London Calling took pun rock's "loud, fast, 'n' hard" aesthetic and turned it inside-out. From conception to execution, it's a blasphemous album. How else can you characterize a double LP full of stylistic variation, intelligent lyrics, raw musical skill, and concessions to mainstream accessibility that also happens to be a blindingly good punk record? Two years after the Sex Pistols, the game had already changed beyond recognition. Of course, the important thing about London Calling (or any album, for that matter) is the songs. Great albums are made out of great songs, and by that measure London Calling is pure gold. The first half plays like a greatest hits collection, full of such spastic classics as the title track, "Jimmy Jazz," "Spanish Bombs," "Lost In The Supermarket," and "Guns Of Brixton." Those first ten tracks see the Clash piling masterpiece on top of masterpiece, creating a series of flawless musical moments without so much as stopping for breath. The second half slows things down a bit, but the standard of quality is still generally high. "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)" and "Lover's Rock" see to that. Classic rock 'n' roll. Gotta have it.

For me this was THE best Clash LP ever, bought from Woolworth back in the day as a real vinyl record, and again years later as a CD, it has stood the test of time.

Each and every track is superb. It's a work that shows just how intelligent and musical these guys really were, not just angry young men wanting a "riot of my own", or the self indulgent muzos of Sandinista that was a wash out.

Here's how good this album is: I already owned these songs as MP3s. I just had to have the CD too. There are few albums with 20 songs. Of those that do have 20 songs, none I can think of have as many *good* songs as this one does.

Used item received timely and in good condition. I'm happily satisfied with this order.

The ''White Album'' for the nomadic period following psychedelia and before MTV. You could say this was a conceptual album, but there were l9 different concepts to with the l9 different songs. Still, 3O years later the title track is just as relavant now as it was then, if not more 'coz it was way ahead of it's time.

RlP Joe.

Featuring Joe Strummer on rhythm guitar and vocals, Mick Jones on guitar (with some vocals), Paul Simenon on bass (contributing vocals), and Topper Headon on drums and percussion, this group played well and played raw. Lyrics were tough and there was always a rough edge that worked well. This is possibly their best work and one of the classic rock and punk works of the past three decades.

The CD begins with a rousing anthem from The Clash--"London Calling." The song begins with an almost menacing tone, as Strummer sings:

"London calling to the faraway towns
Now that war is declared--And battle come down."

There is a mocking reference to "phony Beatlemania [biting] the dust." A great punk song, but also a great rock and roll piece. You Tube has a terrific clip of The Clash singing this, with some nice visuals involved, starting off with the clock. Take a look!

Then, "Spanish Bombs." I mention this because it is not often that one hears a song about the Spanish Civil War, an event from the 1930s. The beat is supported well by the rhythm section and there is a nice forward momentum to this song. Joe Strummer's voice produces a nice punk rock sound.

"Working for the Clampdown." The rhythm section starts this song off well. Guitars growl. Strummer sings lines such as the following:

"The judge said five to ten, but I said double that again,
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a soul
Can be working for the clampdown."

Then there is the menacing "The Guns of Brixton." Raw instrumental work, supporting lines such as:

"When they kick in your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or your trigger on your gun."

An angry song on an angry album. But, despite that, this CD works well. The Clash had the anger and rawness of The Sex Pistols, but were better musicians and created a more compelling sound.

There are many other good songs, such as "Rudie Can't Fail," "Revolution Rock," "Wrong `em Boyo," "Lover's Rock," and so on. But the CD closes out with an interesting piece--"Train in Vain."

"Train in Vain" is an infectious and captivating song, incongruous in juxtaposition to "The Guns of Brixton." The guitar work is simple but effective; the rhythm section does its job well.

Any way you cut it. This is a 5-star work. This may be the pinnacle of The Clash's career (and they had some other awfully good albums), before the creative differences between Strummer and Jones blew the band apart. But what a run they had before their time ended!

Okay, so there are a million reviews for London Calling and I admit that my opinion is not in any way vital in relation to its popularity, but I pen this in the hope that some young kid--with no cultural memory of The Clash--will come across these words and be persuaded to download some of these songs or buy it in its entirety. London Calling is a work of art whose tracks are unique, transcendent, joyous, and alive. I'm not over-praising it or descending into hyperbole. I'm just being honest.

