(...Story Continued from Previous Page)
The Who also seemed to have a different relationship to the punks
than their contemporaries.
We were both from the same part of London, so we always felt close to them,
and we loved them. They were stylish, having started as a mod group, and that
was more like punk, though I hate putting labels on any of this. Pete had even
come down to play with us at a show in Brighton. He joined us for "Clash City
Rockers," and that was fantastic.
The only previous live Clash album is "From Here to Eternity," which
was drawn from a bunch of shows over your career. What do you think is different
about listening to one concert, played straight through?
The shows changed every night, and we were always trying out different
things. But, at this show, we thought it was so big and that maybe people didn't
know us that well, so we mostly played our most popular songs. So, you know,
this set is representative of that night.
Playing with the Who was a great honor, and there was such a sense of
history, with the Beatles playing Shea and all. We had to rise to the challenge
of that, and I think we did a pretty good job. You know, that dressing room was
bigger than some of the places we played!
This show has a fantastic medley of "The Magnificent Seven" and
"Armagideon Time." Was it hard to play the hip-hop and reggae-based music
onstage?
Well, even that -- on the previous night, we did them separately, so you
see we really were continually experimenting. We were always interested in what
music was going on and how we could appropriate it into our music. Not copying
it, but seeing what it was that we could bring to it.
Tell me about the relationship between the Clash and New York. You
recorded the "Sandinista!" album there, and played a legendary two-week stand at
Bond's in Times Square. Why was there such a connection between the band and the
city?
We always loved New York, and we spent a lot of time there. We were lucky to
be there at that time. When we did the Bond's shows, we met a lot of the
graffiti artists and started to interact with a lot of people like that.
Hip-hop, break dancing, that was all just starting to emerge. And punk never
really hit in America until much later, so I think we felt maybe rap was a
closer equivalent to what we were doing, that the punk scene was closer to the
rap scene. It was also very much about that sense of community.
What do you think is the biggest misunderstanding about the
Clash?
People like to project a lot of their own issues on the band, but we really
never thought like that. Ours was a more personal politics, about the things
that affected us in our own lives. And I think, in that sense of us as a
political band, our sense of humor may be overlooked. I do think that's more in
the rearview mirror, though. People kind of work these things out over time.
So this album is coming out around the time that the final
baseball games will be played at Shea Stadium. Do you have any feelings about
the impending destruction of Shea?
There's going to be a new stadium, right? Well, I'm sure that will have many
memories as well. Change is good, so I'm sure the new one will be much
better.
Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks
magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also
appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. His
book "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" was published
in 2006. Alan is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for
excellence in music writing.
Discuss this interview | Send e-mail | More
features |
Hotmail
