Details
Track Listing
DISC 1:
1. White Riot
2. London's Burning
3. Complete Control
4. Clash City Rockers - (original version)
5. I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.
6. Career Opportunities
7. Hate & War
8. Cheat
9. Police & Thieves
10. Janie Jones
11. Garageland
12. Capital Radio One
13. In Hammersmith Palais, (White Man)
14. English Civil War
15. Tommy Gun
16. Safe European Home
17. Julie's Been Working For the Drug Squad
18. Stay Free
19. Groovy Times
20. I Fought the Law
DISC 2:
1. London Calling
2. Guns of Brixton, The
3. Clampdown
4. Rudie Can't Fail
5. Lost in the Supermarket
6. Jimmy Jazz
7. Train in Vain
8. Bankrobber
9. Magnificent Seven, The
10. Ivan Meets G.I. Joe
11. Police on My Back
12. Stop the World
13. Somebody Got Murdered
14. Street Parade, The
15. This Is Radio Clash
16. Ghetto Defendant
17. Rock the Casbah
18. Straight to Hell
19. Should I Stay or Should I Go?
20. This Is England
| Details | | Distributor: | Sony Music Distribution ( | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
The Clash: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones (vocals, guitar); Paul Simonon (vocals, bass); Nicky "Topper" Headon, Tory Crimes, Pete Howard (drums).
Producers include: Mickey Foote, The Clash, Sandy Pearlman, Guy Stevens, Jose Unidos.
Compilation producer: Bruce Dickinson.
Recorded between 1977 & 1985.
It's somehow fitting that the first Clash collection to be released in the wake of frontman Joe Strummer's December 2002 death should be the closest anyone's ever come to a truly definitive non-box-set anthology. The two discs essentially work chronologically, starting out with a dose of old-school UK punk from the days when the Clash were messengers of political fury and icon-shattering rock & roll fire (the raging "White Riot" and gloriously snotty "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A."). We can hear the incorporation of reggae rhythms with "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" and Junior Murvin's street-fighting tale "Police & Thieves," and the beginnings of the Clash's infatuation with American music on the Bobby Fuller cover "I Fought the Law."
Disc two finds the band truly at the peak of its powers, featuring tracks from LONDON CALLING and SANDINISTA, where both the lyricism and the stylistic palette were brought to a new level (the punk-rap of "The Magnificent Seven," the Caribbean lilt of "Rudie Can't Fail"). It's to this compilation's strong credit that it not only includes a healthy portion from the most "difficult" Clash album (SANDINISTA), but some vital tracks from the odd-ends collection BLACK MARKET CLASH (the dubbed-out Robin Hood tale "Bankrobber," the snarling "Capital Radio One"), making THE ESSENTIAL CLASH much more than a greatest-hits collection.
Industry Reviews
4 stars out of 5 - ...They never lost sight of Britain's strange mix of supermarket torpor and multicultural high energy...n
Uncut (05/01/2003)
...These two discs are a pretty hot crib sheet....The first 11 cuts are a shuffle mix of highlights from the U.S. and U.K. versions of 1977's incendiary THE CLASH, and if they don't inspire you to punch holes in the plaster, you're too well-adjusted...
Spin (06/01/2003)
4 stars out of 5 - ...They never lost sight of Britain's strange mix of supermarket torpor and multicultural high energy...
Uncut (05/01/2003)
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