The Clash - London Calling (Retrospective)

 I'll start my venture into music related commentary with an album that was a bit of a paradigm shift for me. London calling introduced three things for me in terms of music. Satire, ska, and world music were now part of my lexicon. But the idea of a rock band allowing themselves to show that music could be fun and have a message made a huge impression on me.

 This album came out about 5 years before I was born (it was released in 1979). Though it's a world away from my life, there are themes explored on this album that still resonate with me. The Clash had released their first two albums and made their mark with two scorching and passionate, but extremely articulate punk records. They were rallying against the thatcher era Neo-liberal and at times downright nazi social climate of a U.K. deep in the midst of recession.  The first wave of British punk bands were starting to either die off or where morphing into new sounds. Now without manager Bernie Rhodes guiding their music making process, the band were free to do as they wanted.

Enter John Graham Mellor, AKA Joe Strummer, the bands de facto leader. Born in India to a British diplomat father and a Scottish mother, Joe spent his youth in many areas of the globe. It was from this album forward that a more eclectic approach entered into his musical lexicon. Though to be fair it's been suggested that even as far back as the Clash's first record, there were a fair amount of influences from Jamaican and Turkish music. The band famously tricked their label into allowing this album to be a double album. They believed in giving their fans as much output as they could, and anything less was the work of a culture of "lazy hippies." The Punk movement had a weird relationship with the hippy rock culture of the previous decades. What made the Clash different is that they sought to make themselves better for the sake of their art and for their fans, whereas (some of) their contemporaries got caught up in nihilism and self destruction. That's an important distinction from a band like the Sex Pistols.

This album was also a reaction to the heavy doom of metal that began to gain popularity of the time. The Clash saw that people were loosing a sense of having fun int popular music. As a result this album sort of evolves from a post apocalyptic moment to what could almost be called a party record. I think it even has a loose concept. It's the band escaping the gloom and doom of England and getting out to the rest of the world (probably Jamaica). There are a lot of influences of the Perry Henzell film "The Harder They Come." In fact characters like "Ivan" are referenced a lot, and there is a running narrative that parallels the story of that film.

The effort this band put into learning their instruments and developing their songs really showed on this album. Not to say their last album, "Give Em' Enough Rope" and their self titled debut didn't display impressive musicianship for their genre. This band had a pretty intense work ethic, and considering they only lasted from maybe 1976-1985 (the collective music memory basically continues to disavow knowledge of their final album "Cut the Crap" due to it being horrible, and only consisting of two original members.). Anyway there was a lot of effort put into making strong songs here, and the band would continue to delve fairly strongly into new genres on their subsequent records.

This album has influenced a lot of musicians from bands like Rancid to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to countless Ska and punk bands. It's strummers wit, charm, and Mic Jone's sense of musical arrangement that really made this album a long lasting hit amongst music fans. This band earned an admittedly pretentious (in hindsight) moniker "the only band that matters." I've probably annoyed countless numbers of friends talking about this album at length. but it's an important piece of musical history nonetheless.

Below is a track by track breakdown, if you are interested in learning a bit more.  This is a very long album, so buckle up.

London Calling

The first track on this album paints a fairly bleak picture of life in Thatcher era Britain. It encapsulates cold war era propaganda and is one of the best openers a band can have for a record. There's not much I can say that hasn't been said beyond the fact that the mood captured in this song will evolve into something completely different by the end of the record.

Brand New Cadillac

Brand New Cadillac sees the band revisiting their American rockabilly roots. Pretty sharp performance, but overall a fairly straight forward song for an album with a ton of commentary.

Jimmy Jazz

Jimmy Jazz sees Joe going into some free form folk jazz fusion work, taking on the narrative character of someone that might be a Jamaican gangster or something like that. The U.K. having taken on a fair amount of citizens from Jamaica and other parts of the world, was extremely multi cultural at the time. So that makes its way into this song, with some fairly odd lyrics that paint a vivid picture.

Hateful

The song "Hateful" is another odd musical experiment. It's a scathing satire of drug culture over a Bo Diddly like rythm. This is where the satire of the album starts to creep in to the lyrics. Though less extreme, the Clash had similarly negative opinions as a band like Fugazi in regards to people who used drugs.  That or they were looking to fight the often glamorized view of drugs that rock music perpetuated in the 70's and 80's. The tone of the singing and music is playful, but the lyrics are told from the perspective of someone knee deep in drug addiction. It's a cautionary tale if nothing else.