I came to the album late in life. When I was a boy the only thing I knew by The Clash was Rock the Casbah (sad but true). After college I heard about the CD by word of mouth and picked up a copy in 1996. I still listen to it today. The sound remains fresh. Out of the 19 tracks, "London Calling, Train in Vain, Rudie Can't Fail, Spanish Bombs, Lost in the Supermarket," and "Death or Glory" are my personal favorites. However, I must point out that there is not a bad song anywhere on the CD. How many releases can you say that about nowadays?

I bought this because it was in the top 10 best albums ever, and I was absolutely amazed. This is the best punk album I've ever heard.
Best Tracks: Lost in the Supermarket, Guns of Brixton, Spanish Bombs, Train in Vain

If you are curious about The Clash this is the album to start with.
London Calling is (arguably) one of the top 5 rock albums of all time. Personally, I rank it second, just behind Exile On Main Street and in front of Revolver.
The Clash are generally described as a punk band. This is a limiting tag - The Damned and the Sex Pistols were punk, The Clash were a punk-influenced rock band who secretly smoked pot. They managed, on this album, to create the greatest working-class rock album of all time.
The lyrics evoke a history that spans the Crusades through Thatcher's Britain but still seem to resonate in Bush's America.
From Spanish Bombs through Guns Of Brixton to Four Horsemen, this album is an oblique anti-fascist statement that rocks much harder than the average statement.

Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world,
Ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl.
Love 'n hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands,
Hands that slap his kids around, 'cause they don't understand how,
Death or glory, becomes just another story.

London Calling is a sprawling, ambitious, endlessly creative and unfailingly exciting record. It's full of daring ideas and musical revelations, a rockin' funhouse mirror that encompasses punk, rockabilly, folk, reggae, pop, and even elements of soul and disco, with lyrics full of apocalyptic anger and sociopolitical rage. Nearly twenty years after its initial release, it all still sounds so good. The title track is a taut, nervous punk number with a paranoid rhythm and a cruelly catchy vocal, and the lyrics are pure apocalyptic poetry. "Rudie Can't Fail" is raucous ska, and "Train In Vain" is boisterous pop. "Lost In The Supermarket" is a genuinely heartrending meditation on isolated alienation, and "Spanish Bombs" is a sweeping, hard-hitting acoustic rock anthem. "Brand New Cadillac" has a psychotic rockabilly punk edge, and "Clampdown" is a stomping, undeniably catchy rock classic... with lyrics about the evils of colonialism. "The Guns Of Brixton" is raw, defiant, bass-heavy dub reggae, and "Wrong 'Em Boyo" is a deranged double-time singalong. There is, in short, a ridiculous amount of great music here. It's a rock 'n' roll masterpiece for the punk era, a classic record if there ever was one.

The best punk album ever. Period. Never Mind the Bollocks comes in a close second, and The Ramones third, I guess. This album is essential not only for punks, but for any fan of rock n' roll.

First of all, I love the clash. Unlike nearly every other fan, though, this album was not the first I listened to of them. My first clash experience was actually "Combat Rock." A Friend finally lent me "London Calling" and it blew my world. Combat rock is a great CD, but this is pure Music Genius.
Here are my personal Favs:

1.) London Calling - Sets the Record off magnificently, Strong, Fast, and makes my stomach curl up every time i listen.
2.) Hateful - actually makes be dance every time
3.) Spanish Bombs - just great song.
4.) CLAMPDOWN - The best clash song ever made. period. "You Grow Up, and You Calm Down. Now Your Working For The Clampdown" makes me smile every time.
5.) Revolution rock - Just interesting for me, this is a major sign of the more raggae-orientated music to follow.
6.) Train in Vain - Yes, its their least punk song, but a great song never-the-less

Please, Buy this CD! In my opinion, not music collection is complete without this album.

This album is a favourite with people who think they're too cool to like the Beatles or Guns & Roses and want something more "real" to feel smug about. Somehow The Clash are meant to be a blow to all carefree bands writing songs in their ivory towers. People want *real* songs about suburban alienation! Songs that the common joe in the streets of Britain can relate to! Uh...supermarkets! Yeah!

Somehow this album has also gained popularity among North American university elitists who mistakenly think they have some empathy with the British working class and who tend to say things like "Did you read those Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac's I recommended?"


The album itself is just bland late 70s British new wave with moderately pointless reggae experiments.

