The gods of punk (Joey Ramone? Joe Strummer? Jeff Lamm?) have spoken, and so it shall be done: Punk Rock History Lesson is now weekly (and alphabetical) so let us proceed then to the letter C. While visions of posting videos by Chelsea, The Count Bishops or The Cortinas danced in my head, I’ve spend too much time with Roger Miret this year not to have found a renewed appreciation for The Clash. Sure, they achieved a level of success that most punk bands (actually most bands in general) can only dream of, but we can’t let that blind us to the fact that were great. Undeniably great.
As a young punk rocker in 1980, I was blown away the first time I saw the movie Rude Boy. Not by the flimsy plot of course, which follows sex shop worker Roy Gange as he ascends to the lofty rank of Clash roadie, but for the performances of The Clash themselves. Almost 30 years later, all I can say is, “Thank God someone was filming that!” No performance was more memorable of course than the one of the band performing “White Riot” at the now legendary Rock Against Racism concert in Victoria Park in 1978, where they are joined onstage by Sham 69 front man Jimmy Pursey. This is still awe-inspiring, and way too great to be ignored. My apologies to The Cortinas… maybe next time boys.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
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1 comments:
We won Mike, we won. Winning sucks!
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