Rudy Can't Fail

"Rudy Can't Fail" again explores the bands fascination with Jamaican culture. This may be one of the bands most optimistic songs. It's also a song about youth rebelling while being criticized by their elders for not walking a straight and narrow path. The line "I know that my life makes you nervous but I tell you I can't live in service, like a doctor born for a purpose" resonated with me on a big level. At the time I was studying in Art school. I was often criticized by family for taking this path. There was an implicit expectation of me seeking a life of chasing a traditional income producing career that I felt (and still feel) a need to rebel against. To me, this song (and much of this album) was like someone telling me for the first time "it's ok not to take life so damn seriously all the time." Whereas a lot of music I heard between the 90's and 00's was extremely self serious, this was a band just having some fun and telling a story about a culture that was kind of foreign to me.

Spanish Bombs

About a year or two before I first listened to this album, I made my first expedition as a young adult away from the United States on my own. I was about 18 and I traveled to Spain with a group of students. Listening to a song like Spanish Bombs really reminded me of what I saw first hand in terms of a culture and a daily life. I studied a bit of Spanish History, and this song in particular is a bit of an oddly psuedo-romanticized take on life in Franco lead Spain. Franco rescinded power over Spain and passed away in 1975. I'm curious as to how this impacted the writing of this song.

The Right Profile

I first heard "The Right Profile" in my freshman dorm. This is where the band starts to get real deep into their Ska influences. Joe ironically sounds pretty drunk singing on this track. As with "Guns of Brixton" this is another song about Jamaican culture. I remember this song annoyed the hell out of my first college roommate. I however love it.

Lost in the Supermarket

"Lost in the Supermarket" is Mick Jone's first fronted track. He really shines as song writer on this album, and this is a hint of his pop influence. Which is saying a lot since it's a song critiquing people's relationship with capitalism. This song is still very collaborative in nature.

The Clampdown

"The Clampdown" is probably one of my favorite songs on the album. It's an anti nazi song told from the point of view of fascists labor enforcers. It's extremely sarcastic in nature.  The song is basically pointing out how screwed the average person was in England at the time. However, rather than wallow in this moment, the song basically demands the listener acknowledge and move past the problem. This album basically told me as a spectator it was possible to make things better in my life even if it didn't seem that way. Having a song that's both anti nazi and pro self empowerment in the same song is a lot to unload, and it's extremely powerful.

Guns of Brixton

"Guns of Brixton" continues the albums fascination with Jamaican culture and music. The move "The Harder They Come" is references heavily. Paul Siminon did a great job singing, though he never could quite capture the same performance quality live. That being said it was extremely cool this band allowed more than one voice in the songs.

Wrong Em' Boyo

"Wrong Em' Boyo" starts one way and gives a quick fakeout to a much better song. This song seems to be about not holding people down who are just trying to make their livers better. It's most likely a statement on the Neo Liberal thatcher conservative attitude of standing on the necks of working class individuals for the sake of profit.

Death or Glory

"Death or Glory" has some really great lyrics, some critcism of the music business. There's a lot of wit and humor in this tune just beneath the surface. This song and Coka-Cola are about as close to "punk" as this album gets, but it's nonetheless satisfying. This song also parodies the image of the rock star who says they won't sell out, but the singer has seen this situation play out before. They know that "he who f***s nuns, will later join the church." Harsh.

Koka Kola

A real quick pop punk tune. A critique of drug and consumerist culture. This one has always been a lot of fun to me. It's also the band sort of romanticizing and lampooning American culture sort of. Ultimately this song is making drug addicts out to be foolish.

The Card Cheat

This is where the band starts to get into interesting territory. They weren't the type of band that wrote ballads. My guess is Mick Jones watched a lot of western films. This really seems to tell a story of a wayward gambler. It's not overtly political or anything (that I know of). It's probably Jone's Strongest performance.

