The Clash - The Clash Hits Back

Written by GE 138.

Was I high when I bought this? Probably, but that's got nothing to do with anything. I totally fell for this bullshit 'Greatest Hits' collection, bought it as soon as it came out, because I thought this was going to be another live album, like From Here To Eternity: Live was, because when I pre-ordered it I read the description of the upcoming release as: "This record is based on Joe’s set list from The Casbah Club UK Tour, Brixton Fairdeal, 10th July 1982." Again, I was obviously incapacitated, and I was hugely disappointed that this wasn't a live album. I have the audience recording of this gig, which isn't the best quality, but I thought they had found a newer, cleaner source for the gig recording, and that they cleaned it up and released it, but this is nothing more than the flogging of a very dead and very rotting horse corpse. There are dozens of Clash sets professionally recorded over the years which are beyond amazing - the 02/09/1980 Paris gig, 06/09/1981 NYC gig and 12/27/1979 London gig immediately come to mind, and I can only hope I live long enough to finally see them get polished up and sonically enhanced and put out there for everyone to enjoy. Why don't they release those recordings instead of this bullshit compilation masquerading as a live album? I dunno. It's pretty cheaply priced, and comes with a cool little 16 page booklet with a write up of the bands history, written by Pat Gilbert, who wrote the incredible book Passion Is A Fashion: The Real Story Of The Clash, so I guess if you didn't shell out the big bucks for the Sound System box set, then this is a good way to hear all 32 of these classic Clash songs remixed and remastered, and believe me, you'll definitely want to hear that, because they did a good job with it, but other than that? Fuck this release. Turning Rebellion into Money indeed!

Available everywhere and anywhere crass commercialism is perpetrated, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Target, and brought to you by Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited.

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