B.A.D. vs. Joe Strummer and the Tragedy of Early Clash Death, By Tom Kipp

Earlier Big Audio Dynamite tracks, "E = MC2" for example, are quite nice. But nothing really KICKS it like "The Globe" later did, for whatever reason.

I suspect that Simonon, Headon and Strummer would’ve kicked a lotta that early-B.A.D. stuff into a higher gear, much as Jones might well have added considerable verbal or melodic content to Strummer’s far-from-terrible late-Clash songs on the widely-/unfairly-despised CUT THE CRAP.

Alas, this was not to be, and so everyone’s work suffered considerably. Ahhh….synthesis!

I always loved a stray Strummer solo track called "Trash City" [from the soundtrack to the 1986 teen movie PERMANENT RECORD], which they used to play on WHFS in DC, and which I do own on said LP. I swear it could’ve been another "Train in Vain", with just a little more juice from Mick and the boize!

And live:

I actually re-wrote the lyrics for this song while I was working at The Record & Tape Exchange in Fairfax as “Sludge City”! LOL Wish I could’ve made a demo of it with my pal Jim Harrison and/or his band of that time!

And Strummer’s roots leanings definitely produced some promising, if undernourished, albums over the years, but he really did need better collaborators. And Jones drifted ever further into clubland, which was fine for singles, but produced uneven, occasionally dull, work. And that’s something The Real Clash never did for a moment.

I always wanted COMBAT ROCK to be….I don’t know, MORE of everything, I guess! Or perhaps a return to the hard edge and huge sound of GIVE ’EM ENOUGH ROPE. But it was admirable work, and certainly as good as anything in heavy rotation on MTV during 1983, including U2, Prince and Michael Jackson!

And they deserved the money and airplay, if anyone ever has.

– Tom Kipp