Combat Rock 40th anniversary reissue coming soon?

[Marky Dread]

He Who Dares and Know Your Rights were newly mixed by Declan Gaffney, who worked with Mick on the recent Subway Sect album.

I really don’t know what the band politics were around this release. Seems like it may be worthwhile to have if you wanted a CD of Combat Rock, and CD2 gives you a version of each of the other “finished” songs that were recorded as The Clash during that time period, except for Cool Confusion (why I don’t know). It doesn’t include any alternate mixes from Rat Patrol, save for Sean Flynn, which is merely extended. Maybe that’s Glyn’s mix anyway, I don’t know. I think the Futura track is included early in the running order to show the influence of the NYC graffiti hip hop scene, and the plane also added to the top of First Night Back in London as part of the “story”. I don’t know why Mikey’s track is on here, except possibly also as some sort of show of his influence.

Of course most of those who would buy this probably do have Sound System already. I can only guess that this gives the record company a reason to promote Combat Rock to streaming services as opposed to a straight reissue.

When Mick finished work on this, he said again what a great job he thinks Glyn did mixing the album.

I don't think it's ever been debatable that Glyn did a fine job mixing the album something the band had struggled with coming off tour etc. My problem is the edits he made to certain tracks denied us hearing the full ideas. Removing the end of Inoculated City was criminal.

[Flex]

The other issue is that Sony has worked hard to brand The Clash as a punk rock band, hence the live albums and the live material on SS following all the weird b-sides and outtakes. Whatever your feelings about the work, the fact is all this RP/CR material complicates that narrative. Joe frontloaded all the more traditional Clash stuff on the first side and after that it's off into the hinterlands of weirdness for the next 20 tracks. It's almost like outsider art Clash, like Daniel Johnston or R.Stevie Moore doing their takes on Sandinista.

This is neither here nor there, but "Daniel Johnston Covers Sandinista" is an album I would have bought IMMEDIATELY

[Flex]

Okay, listened to the people's hall set. The new instrumental sounds like an even more muzak version of the jam, which is funny. The only real new item of note, the alternate KYR, has a tasty guitar but Joe's vocal is definitely inferior and I hate the echo. This would be an interesting take in a vault-clearing "complete sessions" box but it crumbles under the weight of being the only new track of note on the set. I'm pretty sure I'll never listen to it, or anything else that's been released in this grand celebration of Combat Rock, ever again.

The less said about the rest of the music the better. I saw some scans of the art and it looks like there's about a page of extremely babbling nonsense liner notes and nothing about any of the tracks. awesome stuff. The end.

[IkarisOne]

Okay, listened to the people's hall set. The new instrumental sounds like an even more muzak version of the jam, which is funny. The only real new item of note, the alternate KYR, has a tasty guitar but Joe's vocal is definitely inferior and I hate the echo. This would be an interesting take in a vault-clearing "complete sessions" box but it crumbles under the weight of being the only new track of note on the set. I'm pretty sure I'll never listen to it, or anything else that's been released in this grand celebration of Combat Rock, ever again.

The less said about the rest of the music the better. I saw some scans of the art and it looks like there's about a page of extremely babbling nonsense liner notes and nothing about any of the tracks. awesome stuff. The end.

He Who Dares just sounds like a warm-up jam to me, not an actual song. All the rest of it all tension, no release. Which is why I can't listen to that era of studio recordings anymore. You can feel the frustration and bad feelings in the room. All the lifted riffs just add to the whole defeated, dispirited aura. Anyone who's been in a band that's on the verge of dissolution knows what I mean.

[TeddyB Not Logged In]

He Who Dares and Know Your Rights were newly mixed by Declan Gaffney, who worked with Mick on the recent Subway Sect album.

I really don’t know what the band politics were around this release. Seems like it may be worthwhile to have if you wanted a CD of Combat Rock, and CD2 gives you a version of each of the other “finished” songs that were recorded as The Clash during that time period, except for Cool Confusion (why I don’t know). It doesn’t include any alternate mixes from Rat Patrol, save for Sean Flynn, which is merely extended. Maybe that’s Glyn’s mix anyway, I don’t know. I think the Futura track is included early in the running order to show the influence of the NYC graffiti hip hop scene, and the plane also added to the top of First Night Back in London as part of the “story”. I don’t know why Mikey’s track is on here, except possibly also as some sort of show of his influence.

Of course most of those who would buy this probably do have Sound System already. I can only guess that this gives the record company a reason to promote Combat Rock to streaming services as opposed to a straight reissue.

When Mick finished work on this, he said again what a great job he thinks Glyn did mixing the album.

I don't think it's ever been debatable that Glyn did a fine job mixing the album something the band had struggled with coming off tour etc. My problem is the edits he made to certain tracks denied us hearing the full ideas. Removing the end of Inoculated City was criminal.

