Let us reflect: Listening to The Clash

[Inder]

My first Clash album was the original Singles disc, which I recall picking up around March/April '98 -- I had to see an eye specialist that day and had my pupils dilated as fuck, but somehow managed to get to the HMV (as I had the day off school) and pick out the album. It was very sunny.

I played it non-stop that summer on the train to and from an animation college I was taking some courses at. I'd even listen to Hitsville!

[Dr. Medulla]

My first exposure would have been my sister having a taped copy of Combat Rock (thereby contributing to killing music). No strong impressions either way, even tho I was solidly a top 40 dweeb at the time.* Once I got into punk—first the Pistols, then DK (taking my cues from my cousin who had the albums)—the first Clash album I got was the North American s/t. My initial reaction was that—using the Pistols and DKs as the template—this ain't punk. I liked it—a lot—right from the start, but my limited understanding of punk showed thru.

* I'm not sure of the timeline, but I may have borrowed Cut the Crap from a friend of a friend shortly after it was released, but not before I became a Clash fan. I know that I thought it was a big pile of poo and didn't even bother making myself a copy.

edit: a friend of a friend, not the friend. The friend sounds cultlike.

[Bankrobber]

My first exposure was hearing Should I stay... and Casbah on the radio. The former made more of an impression than the latter. Later around age 15 (the year 1999) when I when I got into punk I heard they a big influence on the band's I liked. I picked up Sandinista! with birthday money. (I was suduced by the title "Charlie Don't Surf" because I loved Apocolypse Now.) The impression was not favorable (with the exception of "Police on My Back"). I did more research on the boys and then picked up the just-released FHTE. then I was transfixed.

[Mimi]

My first exposure was sometime in 78/79 (can't remember exactly) when my oldest brother started bringing punk music into the house on these skinny round black things called record albums. I kept hearing this awesome sound coming out of the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture. After much investigating and long hours spent memorizing the inner sleeve, I was hooked. Complete Control got my attention; White Man got me hooked...forever.

[Dr. Medulla]

the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture.

Something like this?


We had one that had a turntable, AM/FM, and buttons for additional components that we never had, as well as a button that made a boop-boop-boop-boop sound.

[Mimi]

the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture.

Something like this?


We had one that had a turntable, AM/FM, and buttons for additional components that we never had, as well as a button that made a boop-boop-boop-boop sound.

Ours was longer with the turntable and knobs in the center. Looks like the same wood and webbing on the speakers. I'm laughing. Technology in the 70's.

[Dr. Medulla]

the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture.

Something like this?


We had one that had a turntable, AM/FM, and buttons for additional components that we never had, as well as a button that made a boop-boop-boop-boop sound.

Ours was longer with the turntable and knobs in the center. Looks like the same wood and webbing on the speakers. I'm laughing. Technology in the 70's.

Yeah, ours was longer, too, and the turntable was on the right, the master controls on the left. Definitely purchased in the 60s before I was on the scene. Late 70s, we got a more modest turntable/8-track combo (albeit with massive speakers). That bastard survived in my folks' home till I was well gone. Then they got a little mini unit that had a cd player.

[Mimi]

the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture.

Something like this?


We had one that had a turntable, AM/FM, and buttons for additional components that we never had, as well as a button that made a boop-boop-boop-boop sound.

Ours was longer with the turntable and knobs in the center. Looks like the same wood and webbing on the speakers. I'm laughing. Technology in the 70's.

Yeah, ours was longer, too, and the turntable was on the right, the master controls on the left. Definitely purchased in the 60s before I was on the scene. Late 70s, we got a more modest turntable/8-track combo (albeit with massive speakers). That bastard survived in my folks' home till I was well gone. Then they got a little mini unit that had a cd player.

You know, now that I think about it, I remember that heap in the living room when I was a wee thing so I bet it was from the late 60's, or the very early 70's. I miss that thing. My brother abused that thing into non-existence and I'll forever love him for that.

[Still216]

the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture.

Something like this?


