Thank you mate, but i would Like to Know if Joe or Nick Sheppard left one or more interviews about the recording of Cut The Crap...no one of them have talked about it?
Nick, Vince and Pete have all addressed the topic, at various intervals -- starting with my efforts, back in '93-'94, long before they reached the next level, with We Are The Clash!
You can see an initial version of them right here on my site (and also on Black Market Clash):
So rest assured, that subject has been addressed -- I haven't seen as much from Joe in print (or on video, for that matter), but that's to be expected, I think, given the uncut crap (so to speak) that he had to live down, once the whole situation fell apart.
Thank you mate. I've read several Clash book but we are the clash is new for me, because we don't have in italian language. I've just ordered on line, but i need long time to read it all
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Trust me, I empathize with that issue -- but publishers are a skittish lot, overall. They're not gonna spring for the cost of a translator, and printing in the appropriate language, without assurance it'll pay off for them at the box office.
That issue hasn't come up with Akashic -- I'm speaking from past experience. I remember bringing it up when I did the Gatton book, and I got shot down pretty fast. To me, it's a bit short-sighted, depending on the subject -- I always think of Laurel & Hardy, who released 20 foreign language versions of their films (a move that broadened their international appeal significantly).
So if you want an Italian version, you may well have to show evidence of a movement -- whether it's names on a petition, or a mass email campaign, or something along that line -- and who knows? Maybe it'd happen. That'd be my advice on that score. Show them the demand, and that might make the case a bit easier to consider. As they tell any newly-minted lawyer: "Make it easy for the judge to find for you."
So I think the best decision would have been to call The Clash II by a different name.
That's an understandable sentiment, one that you see referenced in a fair amount of reviews from this period. But in all honesty, I can't see how that would have worked.
Would promoters have supported ditching the Clash brand for, say, The Strummer-Simonon Collective, Combination, Experience, or whatever monicker they'd give a post-Clash band? I doubt it.
For Joe and Paul, it would have taken quite a lot, at that point in their lives and careers, to walk away from the power of the Clash name. Yes, they were effectively starting from scratch without Mick, but at least they had the name as a platform. Starting from scratch in a renamed duo, or each man on his own, would have felt less appealing.
And also, there's one factor worth pondering, as we documented in We Are The Clash -- deep down, Joe and Paul relished the challenge of life after Mick. They, along with Bernard Rhodes, felt the mission hadn't been accomplished, and still had a fair bit of mileage left in it. So why not see if they could pull it off?
After all, these were the guys who'd given us triple albums, and pre-tour disappearing acts -- so the '84 chapter wasn't gonna play out anymore predictably than the rest of their career had until then. The part where it ran aground, of course, lay in the managerial machinations, particularly when it came time to figure out who was gonna sit in the producer's chair. And we all know that movie played out!
For the latter reason, I'll have to respectfully disagree with your dismissal of TIBAD. Hearing that record, which I also bought on the heels of CTC, only made my disappointment with the latter feel more painful and palpable. Mick's use of samples and found sounds strikes me as more artful -- and musical -- than Rhodes's clumsier approximations of the technique on CTC.
For a guy who'd often gone on record as preferring hip-hop and soul to straight rock, his attempts to cop that vibe came out rather leaden and lumpen. He showed less affinity than you might expect for the genres he loved so much. You can read the book, of course, and make up your own mind. But I hope this extended response helps a bit!