Fingerpoppin' Appreciation Thread

[IkarisOne]

DON'T TALK SHOP!!

You play music with those ears?

You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

[Wolter]

DON'T TALK SHOP!!

You play music with those ears?

You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.

"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."

[IkarisOne]

DON'T TALK SHOP!!

You play music with those ears?

You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.

"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."

A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.

[Inder]

I like it, but I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I mean, can you imagine anyone DANCING to this?

[Dr. Medulla]

I like it, but I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I mean, can you imagine anyone DANCING to this?

Says the guy who listened to it three times in a row starting at 3.52 am …

[Inder]

I like it, but I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I mean, can you imagine anyone DANCING to this?

Says the guy who listened to it three times in a row starting at 3.52 am …

HEY NOW

[Wolter]

You play music with those ears?

You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.

"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."

A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.

I can see that.

Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.

It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.

[Inder]

You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.

"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."

A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.

I can see that.

Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.

It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.

Even the AOR mix? :(

[Rat Patrol]

You mean Joe isn't saying Fingerpie?

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.

"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."

A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.

I can see that.

Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.

It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.

I'm more outraged by the fact that of all that dreck this was the one they gave the most complete 'production' job on the album, and that they actually thought this was the Casbah to This Is England's KYR on the singles release pecking order.

[Inder]

Fingerpoppin' is definitely in my CTC top 4.

[Flex]

Fingerpoppin' is definitely in my CTC top 4.

I got your back, Captain.

[Wolter]

Well, all I can say is that the live version is a lot stupider. Only instance of that.

Agreed. There are a few pre-1980 songs that I prefer the studio version over most live versions, or that there aren't any live versions that are listenable, but that is the only version I can think of offhand that is objectively STUPIDER.

"Fingerpoppin'" may be my least favorite song released under the name "The Clash." Precisely because it isn't a gibberish non-song like "Play to Win" or a backwards-dicking-around-studio-fuckaround like "Mensforth Hill."

A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.

I can see that.

Again, the fact that it is (technically, if not artistically) a "fully realized song," not a sketch (like some of the more charming half-songs from S!), not studio around-dickery (like some of the less charming ones), not an invitation for a girlfriend to sing along (like anything ruined by the touch of Flellen Flooey), not an "Eh, toss it on a B-side" bit of play (Like most post-1979 B-sides), is what makes me resent it.

It's just a bad song. Badly executed with a subject matter that makes my flesh crawl.

Even the AOR mix? :(

ESPECIALLY THE AOR MIX!

Because as Rattie implied, they gave that song the "loving care" it so richly did not deserve while stripping "Dictator," "Three-Card Trick," "Are You Ready For War," and (to be honest) "This Is England" of most of what made them great live.

[matedog]

Keith Topping's take on it in "The Complete Clash":
Quite possibly the worst song ever written by anyone, 'Fingerpoppin' is a trite, one-dimensional expose of male and female coital rituals. 'Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?' asks Strummer. No, Joe, actually they're boys and girls doing what boys and girls have done for millennia. 'Fingerpoppin'' features an embarrassingly clumsy neo-funk backing track, in which the constituent components sounds as though they're trying to escape into a different song. The Clash always sounded a bit ridiculous when they tried to play disco but, at least when Headon and Jones were in the band, they had the musical skill to just about pull it off.
With its imitation slap-bass the present song sounds uncannily like a Level 42 B-Side. Given the notoriously crap state of the UK charts in the 84-85 period, this would have been a fair-sized hit had it been released as a single. The song's first and only live performance came at one of the Brixton NUM benefit shows in December 1984. The miners, subsequently, lost. 'nuff said.

[Heston]

A friend once opined that Joe was trying to cash in on the Frankie Goes to Hollywood vibe with it. Interesting point.

I've made that point on here before, I also think they were trying to replicate the sound Dead Or Alive had on "You Spin Me Right Round".

[Wolter]

Keith Topping's take on it in "The Complete Clash":
Quite possibly the worst song ever written by anyone, 'Fingerpoppin' is a trite, one-dimensional expose of male and female coital rituals. 'Are they urban tribes of fighting troops?' asks Strummer. No, Joe, actually they're boys and girls doing what boys and girls have done for millennia. 'Fingerpoppin'' features an embarrassingly clumsy neo-funk backing track, in which the constituent components sounds as though they're trying to escape into a different song. The Clash always sounded a bit ridiculous when they tried to play disco but, at least when Headon and Jones were in the band, they had the musical skill to just about pull it off.
With its imitation slap-bass the present song sounds uncannily like a Level 42 B-Side. Given the notoriously crap state of the UK charts in the 84-85 period, this would have been a fair-sized hit had it been released as a single. The song's first and only live performance came at one of the Brixton NUM benefit shows in December 1984. The miners, subsequently, lost. 'nuff said.

Considering one of the few Clash-related songs I hate more is "Boogie With Your Children," maybe Joe should have stayed away from all iterations of slap-bass.