O.K. first of all I'm not sure why Amazon wouldn't let me review this, they have done this before and its annoying and frustrating so I'm gonna write a short review, before The Clash has experimented with with reggae and ska mixed with punk but then on London Calling they tried a dizzying array of styles everything from punk to jazz can be found on this great album and it also shows how far ahead these guys were. You've got great songs like The guns of Brixton, Spanish bombs, Lost in the supermarket, London calling, brand new Cadillac ect. basically all the songs were brilliant except for Lover's rock which I can't stand. This album is so invigorating that every time you listen to it never gets boring and also happens to beat out any modern rock album out there especially nowadays with the truly pathetic music scene, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones have written some of the best and politically charged lyrics of all time and are anti-establishment which is typical punk only The Clash really mean it cause they came from poverty in the street of England unlike those fake wannabe punk groups that have no idea what they're talking about and their playing skills are usually sh**. I highly recomend this album to everyone and if you haven't gotten this yet then what are you waiting for GET THIS NOW!!!.

Just about the Clash's worst album, (I think the lumpen `Sandinista' is better because a} it has a whole lp more and b} it's got the fabulous `Somebody Got Murdered' on it.) `London Calling' is as bland and dreary as it's title suggests. I thought London was burning with boredom (Dial 99999!) but now it seems it's just...calling. Oh well.
It starts brilliantly with the title track but then it's downhill fast, with lack-luster forays into r+b and reggae, rockabilly and jazz. Drifting and meandering all over the place in a vain attempt to find some badly needed cohesion, some sort of direction in among the painfully forced `diversity'.
It's a well known rock truism that Strummer and Jones weren't getting on at the time this was recorded, and you can tell, it sounds like they were in different rooms! It's sad to watch this once-great song-writing team align against each other in such an obvious (and childish!) way. Strummer with his slurry `rocka' pose, and Jones with his toe-curling `Americanisms`.
Strummer didn't recover `til `Combat Rock', and before you start scoffing, compare `Straight to Hell' with ANYTHING on here, and it'll be the stronger song by streets.
Anything with the inexplicably awful `Guns of Brixton' on it, just HAS to suck a big one,(now THERE'S a song worth a giggle or two) along with `This Is Radio Clash', their poorest song in a frustratingly inconsistent canon. (if ever a group's output was justifiably labeled `peaks and troughs' it's the Clash`s.)
If only `London Calling' the album was as good as `London Calling' the song, we would indeed have something special on our hands. As it is, we've got something tired, a bit derivative, and really rather tatty.
`London Calling' was voted the best album of all time in a poll. It's not even the best Clash album.

This is not gonna be a long review like others because it is simply put. Wonderful. In general, The Clash opens your mind and makes you wonder about things in this world of ours. I'm not just giving this a 5 because they are my favorate band. Another thing I would like to add, The Clash aren't just punk, they hit every single genre out there including reggae and jazz. If your a jazz fan, you will LOVE this album. EVERYONE WILL LOVE THIS ALBUM! LOOK HOW MANY 5 STARS THIS HAS!! ANYONE will love this album I guarentee It. Just to let you know I am 19 and being young, I bet even younger kids will like it. Or else they have no clue what music is.

Some critic said that this was the album where The Clash stopped being punks and learned how to play their instruments. Luckily for us, The Clash instantly matured as a band here to make arguably one of the greatest rock albums of all time, and maybe the greatest double album of all time. Out of the 19 tracks here, not one is a throwaway. The album is one of the best sequenced, most coherent albums ever made. There is not one song on here that I skip over. There are some that I like more than others, but there isn't one song that sucks. Most punk bands did one of two things. They either died/faded away, or they stopped being punks and learned how to make real music (I never liked punk, obviously). Luckily, The Clash followed the 2nd path, and made their masterpiece. I'll pick my favorite 10 songs here, but it isn't easy. The title track, Spanish Bombs, The Right Profile, Clampdown, The Guns of Brixton, Wrong 'em Boyo, Death or Glory, The Card Cheat, Revolution Rock, and Train in Vain are my favorites here. The Clash, along with The Sex Pistols who became Public Image Ltd., grew into a great band after giving up the punk thing (which really is very limiting, if you think about it). Their follow ups, Sandinista! and Combat Rock, are very good, but this is the best of their 5 studio albums (I don't count Cut the Crap). It's a shame they broke up (and Joe Strummer died), but we still have this great album...

London Calling is an unforgettable and classic CD that I personally think every wannabe rock and roller should have! Its jam packed with plenty songs, songs to get you riled up, songs to calmed down. This fantastic Album is filled with songs like, of course, "London Calling", "Lovers Rock", and "Spanish Bombs". All of these great tracks rolled into one terrific album. I have to say this is one of my faves, should be one of yours too.

Great album if you like the Clash. In fact if you like the Clash you should already have this. I had it on vinyl and decided to replace it with CD now that I've done away with my turntable.