We had one that had a turntable, AM/FM, and buttons for additional components that we never had, as well as a button that made a boop-boop-boop-boop sound.

I love those things. The turntable, the orange lights, the buttons that didn't seem to do anything. So classy. Everyone seemed to have at least one of those in their house when I was a kid. They must have been given a planned obsolescence date of 1989, because by then, most of them I'd seen were used exclusively as stands for functional stereos.

Anyway, topic at hand - On a whim, checked BAD II - The Globe out of the library on Aug 1, 1996. By end of year, picked up F-Punk on another whim, which was $2.50 used. Somehow not frightened away. (At this point - only Clash track I ever heard/saw was Casbah, on a VH1 80s special) Went on to get entire BAD discography and listened to it ad nauseum before obtaining my first Clash stuff in Sep 1997 (COB box set, LC, and Combat Rock, all through Columbia House) and by end of October I picked up the rest of the proper Clash albums. Listened to literally NOTHING but Clash CDs from Sep-Dec 1997. I liked LC right off the bat, played disc 1 of the box set constantly, CR confused me but I kept listening to try and figure out what they were going for. There was no Clash revival industry yet, and I didn't get Last Gang In Town until a few years later, so I lurked in a.m.c and read CCS dispatches constantly. I re-read that COB book constantly too as I pieced all the stuff together. And this was all years before I heard any live stuff (except the COB live tracks, which are hardly representative).

If nothing else, being introduced by chance to the Clash, and searching the circa-1997 Internet to try and piece together this weird band which was, at the time, completely forgotten (Entering A New Ride was sent to bootleg purgatory back then, the Mescaleros hadn't happened yet, the CD albums didn't even include liner notes) - for better or worse, it inspired me to look at music as something other than background noise.

[daredevil]

the long rectangular high-tech record player that doubled as a piece of furniture.

Something like this?


We had one that had a turntable, AM/FM, and buttons for additional components that we never had, as well as a button that made a boop-boop-boop-boop sound.

My parents had one. It had a cassette player on the console, but the tapes it made were awful since it would only record in mono.

The first Clash album I bought (on a cassette). I wore out the tape in about a month,I liked side 1 but not 2, and kept rewinding it.

[Suzanne H.]

My first Clash album was the original Singles disc, which I recall picking up around March/April '98 -- I had to see an eye specialist that day and had my pupils dilated as fuck, but somehow managed to get to the HMV (as I had the day off school) and pick out the album. It was very sunny.

I played it non-stop that summer on the train to and from an animation college I was taking some courses at. I'd even listen to Hitsville!

THAT WAS MY FIRST CLASH ALBUM TOO!!!!
'Cept I got it in 2005 at CD Plus...

I was enthralled at how the music drastically started changing halfway through the album.

[simo]

I had heard and liked Rock The Casbah. I went out to look for a Clash album and luckily the store didn't have Combat Rock in stock. As much as I liked Casbah I felt bad buying a greatest hits album so I bought London Calling based on the cool cover.

I don't know if I ever would've bought another Clash album if Combat Rock had been my first purchase....

[a wobblin]

Mine was White Riot...might as well get in the deep end!

[Heston]

I remember hearing stuff like Tommy Gun and London Calling when they were in the charts, but my first purchase was the SISOSIG/Straight To Hell 12" single after hearing it on a jukebox. This would be '83. I then quickly picked up the London Calling album, which I wasn't thrilled with at first, I thought side one was a bit limp after the power of the title track. Side two was much better and after hearing Spanish Bombs and Clampdown, I knew I'd just chanced upon the best band in the world.

[JulieJazz]

The first song I heard by the Clash was SISOSIG on the radio when it was a hit...was a young'un, tho, and only remembered my best pal's dad screaming at the radio, "You should go, dammit! You should go!" The first song I heard by the Clash where I knew it was the Clash was Garageland on a radio special. My first recording I bought was a cassette copy of The Story of the Clash, vol. 1. The Clash were recommended to me by some skater kid I used to beat up after band practice when I was 13.