Combat Rock

I do have a couple other ones that kind of surprised me that I just want to mention because I've been kind of eh on the class.

It wasn't until I listened to Combat Rock, which came out in 82, that it hit me where I really, really heard Rancid.

I know that john brought up like in the 1970s he goes oh yeah you know that that that's like one of the easiest ones you know like like the classic ranted are just like the same band basically um but like but uh combat rock by the by the class like and i'm like okay well maybe this is gonna be my gateway into really getting into the class i think you know i'm not always like the biggest i'm big on a lot of like punk rock like singles and i was like one or two songs But I have a tough time with the albums.

I don't know why.

It's just the way that I'm wired, I guess.

But here's the reality that some people get and some don't.

Uh, first track on The Clash's fabulous Combat Rock album back in the day, love The Clash.

Same album with "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go." But it's, it's called "Know Your Rights," and it's kind of a sarcastic expression of what your rights are supposed to be and how they are in the real world, and it's some good punk indignation.

But the one, one of them is you have the right to food money if you don't mind a little investigation humiliation.

So like Pico Iyer, who's like a travel writer and philosophy writer, he wrote an amazing essay about when his house burned down in Southern California about a Van Morrison song.

And Amanda Petrusich, who's the New Yorker's music critic, wrote an amazing essay about a Clash album, Combat Rock, when she was a kid and what that...

So that was kind of the writing that I really aspired to, was to be able to write like that.

So that, I took a lot from those journals.

So I liked the verse, I didn't like the chorus, not great.

this one had very strong clash vibes like um uh combat rock like the the latter days of the clash with that that big reggae upswing kind of thing but it's also mixed with a lot of classic rock elements the clangy piano the the cool twiddles on the guitar this is probably my favorite song on the record yeah jefferson true blood no because there was one there were a couple episodes about king of the bayou

Okay, King of the Bayou is track two.

It starts with some acoustic strumming with the band backing it.

I mean, this could have been a 7-inch, and it would still be more enjoyable.

I mean, we had to sit through so much on this one just for the few pieces of gold, and it is not worth it.

I will just listen to Combat Rock and The Clash self-titled and never think about this one again.

I do kind of want to buy the Yugoslavian edition just because I don't have a Yugoslavian pressing of anything.

And then after that, there's this one.

And after this, I would probably rank Combat Rock, their last album with the classic lineup.

And then I would p- I would say probably their least intere- like, their worst album from the classic era would be their second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope.

Not that it's bad, but because that one's...