Clashâs career than a career is suppressed by the exclusion of idiosyncrasy, playfulness, and despair (âThe Right Profile,â âBrand New Cadillac,â the broken, empty-handed â85 âThis Is England,â what was left after Thatcherism erased the last traces of the white riot) in favor of rebel-rock shtick and chart hopes (âThe Guns of Brixton,â âLost in the Supermarket,â âStay Free,â âShould I Stay or Should I Goâ).
Given the shape of the package, the numbers on side threeâall from â77ââ78, when punk was still an idea seeking its fieldâsend a nearly incomprehensible message of disruption, desire, and fear. Even less explainable, now, is that at the heart of this side is a performance that as pure sound stands as the greatest rock ânâ roll recording ever made. Oddly, itâs about the Clashâs career, at least on a literal, lyric-sheet level: their label-sanctioned protest single about their label committing the atrocity of releasing an earlier single without the bandâs permission. Big deal. Yet from this flimsy soapbox they leap musically to a dramatization of autonomy, community, personal identity and social contestation, and with a few scattered slogans (â THIS MEANS YOU !â) make those usually abstract notions as real, as dangerous, as any moment governed by love or money, hate or war. Across more than 10 years of listening to âComplete Control,â one reaction has always come first: disbelief. Disbelief that mere human beings could create such a sound, disbelief that the world could remain the same when itâs over.
2 Monty Python,
The final rip off
(Virgin reissue) The same stuff thatâs been on all the other records, but not in the same order.
3 Pet Shop Boys, âAlways on My Mindâ (Manhattan) Now they say they meant no harm to either Elvis or the song. Trust the tale, not the teller.
4 Jimmie Davis, âDown at the Old Country Church,â from
Barnyard Stomp
(Bear Family reissue, â31, West Germany) A two-time racist governor of Louisiana (elected on the basis of his purported authorship of âYou Are My Sunshineâ), Davis had a lot of alter egos way back when: Jimmie Rodgersimitator, dirty songster, white Negro. Here the latter combines a rewrite of âWhen the Saints Go Marching Inâ with the bottleneck of black guitarist Ed Shaffer, a/k/a âDizzy Head,â and the result is dreamy, sensualâhumid.
5 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, âSheâs the Oneâ (Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA, May 2) This time around, this is the one.
6
Critical Texts
, v. V. #1 For C. OâBrienâs âAt Ease in Azaniaââwhich, because itâs fundamentally sympathetic, turns out to be the most convincing rejection of Paul Simonâs bid for the Nobel Peace Prize. â
Graceland
was free to say anything it liked about what it engaged except what it did say: nothing.â
7 Beach Boys, (TV commercialâsorry, I was too mesmerized to catch what for) As Mike Love jerks around the stage imitating a puppet with steel strings, you realize his longtime support for George Bush is no affectationâas a pop star, Mike Love
is
George Bush.
8 Jackie Collins,
Rock Star
(Simon & Schuster) I figured this would be a good excuse to get a fix on Ms. Collins. I was wrong.
9 Forgotten Rebels, âSurfinâ on Heroin,â from
Surfinâ on Heroin
(Restless reissue) Madness from Ontario. The line âIâm surfinâ on a sea of pukeâ (delivered with such fervor you could see the singer doing it) thrilled any number of college radio listeners in â83; in the tradition of Minnesotaâs Trashmen (âSurfinâ Bird,â â63), the first band to prove that only the ocean-deprived can realize the boundless possibilities of stupidity that lie behind the hedonism of California
Donna Andrews
Judith Flanders
Molly McLain
Devri Walls
Janet Chapman
Gary Gibson
Tim Pegler
Donna Hill
Pauliena Acheson
Charisma Knight