# Deep Tracks - The Clash - "Give 'Em Enough Rope"



## Guest (Aug 31, 2018)

View attachment 107288


Please *choose up to seven selection*s for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - *The Clash - "Give 'Em Enough Rope"*

"Give 'Em Enough Rope" is the second studio album by the English punk rock band the Clash. It was released on 10 November 1978 through CBS Records. It was their first album released in the United States, preceding the U.S. version of The Clash. The album was well received by critics and fans, peaking at number two in the United Kingdom Albums Chart, and number 128 in the Billboard 200.

The album's cover art was designed by Gene Greif, the front of which was based on a postcard titled "End of the Trail", photographed by Adrian Atwater and featuring Wallace Irving Robertson.

The cover of the first US pressings showed the band's name written in block capital letters. Subsequent U.S. pressings used a faux-oriental style font, which was then replaced with the more ornate faux-oriental style font used on the UK release.

The original American issue of the album also retitled "All the Young Punks" as "That's No Way to Spend Your Youth". This was revised on later editions.

"Tommy Gun" and "English Civil War" were released as the album's singles, either side of Christmas 1978. They entered the UK charts at numbers 19 and 25, respectively.

Though the opening track of side two, "Guns on the Roof", is ostensibly about global terrorism, war and corruption, it was partly inspired by an incident that resulted in the Metropolitan Police's armed anti-terrorist squad raiding the Clash's Camden Market base. Paul Simonon and Topper Headon were arrested and charged with criminal damage (and later fined £750) for shooting racing pigeons with an air-gun from the roof of their rehearsal building.

The band continued to include contemporary subjects in their lyrics on the album; "Tommy Gun" deals with Middle Eastern terrorism, specifically the hi-jacking of aircraft, while "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" is a commentary on the infamous "Operation Julie" drug bust that saw the largest LSD production ring in the world, based in Wales, dismantled by an undercover police operation. The song also makes a reference to the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in the opening line, "It's Lucy in the sky and all kinds of apple pie". "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" was originally titled "Julie's in the Drug Squad", as listed on the original pressing of the album.

During recording of the album, Joe Strummer's trademark Telecaster guitar needed to be taken in for repairs, so he played a hired semi-hollow Gibson ES-345 for most of the sessions.

Sandy Pearlman, who produced the original album, was not a big fan of Joe Strummer's voice, to the point that he ensured the drums were mixed louder than the lead singer's vocals on the entire album.

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus hailed "Give 'Em Enough Rope" as a poised, unpretentious record of "straight English punk with a grip on the future" and "accessible hard rock" showcasing the Clash's unyielding, humorous "vision of public life": "The band's vision of a world strangling on its own contradictions hasn't changed, but their idea of their place in that world has."

In 1993, "Give 'Em Enough Rope" was named the 87th greatest album of all time in NME magazine.

Q included the record in their "100 Best Punk Albums" list, and wrote in retrospect, "...no more punk than Blondie...[it] shined of quality....their drumming problems were over with the arrival of jazz-trained [Topper] Headon."

The Clash -

Joe Strummer - lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar

Mick Jones - lead guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Stay Free"

Paul Simonon - bass guitar, backing vocals

Topper Headon - drums

with:

Allen Lanier - piano on "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" (uncredited)

Stan Bronstein (of Elephant's Memory) - saxophone on "Drug Stabbing Time" (uncredited)

Bob Andrews - keyboards on "Stay Free" (uncredited)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_'Em_Enough_Rope

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2018)

"*Safe European Home*" -






"*English Civil War*" -






"*Tommy Gun*" -






"*Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad*"-






"*Last Gang in Town*" -






"*Guns on the Roof*" -






"*Drug-Stabbing Time*"-






"*Stay Free*" -






"*Cheapskates*"-






"*All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)*" -


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

I meant to vote for Last Gang in Town, duh. 

Some great guitar work on the first three cuts that came with the New Improved Clash. I still have that single with I Fought the Law. But Last Gang in Town is one of a kind. Julie's kinda unique too.

Ya know, Topper Headon was a GREAT drummer.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

As I recall, a lot of fans and critics were disappointed with this - they all seemed to want the debut album all over again. I liked _Give 'Em Enough Rope_ immediately - above all else it's a great guitar-based rock and roll album (with Mick Jones often gleefully betraying his undying affection for Mott The Hoople) and the Clash proved that they could still be no less potent without adhering to what some people thought every punk band should sound like. The only drawback is Sandy Pearlman's thin production - it may have suited Blue Öyster Cult's other-worldy metal of the early 70s but it threatened to take the meat off the bones here.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I hate this album. Even Combat Rock is more interesting to me.


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