Dylan covers Clash's 'London Calling'

[XNASA]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2005540279,00.html

---"LIVING legend Bob Dylan proved he can still surprise his devoted audiences last night by covering The Clash's punk anthem London Calling.

As the thunderous applause filled the venue, Dylan stood at the front of the stage with his silver harmonica in hand, quietly surveying the Academy.

What was going through his mind at that moment is anybody's guess, but the legend clearly had some more tricks up his sleeve as he returned for an encore.

The first chords caused puzzled glances among the fans - before we realised that Dylan really was singing The Clash's politically-charged punk track London Calling - for the first time ever in his long career.

After a verse or two Bob smiled and smoothly moved into Like A Rolling Stone, which had everyone in the building singing along to the chorus.---"

:wow:

[Fenris]

1. He's a well known Clash fan.

He said as much in an ancient Rolling Stone article. I think you can find it in "20 Years of Rolling Stone."

[XNASA]

3. Of course he is.

I mean, aren't we all?

;)

[Fenris]

4. Well, if by "we" you mean people with good taste...

Then yes. ;)

[XNASA]

6. That is what I'm implying.

Yes.

[asthmaticeog]

2. That had to have sucked.

I'm scouring my imagination for the possibility of that being good, and I'm coming up totally blank. Eh, maybe I'm wrong. Wonder if that'll show up on Limewire sometime.

[XNASA]

5. Are you quite finished trying on banana hammocks?

:grr:

[dolo amber]

8. What he said ^^

:crazy:

[Magrittes Pipe]

9. I'd give it a listen.

You need to broaden your mind, fascist.

[asthmaticeog]

11. Jawol.

[GirlinContempt]

19. I gotta go with you on that one

[Orsino]

21. It's "a voice that came from you and meeeeee."

If Dylan sucks, it's therefore sort of our fault.

But I'd like to have heard that.

[underpants]

7. Being lyrically deaf I have a burning question to ask

What was so political about the Clash? What was so political about London Calling?

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/clash,-the/31731.html

Lyrics above. I have read them I still don't get it-is it a call to arms? to arms for what? rebellion?

Sorry I've just never gotten lyrics to start with and I have never understood what was supposed to be so radical about the Clash.

[XNASA]

10. It's post-nuclear apocalypse call to arms.

I can't think of many bands that were more political than the Clash. I mean, they named an album 'Sandinista'.

[Hugin]

13. Of the songs The Clash did... London Calling seems to be one of the least.

... political.

"Rock The Casbah" and others are more... IMHO.

[ghostsofgiants]

14. Lyrics like these...

This is a public service announcement
With guitar
Know your rights all three of them

Number 1
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a CRIME!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or aristocrat
Know your rights

And Number 2
You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

Know your rights
These are your rights
Wang

Know these rights

Number 3
You have the right to free
Speech as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it.

Know your rights
These are your rights
All three of 'em
It has been suggested
In some quarters that this is not enough!
Well...

Get off the streets
Get off the streets
Run
You don't have a home to go to
Smush

Finally then I will read you your rights

You have the right to remain silent
You are warned that anything you say
Can and will be taken down
And used as evidence against you

Listen to this
Run

[Hugin]

15. Exactly.

That whole album is pretty dark.

[GirlinContempt]

17. Wasn't 'London Calling'

a socialist call to arms?
Not really that hard to figure out :shrug:

[GirlinContempt]

18. Oh and

Maybe listen to White Riot or London's Burning


"I don’t wanna hear about what the rich are doing
I don’t wanna go to where the rich are going
They think they’re so clever, they think they’re so right
But the truth is only known by guttersnipes"

[ghostsofgiants]

20. Or "Clampdown"...

What are we gonna do now?
Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
'Cause they're working for the clampdown
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we're working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers

The judge said five to ten-but I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown
Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?

Or "Hate and War"
Hate and war - the only things we got today

An' if I close my eyes
They will not go away
You have to deal with it
It is the currency

Hate...hate...hate...

The hate of a nation
A million miles from home
An' get war from the junkies
Who don't like my form

It's all pretty straightforward, really.

[kwolf68]

12. Dylan and The Clash ruled

The Clash are/were (RIP Joe) living legends. Only Bad Religion can compete with themm in my view.

[atomic-fly]

16. Billy Bragg on the Clash

By Billy Bragg
Musician and songwriter

The Clash were the greatest rebel rock band of all time. Their commitment to making political pop culture was the defining mark of the British punk movement.

They were also a self-mythologising, style-obsessed mass of contradictions.

That's why they were called The Clash.

They wanted desperately to be rock stars but they also wanted to make a difference.

Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg: Politically inspired singer-songwriter
While Paul Simon flashed his glorious cheekbones and Mick Jones threw guitar hero shapes, no-one struggled more manfully with the gap between the myth and the reality of being a spokesman for your generation than Joe Strummer.

All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity.

Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans.

Joe opened the back door of the theatre and let us in, he sneaked us back to the hotel for a beer, he too believed in the righteous power of rock'n'roll.

And if he didn't change the world he changed our perception of it. He crossed the dynamism of punk with Johnny Too Bad and started that punky-reggae party.

Radical band

He drew us, thousands strong, onto the streets of London in support of Rock Against Racism.

He sent us into the garage to crank up our electric guitars. He made me cut my hair.

The ideals that still motivate me as an artist come not from punk, not even from the Clash, but from Joe Strummer.

Joe Strummer
The Clash were a huge success in the US

The first wave of punk bands had a rather ambivalent attitude to the politics of late 70s Britain. The Sex Pistols, The Damned, the Stranglers, none of them, not even the Jam, came close to the radicalism that informed everything the Clash did and said.

The US punk scene was even less committed. The Ramones, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers and Blondie all were devoid of politics.

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

Instead, the incendiary lyrics of the Clash inspired 1,000 more bands on both sides of the Atlantic to spring up and challenge their elders and the man that we all looked to was Joe Strummer.

Inspiring form

He was the White Man in Hammersmith Palais who influenced the Two Tone Movement. He kept it real and inspired the Manic Street Preachers.

And he never lost our respect. His recent albums with the Mescaleros found him on inspiring form once again, mixing and matching styles and rhythms in celebration of multi-culturalism.

At his final gig, in November in London, Mick Jones got up with him and together they played a few old Clash tunes.

It was a benefit concert for the firefighters union.

One of the hardest things to do in rock'n'roll is walk it like you talk it.

Joe Strummer epitomised that ideal and I will miss him greatly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2602083.stm