Lovers Rock

What? The Clash writing a love song? What is this? Where is the marxist anti fascist shouting? All kidding aside this is probably the beginning of the most fun end of the album. The band really just let loose. Mick's guitar playing is especially great. Oh wait, there is one line that rings kind of familiar for Strummer "Throw away all your he-man theories." That line could have any number of connotations.

Four Horseman

This song is a ton of fun. Oddly enough it's about the literal apocalypse(?). I guess there's an anti greed message? I dunno. At this point in the record it's kind of ok to just not get to analytical and just have fun. That's kind of the point of the album to me, and this is one of the strongest tunes on the album.

I'm Not Down

Not Mick's best tune, but I really like it anyway. The song is a bit awkward in spots but at this point that's ok. This is a song about someone overcoming depression and growing out of their youth to be a better person. An anti depression song on a rock album? Fantastic!

Revolution Rock

This is the Clash's Reggae influences shining really well. This is the main character(s) of this album finally escaping to a better life, somewhere. This song is a ton of fun. Honestly this album could end out the album out perfectly. Not to say the next song isn't great, but this is really the crescendo of the whole album.

Train in Vain

Probably the second most recognizable song on London Calling. It kind of feels out of place. It's a sugar coated pop tune. It's a song about Jone's girlfriend leaving him. This song has been covered by a fair amount of people. This band was a partnership, so I'm sure the band saw the potential for this song, and allowed it in the track list. This song is also a testament to what a weird hodge podge of different tones and textures exist on this record, but it all feels very cohesive. It's certainly not a bad way toe end the record, but it could have ended one track earlier just as well.

Dr. Sleep - Quickie film review

Saw the latest adaptation of Stephen King's work last night. Apparently this movie is not doing well in terms of ticket sales. This is kind of surprising. I really enjoyed the film. It's a worthy successor to the Stanley Kubrick film, and presumably the book version (I haven't read any of his books)
"The Shining." Given that is a monumental task to undertake, it ended up quite well.

While Dr. Sleep definitely ties into the source material (again, presumably) and the larger mythos of this world, this film is definitely it's own thing. The acting, plot, tone, and everything in between are executed impeccably. I also really like how this film utilized the inevitable nostalgia trip of the famous Overlook Hotel from the original film.

Much like the use of the plot device of this location, the characters actions and motivations are all mostly very intentional. Even if some things don't make sense in this film (like going back to the Overlook Hotel) the characters bring it into question. The protagonists make sensible decisions for the most part, and the antagonists are extremely well developed and interesting.

Ewin McGreggor's older version of Danny Torrance is a character that goes through a ton of growth and development in the film. He's extremely troubled, but goes through a very organic process to get better and be a better individual.

Kyliegh Curran plays a young woman with extremely powerful shine powers. Her character is really compelling. The lack of development of her and her family is a bit of a weak point in the movie. I get the impression a lot of that was cut from the film for the sake of run time. It's a pretty long movie.

Rebecca Ferguson's Rose the Hat is a really compelling villain. You really get a feel for the reasons she and her group do some really horrible things to young people for the sake of avoiding death.

The general themes of this movie revolve around people's relationship with mortality and how we cope with fear and trauma. There's an argument to be made for whether this film qualifies as a horror film or a psychological thriller. What makes this movie scary is how it deals with real life pain. Much like the original, much emphasis is put on alcoholism being a bigger monster than any ghost or super natural event. Like his father, Danny really struggles with addiction. Where this differs from the original is the outcome of that struggle. I would argue it's much more positive in the end than the original movie. The film treats it's subjects with a bit more humanity and tenderness without loosing any edge. In that way, this makes for a satisfying conclusion. This movie shows the other side of the coin of recovering from alcoholism and fear.

Seeing some of the super natural characters from the original return is pretty satisfying. While I'm not a big horror film buff, this is a movie I'll definitely return to later on in my life.

JoJo Rabbit vs. Joker - Review

When I was studying in art college, I got in to a debate with an art history professor I had in a class called "Digital Art and Culture." When an individual from the fashion department was presenting a report on an artwork titled "Project Aphrodite". The professor was incensed by her  choice to present something that made light of such a serious subject as sex work or sex trafficking. To sum it up he said he didn't think art should be "fun" when dealing with such a concept. I was the only student to raise my hand as say "why?" Needless to say I am pretty sure that dropped my grade from a B to a C. I was happy to challenge his inane pretentious posturing all day.

