Live Oak Blues What happens.

Records That Changed Me

During the summer of 1983, I spent many hours sweating it out in a busted, brown Chevette with no AC and a driver’s-side door that didn’t work–mostly back and forth to my job down at the beach. My car’s $49.95 Radio Shack cassette player saw only two tapes the whole summer: a reggae mix and the Clash’s first record, and the Clash took up 90% of that. I defy anyone to show me an album with a higher hangover-to-work ratio.

Through the tricks of chronology, and because I lived in the United States, I was exposed to “London Calling” (The Greatest Rock & Roll Album Ever Recorded) before this one. But when I finally did hear it, I felt shot out of a cannon. Immediately. Seriously, go put on “Clash City Rockers” (the 1st song) and see what I mean. Then move over to “Complete Control” and pay attention to what it does to your body (I just listened to it again for the millionth time: adrenaline and goosebumps…again). I have to listen to the original “I Fought The Law” to remember what it sounds like because the Clash so completely made the song their own, and words fail me when I try to describe why the masterful “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais” may be the greatest song they ever recorded.

As a hobbyist radio DJ, I listen to hours of new music every week, and I have yet to hear anything as fresh as what the Clash produced 34 years ago. Although I became disenchanted during the “Combat Rock” era, my admiration and gratitude has only grown over the years. For someone who hates when people overmourn public figures, I actually wept when Joe Strummer died. “The Clash” made want to see the world, to see past the USA with which I had become so bored. I outgrew that boredom (in part, because I actually did go see the world), but I can access that original charge every time I listen to this record.