Five stars for anyone who likes the Clash. Otherwise it could range between zero and five stars, but isn't that how music always is? Amazon recommended "Never Mind The Bollocks" by the Sex Pistols to be purchased with this CD, and both are great but I much prefer "London Calling" in my old age of 45. I still crank up my car stereo when I play either one on the highway and suggest you do so as well, preferably with the windows down and a good breeze. It's just one of those albums that feels better that way!

Not sure if I spelled "sattamassaganna" correctly in my title for this review, but this is the only album I know with that word on it.

Definitely worth far more than the $8.99 price. I ordered this at the same time I ordered Rockpile's "Seconds of Pleasure", a completely different style of album from about the same time-- both are worthy of places in the collection of anyone who likes music from around the 1979-80 time frame. That was a time of many styles of music, many of which are now classics, including "London Calling".

Hard to believe that this originally released in 1979 because I am still listening to it!! But then again this is what defines a classic -it's timelessness.

Plenty of reviews on this site cram as many facts about the band as they can muster in a few paragraphs to impress the other sicophants. It seems everyone is a frustrated rock critic. I'm not going to bore you with my rock knowledge of the Clash except to make this statement....This is one of the real 5 star albums out there..make no mistakes. The lyrics make a statement about the times and the music complements them perfectly.

A quick appraisal of the highlights....

London Calling needs no introduction as the killer track of the last few decades. It's powerful lyrics and chords thump it along until it reaches its haunting conclusion.."I never felt so much alike".....

Spanish Bombs...classic song with the spanish lyrics in the chorus...pure genius....

Lost in the supermarket....great storytelling type song about consumerism with Mick Jones pumping out the lyrics and supported by Strummer singing back up as only he can....

Death or Glory...when my 12 year old sang along to this in the car a few weeks ago I knew that this is the music that can transcend the generations. The line that starts "its been tested by research" still gives me a laugh

Train in Vain...Mick singing a melancholy ballad about being let down....

In short, everyone should have a copy of this album in their collections. The best part for any new fans is that there are so many great Clash songs on their other albums that you will not be disappointed and maybe like me you will be listening and still loving it 20 years later......

imo, this is the greatest rock album released since 1979 ("ok computer" does give it a good fight) and one of the top 10 off all time.
anyone who give this classic less than 5 stars should stick to watching
"american idol."
btw, in case it hasn't been mentioned, the cover art for this masterpiece was a rip off of the cover of elvis's first album for rca. check it out.

The most telling comment on this album:

Ed O'Brien, guitarist for Radiohead, in an online journal during the studio sessions for KID A, noted that he had listened to LONDON CALLING that day and that it had made him depressed because (paraphrasing here) "no one's ever going to make anything better than this, so why even try?"

It's THAT good.

Still, any self-respecting Clash fan should own a copy of London Calling, even if the debut is better. Actually, a better part of the songs on London Calling are excellent, but there are four or five that don't do much for me.
There's plenty of variety on this album, and in fact most of the genre experiments work perfectly. We'll get there later. First, for the group's signature slash-and-burn punk songs. They're all great. Clampdown is a total classic. Yes, you can understand what Joe Strummer's singing for a change. But the lyrics are great, so I don't mind. Spanish Bombs is arguably even better, with a famed Spanish-sung refrain. Hateful, Brand New Cadillac, 4 Horsemen and I'm Not Down are all old-school Clash, each could've easily come off of the first album.
There's also touches of reggae on this album, another thing The Clash did well. For instance, the apocolyptic ticking-bomb title track may seem like it's another Clash rocker (albeit one of the best ever), but that's a reggae rhythm they set it to. The Guns of Brixton, Paul Simonon's lone Clash composition, is even better, my vote for The Clash's best songs. His dead-on vocals deliver the song's harsh message about police brutality perfectly. And even if it were just an instrumental, it would still be perfect, thanks to that great bassline in the intro and the reggae percussion. Rudie Can't Fail, straight-up ska, is one of their more fun songs.
Now onto the more experimental material. The mellow Lost in the Supermarket probably has the best lyrics ever found on a Clash album, yeah it's set to a disco beat, but it ain't Stayin' Alive. Jimmy Jazz is... well, whatever the hell it is. Great song, impossible to pin down. There's also the country/pop classic Train in Vain (Stand By Me), which almost didn't make it onto the album since Joe Strummer reportedly hated it. NEVER trust an artist to review his own material. That song's proof right there.
On the other hand are a couple lesser songs, Lover's Rock, Revolution Rock, The Right Profile, The Card Cheat and Koka Kola. Sorry, but none of these make any impact on me and should've been left off.
Yes, I like London Calling. It's easily one of the best double-albums ever, and by far the last good Clash album - to me, Sandinista! and Combat Rock took the group off in the absolute wrong direction (though they yielded a few good songs each), and Cut the Crap is an insult to the Clash.
Buy this if you like The Clash, since it's really worth having around, even if it may not be one of the ten greatest albums ever made.

