Combat Rock Remastered

Probably one of The Clash's 2 best albums; iconic of the era.

thank you

Best brand ever and this is one of their best albums

On a recent interview CD,which came from a local record store grab bag no less,members of The Clash described this as their last album with a united front,both musically and personally.Well that may be true,in a sense. I will say that most of the drive and spirt in the band came from Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. And both left the band.....well after a whole fiasco involving drummer Topper Headon,resulting in a feud.Well that's too bad because topper really put out here with "Rock The Casbah".It's a masterjam of the punk-funk movement (sorry Rick James).And it's got a message too but hey THIS IS THE "ONLY BAND THAT MATTERS" RIGHT?Well forget what the press said about them:the quartet are still on a mission here and the music is evolving yet again. You have The Clash kind of treading new musical waters here:where there are some pretty standard fare dubby punk kind of tunes here such as "Know Your Rights","Car Jammming" and "Ghetto Defendant" (with Allen Ginsburg no less) there is also an attempt outside "Casbah" to do something poppier with "Should I Stay Or Should I Go",the other big US hit here anyway. Nevertheless there are some places here that,even for Clash fans accustomed to some of the warped grooves of Sandinista! seem to come a bit out of left field."Overpowered By Funk" is....well one of my favorites on the album definately goes by it's name as a heavy,percussive 80's "naked" funk groove. Other tunes such as "Red Angel Dragnet","Straight To Hell" again do a pretty good job at the whole mutant groove thing.Of course there are some plain sharper attacks such as "Atom Tan" and the more ambient dub of "Inoculated City" has some great use of sound samples:it has been said that the great "2000 flushes" ad featured has been deleted from later pressings of this CD but mine has it so I am not worried lol.One track that really impressess me here is a tune called "Sean Flynn";with it's dissonant jazzy sound and likeminded sax solo it's definately about where I personally live musically!This whole thing ends with...a slower but similar tune really in "Death Is A Star".So,if you like a lot diverse,mutated punk-funk grooves with heavily leftisty political lyrics this will be just up your alley.For those punk fans who hate this album...here's another way to look at it as The Clash themselves admitted it:their concept of bringing their message to everyone would be felt just as well with the pop and abstract musical concepts dealt with on this album as with hard core punk rock because if their music felt like nothing but a huge attack,it would've never gained more then a cult following.They wanted to get as many peoples attention so they didn't change their message,just made music that could reach out to people who might not typically go for a Clash album.And from the look of how time has treated this album that was a pretty good choice.

Bought this in the record section of Fred Meyer when it first came out--Combat Rock stands the test of time. Everybody might be pretty tired of "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I stay or should I go" but this album has some of my absolute favorite cuts--"Overpowered by Funk" and "Ghetto Defender".

Item arrived on time & in good condition . I first bought this album on its initial release back in 1982 . I always thought to be one of the Clash's best albums . It may not have been as ambitious as "London Calling" , but it showed that The Clash could master several different styles at once & make it work for them. While "Sandinista" attempted that feat , it didn't always turn out well - especially spread out over 6 sides of a 3 L.P. set.

Yeah, I'm showing my age. I had the record (yes record) from when it first came out, and it somehow got lost on one of my 5,000 moves. Most people do not rate this as high as some of the early Clash albums, but it gets my vote for 5 stars strictly on the basis of "Know Your Rights", "Rock the Casbah", and "Should I Stay or Should I Go".

comes with a cool poster, great album