The first track off the best debut album ever. This was the song that introduced me to the Clash. I'd been reading about them in NME. A band with no drummer making the front page of a major music paper? My band started doing photo shoots when we didn't have a bass player. Everything was new and just go ahead and do it. So when I finally went down to Brashes to buy this album I couldn't wait to get home and put it on. And band theres Janie Jones bursting out the speakers. And I knew this band was so much better than the Pistols. And they looked cooler. And as a mate of mine said ...an album full of great songs. Listening to this album changed the way I wrote songs. I started off with Dylanist narrative but the Clash's short sharp pop songs became my first real blueprint for writing. Not that I ever wrote anything political. Mostly it was songs like "Nothing To Do In The City" which is basically the whole song in one line. But I had plenty to do. The punk bands hadn't taken over yet but there were bands like The Sports we'd follow around everywhere. The Tiger Lounge had great bands on all the time. The Kingston. Plenty to do really.
Plus there was the very Englishness of singing about a guy that fancies Janie Jones. Infamous semi-legendary sixties madame.
I put this on cassette really quick. It was also the best driving around town music too. Especially when your car is an old clapped Datsun with the only thing going for it being the sound system.
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