Last night I saw JoJo Rabbit. Without getting into spoiler territory, I would go as far as to describe this as such: Imagine Wes Anderson made a movie satirizing the Hitler Youth and the last days of the Third Reich.

The Wes Anderson influence clearly shows, but I don't want to speak in a reductive tone to Taika Waititi's vision. It was clearly his idea and his movie. His sharp wit and dark sense of humor really permeate throughout the film. He clearly saw Terantino's "Inglorious Basterds" and saw that you can add levity to a movie that covers a really dark and serious period in history. The humor in the film is utilized as a sharp weapon against hateful ideology. The other weapons in this film's arsenal are love and compassion. All these things don't make light of ignorance and bigotry for any kind of trivial means. No, the goal here is to show how misguided and fatal going through the world with a bigoted mindset really can be.

When I was in my late teens and twenties, my mother was married to a Jewish man who made a really signifiant impact on my life. His son and I were friends as far back as childhood. I haven't seen them in quite a while. I can't imagine how they would react to this movie. Save for the fact that director Watiti is Jewish, I don't think it would be fair to assume how comfortable (or not comfortable) any Jewish person would feel watching this movie. Some of the dialog is shockingly racist. However, how would you honestly get through a movie like this sugar coating the horrible attitudes that resulted in this period of history. There's one scene involving a book reading by a gestapo agent that just makes you want to take a shower after the film is over.

That being said, this movie has some of the most well-fleshed out and human characters you will ever see in a film. Scarlett Johansson's character Rosie is the emotional core of this film. Like a lot of people in this movie, she puts on a subtle front to keep anyone from noticing she's harboring a young Jewish refugee in her home. She is a really wonderful mother with a great sense of humility. She constantly seeks to break down the walls her son JoJo has built with his social indoctrination.  She teaches young JoJo about the strength of empathy and love. In the current ultra right wing social climate that exists today, this film is a reminder that we are all better off learning to seek love before hate.

Contrast this with a film I saw a few weeks back. A lot of people loved Todd Phillips "Joker." I'm still not one of those people. Don't get me wrong I appreciate the effort that went into the script, the acting, the sets, the costumes, etc. Aside from some obvious ideas lifted from much more notable films, this is really the best possible outcome that could have come from a Joker origin story. The plot is solid, and Joaquin Phoenix delivers a solid performance. The cinematography is also really lush and moody.

My issues with the movie lie in the films soul (or honestly, a lack of one). The film demands empathy from the viewer, but then turns around and alienates those viewers. It's incredibly esoteric and nihilistic in tone. I'm well aware that that may be the point. The Joker is a dark and twisted character, but this movie could have killed to be at least a little lighter in tone in parts. This movie basically asserts that people are garbage, and that any faith put in them is pointless and futile. The run time of this film gets really depressing and overbearingly grim. This movie felt like it had too many motivations to juggle, and that lead to pure insanity. Again given the subject that was probably what they were going for in the end.

The problem to me is that this really negates any valid points the movie could (and does attempt) to make about class warfare and addressing the needs of the mentally ill. The whole movie is presented in a way that feels cruel and dark somewhat for the sake of purely being "edgy." Empathy is just wasted on most people in this film. It all feels kind of pointless by the time you've reached the movie's conclusion.

JoJo Rabbit on the other hand seems to say that some people can change and become empathetic individuals with the right guidance. and this is a movie that features a victim of the holocaust being constantly berated by most people she comes across. While this young girl hiding in the child's attic definitely doesn't worry about showing her strength, she makes very different choices about the movie's main character. Elsa Korr doesn't go on a murder spree like the Joker, despite arguably experiencing way more horrific circumstances. The end of JoJo Rabbit really seems to say that the choices you ultimately make in the face of painful situations are your choices to make, and that you can always change your outlook in a more positive directions. Joker's ultimate message seems to be "everything is messed up  and there's no point in putting your faith in people.

Both directors clearly had their own convictions and vision in mind. Both films seem to cover different points in history. To me it's a question of which message left me feeling like I could be a better person by absorbing the films lesson.