I completely agree but it was obviously a matter of space on the record. One might have argued to keep the whole Inoculated City and cut out a track. In that setting though I don’t think Mick was in any position to do so (I would have cut Red Angel Dragnet but that clearly wasn’t going to happen.)

[JChampion]

He Who Dares or Is Tired is a nice jaunty little tune. I assume it's from Marcus Music or Ear Studios because Gary Barnacle is heavily featured on this and I don't think he was at Electric Lady. Bummer about no vocals, but I'm glad to have it.

Know Your Rights outtake is mildly worthwhile. Yeah, not as good as the other versions due to lack of Joe hectoring and the backing track doesn't seem different. At least the structure/arrangement doesn't seem different. Regardless, I always enjoy alt versions as a way to get an insight into a band's creative process as long as there is a substantial difference.

First Night Back in London is fucking weird. They added a plane landing intro and then just got the song off when the vocals are done. There's one minute of instrumental cut off for some reason.

Radio One is a Sandinista era track, not even an outtake. I've vented about this before, but given it's a *Mikey (sorry Marky!) Dread song, it has no place on any Clash product. I am not going to feel THAT strongly about it, but yeah, if it has to be on a Clash product, it's Sandinista era and should go there. Speaking of Sandinsta era...

Outside Bonds - Okay, this is supposedly a compilation of context free Bonds audio from May/June 1981. The whole Bonds residency seems firmly a Sandinista era thing. They were touring that album, playing those songs. Yeah, Radio Clash is in there, but in my head, Bonds related stuff should be saved for Sandinsta focused products. And even if it were on a Sandinista product, it would be an absolute waste. I can't really make out what's going on, as noted there is no context for anything and it's 4 1/2 minutes long. Just fuck this thing.

In summary, one mildly interesting outtake, one mildly interesting alt version and then just a bunch of shit we already have or a couple of nonsensical tracks that should be on other reissues. I get that the blame should be placed on Mick, Paul, Paul's ex-wife?, Joe's wife, Topper?, but they seem to not care about any legacy releases yet want to control every legacy release. It's insanely frustrating. What's the last worthwhile archive release? Vanilla Tapes from 18 fucking years ago? Jesus Christ. Sound System had a handful of worthwhile tracks - Kangaroo Court, Fulham, Sean Flynn extended, Ghetto D and a bunch of shittily mixed live tracks. I guess the demos were nice to have even if Career Ops has some mixing error. So maybe 5-10 outtakes in 18 years. This fucking band. You have an insanely interesting archival opportunity and you don't want to do it because of an argument you had 40 fucking years ago with your friend/bandmate who has been gone for 20 years? Give me a fucking break.

Excuse my unedited rant.

I came home from work to find my double CD had arrived…
And just had my first listen through of “The People’s Hall disc and couldn’t agree with you more!
Outside Bonds, Really?? A total waste of space. A useless track that I doubt would be a interesting video.
They got my $$, write sucker on my forehead in permanent marker.

[JChampion]

He Who Dares or Is Tired is a nice jaunty little tune. I assume it's from Marcus Music or Ear Studios because Gary Barnacle is heavily featured on this and I don't think he was at Electric Lady. Bummer about no vocals, but I'm glad to have it.

Know Your Rights outtake is mildly worthwhile. Yeah, not as good as the other versions due to lack of Joe hectoring and the backing track doesn't seem different. At least the structure/arrangement doesn't seem different. Regardless, I always enjoy alt versions as a way to get an insight into a band's creative process as long as there is a substantial difference.

First Night Back in London is fucking weird. They added a plane landing intro and then just got the song off when the vocals are done. There's one minute of instrumental cut off for some reason.

Radio One is a Sandinista era track, not even an outtake. I've vented about this before, but given it's a *Mikey (sorry Marky!) Dread song, it has no place on any Clash product. I am not going to feel THAT strongly about it, but yeah, if it has to be on a Clash product, it's Sandinista era and should go there. Speaking of Sandinsta era...

Outside Bonds - Okay, this is supposedly a compilation of context free Bonds audio from May/June 1981. The whole Bonds residency seems firmly a Sandinista era thing. They were touring that album, playing those songs. Yeah, Radio Clash is in there, but in my head, Bonds related stuff should be saved for Sandinsta focused products. And even if it were on a Sandinista product, it would be an absolute waste. I can't really make out what's going on, as noted there is no context for anything and it's 4 1/2 minutes long. Just fuck this thing.

