Bad albums are made every single day. Bored studio hacks, overeager teenagers, delusional lunatics, Fred Durst -- it's expected that they'll all barf up a pile of musical horror from time to time. But that's not what this column is all about. How Bad Could It Be? is dedicated to the legendarily awful records by artists who should know better. We're not talking your Kevin Federlines here; this is serious.
Just about anyone who's been around a while will make one of these. Blame it on hubris, the gnawing fear that fashion has left you behind and you'd better start rapping post-haste, or more likely substance abuse, but there comes a time when, apparently, the muse abandons everyone. Or so the story goes.
But really -- how bad could it be? Were these famous failures justly vilified, or were Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs just having a bad day? In Part 2 of our series, we'll look at one of the 1980s most classic cases: The Clash's 1985 Cut the Crap.
The period after 1982's Combat Rock was apparently fraught with the usual tensions that can plague a band after a while, especially after commercial success comes a-knockin'. Drummer Topper Headon was sacked after his heroin addiction got the better of him, and Mick Jones was fired not long afterward, for alleged prima-donnery. No problem, though, right? After all, they still had their two coolest members, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon! Let Mick Jones go make his wuss-pop with General Public, and the Clash will just go roaring on! Punk Power! Smash the State!
Except that it all went horribly, horribly wrong. Strummer used off-and-on manager/pot-stirring enthusiast Bernie Rhodes as his songwriting foil, and Rhodes's punk dogmatism means there's a lot of yobbo chanting, which is then smothered with drum machines and synths that are, to put it charitably, of their time.
So how bad could it be?
It's every bit the mess that virtually everyone (except maybe Rhodes) contends it is. The already dated ransom-note typography on the cover tells the story. Cut the Crap has been virtually scrubbed from the group's official history, and it's hard to blame them. Attempts at critical re-evaluation have led some to say that single "This Is England" is a bright spot, but that might just be a refusal to admit that a genius like Strummer could have stumbled this embarrassingly (although to be fair, the schism took a toll, as did his parents' death around the time). Jones got the last laugh with the relative success of Big Audio Dynamite, and their partnership was briefly renewed for Number 10, Upping St. There were stirrings of a possible reunion just before Strummer's tragic death in late 2002, offering the potential for a far more glorious epilogue than Cut the Crap.
We Are The Clash.mp3
Just about anyone who's been around a while will make one of these. Blame it on hubris, the gnawing fear that fashion has left you behind and you'd better start rapping post-haste, or more likely substance abuse, but there comes a time when, apparently, the muse abandons everyone. Or so the story goes.
But really -- how bad could it be? Were these famous failures justly vilified, or were Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs just having a bad day? In Part 2 of our series, we'll look at one of the 1980s most classic cases: The Clash's 1985 Cut the Crap.
The period after 1982's Combat Rock was apparently fraught with the usual tensions that can plague a band after a while, especially after commercial success comes a-knockin'. Drummer Topper Headon was sacked after his heroin addiction got the better of him, and Mick Jones was fired not long afterward, for alleged prima-donnery. No problem, though, right? After all, they still had their two coolest members, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon! Let Mick Jones go make his wuss-pop with General Public, and the Clash will just go roaring on! Punk Power! Smash the State!Except that it all went horribly, horribly wrong. Strummer used off-and-on manager/pot-stirring enthusiast Bernie Rhodes as his songwriting foil, and Rhodes's punk dogmatism means there's a lot of yobbo chanting, which is then smothered with drum machines and synths that are, to put it charitably, of their time.
So how bad could it be?
It's every bit the mess that virtually everyone (except maybe Rhodes) contends it is. The already dated ransom-note typography on the cover tells the story. Cut the Crap has been virtually scrubbed from the group's official history, and it's hard to blame them. Attempts at critical re-evaluation have led some to say that single "This Is England" is a bright spot, but that might just be a refusal to admit that a genius like Strummer could have stumbled this embarrassingly (although to be fair, the schism took a toll, as did his parents' death around the time). Jones got the last laugh with the relative success of Big Audio Dynamite, and their partnership was briefly renewed for Number 10, Upping St. There were stirrings of a possible reunion just before Strummer's tragic death in late 2002, offering the potential for a far more glorious epilogue than Cut the Crap.
We Are The Clash.mp3
yo eric
thought you might enjoy this.
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/cut-the-crap/Content?oid=1068658
for some reason my credit got lost along the way on the second installment, but rest assured...
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/cut-the-crap/Content?oid=1068684
curtis
Thanks for the tip! This gives me a few possible avenues to pursue...