THE CLASH
London Calling 25th Anniversary Edition Sony
*****
The Strokes are currently doing a cover version of Working for the Clampdown, the song's mordant lyric now reflecting events in Abu Ghraib prison. It's some indication of how presciently potent these songs remain: While those around them were merely adding a third chord to the other two they knew, still fiddling around with safety-pins and shouting "Destroy" for bypassing American tourists, The Clash, in one vertiginous leap, transcended the scene which spawned them with this massively important work. Ska, soul, reggae and rockabilly ... they were clear away, never to be caught. It's just the sheer effortless brilliance that still impresses.
Bookended by Mick Jones's sacrosanct opening guitar line and the Motown-inspired Train in Vain, with all of the Westway's rich pageantry played out with some vigour in between, this is the sound of a band swaggering insouciantly through rock's back pages - and Strummer never sounded better, barking and biting at every turn, while Jones played the Guitar Hero by the book over Headon and Simenon's sinewing rhythms.
The second CD here is the famed Vanilla Tapes, the rehearsal room recordings of the album. They are rudimentary but absorbing as they show how these songs were layered up from basic riffs to full-on anthems. There's also a DVD bundled into the package documenting the recording of the album, with notable cameos from the band's self-appointed "consigliere", Kosmo Vinyl, and producer Guy Stevens. These, though, are mere details compared to the main event. The best rock 'n' roll album ever released? Oh yes.