In summary, one mildly interesting outtake, one mildly interesting alt version and then just a bunch of shit we already have or a couple of nonsensical tracks that should be on other reissues. I get that the blame should be placed on Mick, Paul, Paul's ex-wife?, Joe's wife, Topper?, but they seem to not care about any legacy releases yet want to control every legacy release. It's insanely frustrating. What's the last worthwhile archive release? Vanilla Tapes from 18 fucking years ago? Jesus Christ. Sound System had a handful of worthwhile tracks - Kangaroo Court, Fulham, Sean Flynn extended, Ghetto D and a bunch of shittily mixed live tracks. I guess the demos were nice to have even if Career Ops has some mixing error. So maybe 5-10 outtakes in 18 years. This fucking band. You have an insanely interesting archival opportunity and you don't want to do it because of an argument you had 40 fucking years ago with your friend/bandmate who has been gone for 20 years? Give me a fucking break.

Excuse my unedited rant.

I came home from work to find my double CD had arrived…
And just had my first listen through of “The People’s Hall disc and couldn’t agree with you more!
Outside Bonds, Really?? A total waste of space. A useless track that I doubt would be a interesting video.
They got my $$, write sucker on my forehead in permanent marker.

[KCportland]

He Who Dares Or Is Tired....worst Clash outtake ever?

[TeddyB Not Logged In]

The less said about the rest of the music the better. I saw some scans of the art and it looks like there's about a page of extremely babbling nonsense liner notes and nothing about any of the tracks. awesome stuff. The end.

Tom Vague is a “legendary” Notting Hill counterculture scene maker who edited both a well-known Situationist magazine and a punk zine in the day. The babbling nonsense is down to him. Not defending it, just FYI…

[JChampion]

The less said about the rest of the music the better. I saw some scans of the art and it looks like there's about a page of extremely babbling nonsense liner notes and nothing about any of the tracks. awesome stuff. The end.

Tom Vague is a “legendary” Notting Hill counterculture scene maker who edited both a well-known Situationist magazine and a punk zine in the day. The babbling nonsense is down to him. Not defending it, just FYI…

I thought it was me. I’m so glad someone else believed it to be babbling nonsense. Maybe it’s because I’m on this side of the pond? I read it twice and only got more confused.

[Marky Dread]

The less said about the rest of the music the better. I saw some scans of the art and it looks like there's about a page of extremely babbling nonsense liner notes and nothing about any of the tracks. awesome stuff. The end.

Tom Vague is a “legendary” Notting Hill counterculture scene maker who edited both a well-known Situationist magazine and a punk zine in the day. The babbling nonsense is down to him. Not defending it, just FYI…

Plus Joe squatted a fair bit in the early days. I think the Ruff Tuff Cream Puff squatters agency would've meant a lot to him.

https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/202 ... reem-puff/

[matedog]

He Who Dares Or Is Tired....worst Clash outtake ever?

Is Outside Bonds an actual outtake? If so, that’s so much worse. I think He Who Dares has potential and at least isn’t inundated with horribly dated synths like a lot of stuff from those sessions.

[River]

I did notice that the Futura 2000 version on this is a recorded version of what he'd sing with them live during Paris and London, so that's pretty cool to have that. The Escapades have completely different lyrics. I dig this version a lot more.

Edit: Going back to Marky's Rat Patrol compilation, I realize now it's just the Escapades demo version that's already been on there. I hadn't listened through in a while so I didn't catch it at first.

[lanini66]

I was waiting For Inoculated City complete Version from Rat Patrol but i find a useless Out of Bond's, i hoped to have unreleased songs(Once You Know, Boy from NYC, Cool Confusion Instrumental, Hell W10, Cinders, Capitol Air...)but i have a blank side D. See you next with Combat Rock 50 Anniversary! No CBS...No Claim with Bluff and Swindle!

Boys from NYC???? Cinders???? Never heard of them. Where have you heard about?

[Marky Dread]

I was waiting For Inoculated City complete Version from Rat Patrol but i find a useless Out of Bond's, i hoped to have unreleased songs(Once You Know, Boy from NYC, Cool Confusion Instrumental, Hell W10, Cinders, Capitol Air...)but i have a blank side D. See you next with Combat Rock 50 Anniversary! No CBS...No Claim with Bluff and Swindle!

Boys from NYC???? Cinders???? Never heard of them. Where have you heard about?

Cinders - Suzi Ronson. Nothing to do with Combat Rock.

"This was recorded as a favour to Mrs. Ronson during demos at EAR studios off Elgin Avenue in 1981. Gary Barnacle played sax not John Lennard. The song was never developed further." - Info from Baker Glare.


Boy from New York City. Clash II soundcheck which is instrumental and I think is actually a run through of Tommy Tucker's Hi-Heeled Sneakers. Unless there is another version I'm unaware of.

Capital Air. Belongs with Sandinista! for my money. It's had an official release on the Allen Ginsberg box set and a sampler CD of the box set. I've got the sampler.