Combat Rock

Combat Rock
Studio album by The Clash
Released	14 May 1982
Recorded	Ear Studios, London, September 1981, Electric Lady Studios, New York City, November 1981 – January 1982, Wessex Studios, London, April 1982
Genre	Punk Rock, pop, funk, new wave, dance-rock[1]
Length	46:21
Label	Epic
Producer	The Clash
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Blender link Punknews.org link Robert Christgau (B+) rating link Rolling Stone link
The Clash chronology
Sandinista! (1980) Combat Rock (1982) Cut the Crap (1985) Singles from Combat Rock "Know Your Rights" Released: 23 April 1982 "Should I Stay or Should I Go" Released: 10 June 1982 "Rock the Casbah" Released: 11 June 1982 "Straight to Hell" Released: 17 September 1982

Combat Rock is the fifth studio album by The Clash, released in 1982. It was the last album to feature the classic line-up before Mick Jones was sacked and Topper Headon was kicked out for his heroin addiction.^[2]

Although the album includes different styles of music, it is considerably more straight-forward and less experimental than their previous album Sandinista!. In the United Kingdom the album charted at #2, spending 23 weeks in the UK charts. The album reached #7 in the United States, spending 61 weeks on the chart, and was certified platinum.

Recording and production

Combat Rock was originally planned as a double album with the working title Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg, but the idea was scrapped after internal wrangling within the group. Mick Jones had mixed the first version, but the other members were dissatisfied and mixing/producing duties were handed to Glyn Johns, at which point the album became a single LP. The original mixes have since been obtained and subsequently bootlegged.

Artwork

Pennie Smith shot the cover photo for Combat Rock on a deserted railway line outside Bangkok while the band was on their "Far East" tour in 1982.

Following along the same note as Sandinista!, Combat Rock's catalogue number 'FMLN2' is the acronym for the El Salvador political party 'Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional' or FMLN.

Release

In January 2000 the album, along with the rest of The Clash's catalog, was remastered and re-released.

According to author Marcus Gray, the song Red Angel Dragnet was inspired by the January 1982 shooting death of Frank Melvin, a New York member of the Guardian Angels.^[3][4] The song contains extensive quotes from the 1976 movie Taxi Driver's main character Travis Bickle, delivered by Kosmo Vinyl. Bickle sports a mohawk in the later part of the film and that hairstyle was adopted by Joe Strummer during the album promotion.

The song, "Ghetto Defendant", features beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who performed the song on stage with the band during the New York shows on their tour in support of the album.

Original U.S. pressings of the album had the full length track "Inoculated City" lasting 2:43. This version contained an unauthorized audio sample from a U.S. television commercial for a toilet bowl cleaner called "2000 Flushes". After the maker of the product complained of copyright infringement the audio sample was removed reducing the track length to 2:11. Approximately 100,000 copies of the first version were pressed with custom designed record labels. The majority of copies sold had the edited track and were re-issued on the standard dark blue Epic Records label. The full length "Inoculated City" also appeared on the B-side of the US "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" single. Early US CD copies of the album had the edited track. When the album was released as a remastered CD in 2000 the full length track was restored, though no mention of this was included on the CD packaging.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

The album received positive reviews from critics, and reached the number two on the UK Albums Chart, the number seven on the Billboard Pop albums, and the top ten on many charts in other countries.^[5][6][7][8] The United States Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Combat Rock as a Gold album on November 1982, Platinum in January 1983, and Multi-Platinum in June 1995.^[9]

In 1999, Q magazine rated Combat Rock three stars out of five, and described the album as "...their biggest seller, but the beginning of the end."^[10] In 2000, Alternative Press rated the album three stars out of five, and wrote that "The penultimate Clash album...employing lessons learned in the previous three years....their most commercially rewarded release....containing [their] most poignant song 'Straight To Hell'."^[11] The College Music Journal ranked Combat Rock at number five on its 2004 list of the Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1982.^[12]

Track listing

All songs were written by The Clash. except noted.

Side one

1. "Know Your Rights" (Strummer/Jones) – 3:39
2. "Car Jamming" – 3:58
3. "Should I Stay or Should I Go" – 3:06
4. "Rock the Casbah" – 3:44
5. "Red Angel Dragnet" – 3:48
6. "Straight to Hell" – 5:30

Side two

1. "Overpowered by Funk" – 4:55
2. "Atom Tan" – 2:32
3. "Sean Flynn" – 4:30
4. "Ghetto Defendant" – 4:45
5. "Inoculated City" – 2:43 (some copies of the album have an edited version lasting 2:11)
6. "Death Is a Star" – 3:08

Tracks 1, 2 and 6 from side one and tracks 1, 3, 4 and 6 from side two are sung by Joe Strummer. Track 3 from side one is sung by Mick Jones. Track 5 from side one is sung by Paul Simonon. Track 4 from side one and tracks 2 and 5 from side two are sung by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer.

Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg track listing

1. "The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too" - 3:45
2. "Kill Time" - 4:58
3. "Should I Stay or Should I Go" - 3:05
4. "Rock the Casbah" - 3:47
5. "Know Your Rights" (extended version) - 5:04
6. "Red Angel Dragnet" - 6:12
7. "Ghetto Defendant" - 6:17
8. "Sean Flynn" - 7:30
9. "Car Jamming" - 3:53
10. "Inoculated City" - 4:32
11. "Death Is a Star" - 2:39
12. "Walk Evil Talk" (instrumental) - 7:37
13. "Atom Tan" - 2:45
14. "Overpowered by Funk" (demo) - 1:59
15. "Inoculated City" (unedited version) - 2:30
16. "First Night Back in London" - 2:56
17. "Cool Confusion" - 3:10
18. "Straight to Hell" (extended version) - 6:56

Personnel

The following people contributed to Combat Rock:^[13]

• Joe Strummer – guitars, lead vocals
• Mick Jones – guitars, vocals,
• Paul Simonon – bass, vocals
• Topper Headon – drums, piano and bass on "Rock the Casbah"

Guest musicians

• Allen Ginsberg – guest vocals on "Ghetto Defendant"
• Futura 2000 – guest vocals on "Overpowered by Funk"
• Ellen Foley – backing vocals on "Car Jamming"
• Joe Ely – backing vocals on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
• Tymon Dogg – piano on "Death Is a Star"
• Poly Mandell – keyboards on "Overpowered by Funk"
• Gary Barnacle – saxophone on track "Sean Flynn"

Production

• The Clash – producers
• Glyn Johns – chief engineer
• Joe Blaney – engineer
• Jerry Green – engineer
• Eddie Garcia – engineer
• Pennie Smith – photographer

Charts

Certifications

Notes

References