the mick side since...

[matedog]

The first time I heard CtC was when Bernie gave me a demo tape of the proposed songs pre samples . I then bought the vinyl album. Upon realizing the demo tape sounded nothing like the real deal I felt conned by Bernie so I threw that stupid tape in the bin.

Whoa, seriously?

[Marky Dread]

The first time I heard CtC was when Bernie gave me a demo tape of the proposed songs pre samples . I then bought the vinyl album. Upon realizing the demo tape sounded nothing like the real deal I felt conned by Bernie so I threw that stupid tape in the bin.

Whoa, seriously?

You won't fall for that....

[Kory]

The first time I heard CtC was when Bernie gave me a demo tape of the proposed songs pre samples . I then bought the vinyl album. Upon realizing the demo tape sounded nothing like the real deal I felt conned by Bernie so I threw that stupid tape in the bin.

Whoa, seriously?

You won't fall for that....

Pull the other one

[coffeepotman]

Every time I play CTC it's like the first time because I have a great ability to block out bad memories so I keep playing the damn thing every few years thinking "Oh wot have we got 'ere?"

[Marky Dread]

Every time I play CTC it's like the first time because I have a great ability to block out bad memories so I keep playing the damn thing every few years thinking "Oh wot have we got 'ere?"

[Toppers Boppers]

Heard it release week late 1985. But I went with BAD in 1985, and as a fairly solid Clash fan since 1978 This Is IS BAD was always going to be better than CTC in my mind. Mick was the tunesmith FFS. Anyway, I remember 1985 as a pretty shabby year* for new & original music after the immensely creative period in UK/US 1972-83. So CTC was a sh#te record in a sh#te year* and whilst I've heard CTC a few times over the years, have never owned it... mostly coz it's dreadful.

*yes I know there are some exceptions, mine are - Rain Dogs, Psychocandy, Rum, Sodomy& the Lash, Low Life, King Of Rock, Meat Is Murder. OK, maybe CTC was a sh#te record in a 'fair' year.

[Chairman Ralph]

Went out and got it at the (long-defunct) WhereHouse Records store, in East Lansing, the week before I went home for Thanksgiving. After so many months of radio silence, my hopes had been raised by the 12-inch single, which I'd duly acquired.

The manager eyed me skeptically. "You're the first one," she said.

Still, the store had set up a big display for it...surely, that had to count for something, right? This was the Clash, after all: small statements simply wouldn't do.

I called my friend, Tony, who said he hadn't gotten CTC yet, but expected to do so over the weekend. We agreed to touch base next week, and compare impressions. We'd both been to the MSU show back in May of '84, a night that remained vivid in our minds.

"I won't take any calls while I'm listening to it," Tony said. "This will be a religious experience!"

I took the album over to the basement apartment I shared with my friend, Don. We put it on the turntable, and listened. At some points, we exchanged quizzical stares. At others, we positively grimaced. Still other times, we smiled when we heard something cool,which wasn't as often.

A day or two later, I called Tony, as agreed. "What did you think?" I asked him. "How was it for you?"

"Well ..." I heard that familiar hedge in his voice. "it's a step up from Combat Rock, but ... "

And that's where matters stood till the following week, when I went to State Discount, and bought This Is Big Audio Dynamite, which soon edged out CTC, brutally, and quickly, on the turntable -- though I still continued to play the "This Is England" 12-inch.

A year later, I was visiting somebody at another dorm. He asked me to bring the 12-inch, which he had yet to hear (like a lot of folks I knew at the time, it seemed). I put it on his turntable, and we sat down with our drinks to have a listen.

His brow furrowed once the drum machines and synths kicked in: BUM, BUM, BUM-BUM-BUM, BUM...

"I thought this -- " He gestured at the swirling synth sounds that now filled his dorm room. "Was what he didn't want."

"Yeah," I said, "Joe was rather insistent about that, wasn't he? That's showbiz, I guess."

[JennyB]

That was a great read, Ralph. Thank you.