I was looking through my iPod for something to listen to and settled on The Clash recently. I figured "hey, I haven't listened to them in a little while". I started listening and was thinking that they didn't sound all that much like what I know to be punk. People refer to them in the same vein as The Sex Pistols and The Ramones because they were the forerunners of Punk Rock. However, The Clash has a sound that is much more.
After listening to more of their stuff, grouping them with The Ramones and The Sex Pistols is a bit like grouping Led Zeppelin with any other hard rock band of its generation of Pink Floyd with ELP and ELO (both, still good bands). The Clash had a depth and diversity in their music I have never heard from The Sex Pistols and only rarely from The Ramones. Not to take anything away from these bands, they did great things for Punk Rock, I am just surprised at the complexity of The Clash's music.
First song I think of when I think of them is their famous "London Calling. This song is pretty straightforward punk, except for one thing. It has got a killer base line. Now that song would be a pretty decent, middle-of-the-road punk song if it wasn't for their usage of the Bass. This could partially be because Paul Simonon was such a great bassist, but that would be getting into a chicken-egg debate (was he "great" because they had great reggae bass lines or vice versa). They use powerful base lines in all their songs, but none of their bass lines are as prominent or as well known as in London Calling. Its what makes the song and is easily the most recognized part of the song. This song is also a bit unique for them because of their prominent minor chord and how instead of fading out, the song ends abruptly.
Another one of their songs that is quite unique is Train in Vain (Stand by Me). This is one of their big commercial songs and veers away from their normal style. I first heard the song on a video game soundtrack (I believe NCAA Football from several years ago) and I didn't even think it was them. I had to do a double take to make sure this was seriously a Clash song. Its a littler edgier than this, but it is very much a Rockabilly song. Rockabilly is that Buddy Holly or Elvis kinda style. In essence, a precursor to southern rock. The song is still edgy and has some punk feel to it, however it is very heavily influenced by Rockabilly and is a fusion of a two genres. Another thing thats a bit hard to notice at first about the song is that it uses a harmonica through much of it (especially in the chorus where they repeat "stand by me" where it's the clearest).
Rock the Casbah is another song that doesn't subscribe to the "punk" genre. Its a bit of funk, a bit of disco, and a bit of punk (a bit of disco is not inherently bad...Daft Punk does it). Its just another example of the range of them...Not to say that being Punk is not bad. They could rock out with some of the best of them (I would put "I Fought the Law" up against "Anarchy in the U.K." any day), it's just interesting to examine their range.
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