Link to this list on my Rate Your Music page.

Top 20 favourite albums as per my current tastes. Three Aussie bands and one Kiwi band in the top five…

Now this list is finalised I am going to quarantine my ‘old’ tastes for a while and try to expand my musical frontiers.

Photo credit: Todd Heft

Gilbert has an excellent subject to work with, of course. The Clash embodied such a rich mixture of music, politics, image, style and substance, evolving continuously throughout their career. I am particularly intrigued with the working relationship of the main songwriters Mick Jones and Joe Strummer (above). It is amazing to read about their partnership, each man possessing an element the other lacked, and to appreciate the way they combined to a legacy greater than the sum of their parts.

I wanted to share an anecdote from 1978 that stood out to me:

Later the same day, in Aberdeen, [Clash associate] Johnny Green was nearly killed. The beige Ford Granada estate the group was travelling in had stopped at the entrance to the Aberdeen Music Hall’s car park. Green, who was behind the wheel, had opened the driver’s door and was standing up, leaning out to see what the hold-up was ahead. Then the car slipped out of gear. ‘The car is veering into a concrete wall, and the door is gradually closing, crushing me alive’, recalls Green. ‘Joe is in the passenger seat and starts crying. He’s going, “Oh God! Johnny’s dying. He’s going to be killed!”. Meanwhile, Paul and Topper leap out of the back seat and are in front of the car, trying with all their strength, without any effect, to stop it rolling forward. I think I’m a goner at this point, this is serious stuff. Then Mick leans over and calmly pulls the handbrake on. Thank God for Mick Jones! I thought that little crisis neatly summed them all up.’