the clash could not have played any better on "london calling". with the way technology was back then (even though remastered today) the clash proved they can take it up a notch by playing divergent punk music to its finest. these guys play relentess hardcore punk! great music from a classic punk band.

I'm really not sure what else there is to say about this album. London Calling was my introduction to The Clash and it still remains my favorite of theirs. They try their hand at a lot of different styles, from reggae to rockabilly to funk to pop, and everything in between - yet it always works. It is impossible to single out favorite songs on here, every song is wonderful. While I'd be hesitant to call this a "punk" album, this is one CD that every punk fan should own.

If you can, save up and get the 25th anniversary edition with all the extras. The second disc ("The Vanilla Tapes") has some really great demos and outtakes, even if the sound quality is a little bad. The DVD alone is worth the extra money, with a very interesting behind the scenes feature and some videos. Whether you get the single disc edition or the expanded version, you really can't go wrong with London Calling.

I listened to this album the first time back in the early 80's. This was in the days before CD's. I liked a handful of songs; Train in Vain and Wrong `Em Boyo come to mind, but I found the rest of it to range from only okay to downright annoying. The reason? Back then, this type of singing was really "punk" and was only done by a handful of bands. It just didn't sit well with me that the guy (Joe Strummer) couldn't sing on key. Much of it was more like he was kind of yelling and not singing at all. Fast forward to last month. I gave it another listen and just couldn't believe I ever thought this was anything other than great, catchy, instantly accessible music. That just shows you how influential this band was - dozens of followers have had massive airplay and I've grown accustomed to this style of singing, so much that it seems pretty much mainstream.
As for the songs; the aforementioned two are still my favorites, but the rest really holds up, too. Ultimately there are 4 or 5 songs that are just okay - The Right Profile goes on a little too long and it's hard to find a hook. Revolution Rock definitely goes a couple minutes too long and gets messy. I wouldn't say there are any songs I would skip, though, which is pretty high praise for double album. Don't go in thinking this is a punk rock record, though. This isn't a gritty call for anarchy - it's catchy and fun rock - more like power pop. On this album, the Clash touch on several genres of music and, as another reviewer said, make them all their own. If you ever thought you might be a Clash fan, just buy it. This album would also appeal to most fans of power pop.

The Clash's 1979 album "London Calling" is bar none one of the finest albums ever made. Filled to the brim with a heap of hard hitting classics that only they can provide, "London Calling" is one of the greatest achievements in rock and roll.

From the insistent echoing riff of the title track that opens the album right to the last few notes of "Train In Vain", "London Calling" is The Clash at their best. Songs like the aforementioned title track, "Rudy Can't Fail", "Lost In The Supermarket", "Jimmy Jazz" and "Train In Vain" are known to both casul and hardcore Clash fans and are on pretty much every "greatest hits" compilation the band ever had, but there's a number of classics here that only the Clash Elite are familliar with, such as "Brand New Cadillac", "Wrong 'Em Boyo", "Death Or Glory" (sometimes referred to as the ultimte Clash tune) and "Lover's Rock" that are just as good.

Overall, "London Calling" is a brilliant record that belongs in everyonbe's collection. I highly recommend it (but make sure it's the 2003 special edition which comes with bonus material).

This album is a critics' darling, and perhaps the most overrated album of the rock era. It would have made a decent single album, but as a double, it's like sitting through a bad movie. Part of the problem is that the first Clash album truly is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Even "Give 'Em Enough Rope," which often gets bad reviews, is a great record. By the time LC came out, the Clash were billing themselves as "the only band that matters," and critics were accepting it as fact. This albums makes it sound as if the Clash were buying a little too heavily into it, too. It is a major dropoff from their earlier work and even when viewed on its own, LC is an uneven, uninspired effort. While it's often named as one of the top albums of all time, it wasn't even one of the best albums released at its time.
This was the really the first chink in the armor of the Clash, and they continued losing steam as they went on.
Songs like "Koka Kola," "Four Horsemen," "Death or Glory," and "Right Profile" are so tedious that you have to wonder if the Clash believed they could do no wrong. I can't listen to them anymore. The title cut, "Spanish Bombs," "Revolution Rock," and a few others are superb. Some are just filler. The rest are definitely not 5-star songs.
This would have been about a 4-star album had it been a single album. As it is, the only reason I can see that it got such rave reviews is that the critics were trying to make up for having overlooked the Clash when they were truly great.
Buy the first two Clash albums instead, borrow this one from a friend and burn the good cuts. You'll be able to pick them out easily enough.

