In hindsight, the Clash's penultimate 1982 album Combat Rock marked the end of an era for the British punk band, as it was the last record to feature the classic lineup of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon. It was also the group's most commercially successful album in the U.S., thanks to the hit singles "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go."
In a few years' time, however, both Jones and Headon would depart from the band while Strummer and Simonon went on to record and release the Clash's maligned swansong Cut the Crap.
With that in mind, Combat Rock was truly the last proper Clash album that captured the band at their prime and peak popularity. To mark its 40th anniversary, Combat Rock was recently reissued via Sony Legacy and coupled with The People's Hall, a collection of alternate versions of songs, outtakes and previously unheard music, all of which give a fuller survey of the Clash's activities from that period circa 1981 and 1982.
At the time of Combat Rock's recording, it seemed like the world was in upheaval by the dawn of the Eighties. The administrations of Thatcher and Reagan were marked by rioting in Britain and the economic recession in that country and the United States.
Lyrically, a sense of exhaustion pervaded Combat Rock while the band continued to expand their musical palette that began with 1979's double-disc masterpiece London Calling and through 1981's triple-album Sandinista!
Throughout their discography, the Clash never shied away from addressing political and social concerns, and Combat Rock was no different. The Vietnam War and its aftermath served as one of the album's themes, which can be heard in the gut-wrenching "Straight to Hell" and the tropical-sounding and experimental "Sean Flynn," about the photojournalist and son of actor Errol Flynn who disappeared in Cambodia in 1970 while reporting on the war.
The band tackled urban breakdown on the rock-and-reggae amalgam "Red Angel Dragnet" (which alluded to New York City's Guardian Angels and the film Taxi Driver) as well as societal inequality via the punkabilly "Know Your Rights": "You have the right not to be killed/Murder is a crime!/Unless it was done/By a policeman or an aristocrat."
There were also unique sonic touches on the album as the band explored post-punk, funk, dance, dub and New York rock: from Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's spoken-word performance on the harrowing "Ghetto Defendant," which referenced drug addiction and city living and name-checked such political hot spots at the time such as Poland, El Salvador and Afghanistan; to the Talking Heads-like "Overpowered by Funk," featuring guest rapping by graffiti artist Futura 2000. Concluding the album was the jazzy and lounge-y "Death Is a Star," a commentary about violence in movies.
Amid its music adventurism and commentary on current events, Combat Rock saw the Clash grab the commercial brass ring thanks to the Middle East-centric "Rock the Casbah," the band's first Top 10 hit song in America that was accompanied by a satirical video that coincided with the advent of MTV.
"Should I Stay or Should I Go," another memorable track from the record for its recognizable opening guitar riff, later went to No. 1 in the U.K. upon its reissue in 1991. Jones, who left the group in 1983, later sampled "Should I Stay or Should I Go" for the song "The Globe" recorded by his subsequent band Big Audio Dynamite II.
Between those successes and the group's implosion by 1985, Combat Rock was truly the last proper Clash album as far as fans and critics go.
Accompanying the 40th-anniversary reissue is The People's Hall, which is titled after the building located in the then-Republic of Frestonia in London—the short-lived republic formed in 1977 by a commune of squatters who wanted to secede from the U.K.
It was at the People's Hall where the Clash worked on the material that ended up on Combat Rock. Among the highlights of this new archival collection are alternate versions of "Radio Clash" and "Know Your Rights"; the rap-funk hybrid of "Futura 2000"; and "Midnight to Stevens," a tribute to the late producer Guy Stevens, who worked on the iconic London Calling.
With its diverse mix of genres and moments of experimentation, The People's Hall could be viewed as a continuation of Sandinista!
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