I'm not so in touch with the history of the Clash as some of the reviewers nor am I into debating how best to pigeon-hole them, I just love this record! So many great songs, so many styles, how can one not enjoy at least some of these songs?
The title track and it's follow-up Brand New Cadillac are a one-two punch that any band would love to have laid down. The songs bounce onward with amazing smoothness despite the stylistic differences of Hateful, Jimmy Jazz, the aforementioned two, Lost in the Supermarket, et al. One could talk about what it means to be punk but I always thought it was more an aesthetic issue opposed to some instrumental or songwriting shortcomings. Give me this over the ridiculous Sex Pistols any day.

This is the best album of the 70's combining rock, reggae and R&B and oh so relevant today.

This is a major record in the history of rock and roll, a must have in every decent record collection. If you don't have it, buy it now. Excellent mix of reggue bits, like the guns of brixton, with some great punk rock like the very same london calling. Music, lyrics, all is good in this record.
Este es un disco fundamental en la historia del rock, algo que debe estar presente en cualquier colección más o menos decente. Una excelente mezcla entre reggue como guns of brixton y punk como el mismisimo london calling. Ambos ritmos (regue y punk) tienen muchos puntos de contacto en cuanto política, contenido y actitud, así que esta mezcla (como en the police) era algo que naturalmente debia suceder. Este disco por tanto representa sociológica y musicalemnte una fotografía de un momento histórico. Compralo, escuchalo, disfrutalo y recomiendaselo a quien más cariño le tangas!

0kay. Maybe this CD isent what you would call "Punk". But who cares. It is an awesome cd. There is not one song on there that i dont like. My Favrites would have to be "Im not Down" "Clampdown" "Death or Glory" .. If you like the clash. you will like this CD. and if your one of those people that call yourselfs "punk" and dont like this CD just because its doesnt sound punk. get over your image. and listen to the words.This is a great CD.

this cd is ALRIGHT at best...sure there are some good tracks, especially the last one BUT...THIS IS NOT PUNK! this is happy type music or something i dunno what this is. there are no crazy guitar riffs or heavy drumming. and the album cover, what a mislead; when you see a guy getting ready to smash a guitar you think, wow, this music is so insanely crazy wild and good that the band member couldnt help but to smash his guitar to let some frustration out...but wait til you hear it, then ur like...uh this could be played as a grade school graduation ceremony.

For years, I was unsure of how I felt about this album. As a classic rock afficionado first and foremost, this was never a favorite of mine. But the advent of more serious punk in the last couple of years has led me to revisit this album, and I'm now thoroughly convinced that this is one of rock's greatest all-time moments.

Looking back, I can see that my early dismissal of this album was actually the feeling of the threat the Clash represented. When this album was released in 1980, FM radio was devoted mainly to classic rock and music fans had seen many artists in that genre elevate to god-like status. Over their first two albums, although relevant and topical, the Clash's musical style was stereotypical of their forerunners, the Stooges, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols, and didn't seem to offer too much else musically. But "London Calling" was a revelation. Throughout the album there exists a stunning variance of styles, from angry marches, to rockabilly, to breezy pop, to punk, to reggae, and on and on and on. The topics got more varied as well, ranging more seriously into British social problems and protests against the governments of the world.

At this point in time, a punk band had never been bold enough to seriously tackle the issues of the day, let alone adapt their musical style to broaden their audience. The Clash was the first "punk" band to become recognized as serious artists, and this wouldn't reoccur until Green Day released "American Idiot" nearly 25 years later. That should serve as satisfactory proof that this album was truly visionary and light years ahead of its time.

This is one of the best ever, of any genre. If you like punk rock, you have to have this. I'm really at a loss when trying to explain the album - there simply are no words. Even the picture on the cover is perfect. Even the colors are perfect. There may be other albums that I like as much, but none that I like better.

Just listen to the clips, or borrow it from someone you know to hear it, then you'll buy it. If you don't have any friends who own this album, you need new friends.