The Clash London Calling The Legacy Edition

The Clash is appropriately noted as one of the most important bands of our generation. This is an understatement given the impact that they have had on future bands not to mention the impact on their great legion of fans, this writer included. The Clash developed a strong political stance and served it in brilliant shades of jazz, blues, rock, reggae, and other musical styles. It was palatable and it worked effortlessly. In short, the engine of The Clash fueled by intensity and genuiness had become a voice of the disenfranchised and an icon of true rock 'n roll.

When London Calling, the band's third studio release, came out, they had created a monumental change from their previous efforts. Comparing songs like "Tommy Gun" from their Give 'Em Enough Rope and "White Riot" from their first issue to stronger tracks like "London Calling" and "Lost in the Supermarket", even the hidden track, "Train in Vain" reveals an emerging musically creative side with still uncompromising ideals. It's everything you wanted in a maturing rock band. The Clash was it. They represented the new era.

The Clash was the only legitimate bridge between 70s rock and 80s rock providing a glimmer of hope for transition-frightened rock fans, myself included. When music crossed over into the uncharted lands of the 80s, many bands from the latter half of the 70s championed the period leading up to 1985, after which the landscape changed dramatically, a perspective better left for another time. However, The Clash entered into hallowed ground with the issuance of London Calling. Regarded as important, London Calling still carries the essence of the age within its tracks.

This issue of London Calling is referred to as the 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition (what?! 25 years?!) because of the age of the landmark album and the 25-year riddle of the band's lost "Vanilla Tapes". The Vanilla Tapes is a collection of rough recordings of what would eventually become London Calling. However, due to a mishap regarding the tapes and their loss in a subway train by a tired roadie, the expected to be delivered tapes were seemingly forever lost. As luck would have it Mick Jones found a copy of the master tapes in a box during a recent move. Their resurfacing brings to the world a close look at the embryonic stages of what would become London Calling as well as the bonus of four completely unknown Clash songs.

The 21-track 2nd disc is labelled the "Vanilla Tapes", a reference to the location - Vanilla Studios. They were cut during May and June of 1979, weeks before the official sessions with the album's producer, Guy Stevens. The collection is a set of demos and rehearsal versions of the familiar songs of London Calling , one a cover of a Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me" and another the instrumental workings of what would become "The Right Profile" in "Up-toon." The songs are rough and many of them very basic. "London Calling" is slowed with the lyrics being sung less intensely than they are on the album version. But you'll love what is on these tapes. They reveal a process and that's what is beautiful about these editions. I want more of them. I'd be happy to repurchase my collection if I got peeks into their making such as this set offers.

This re-approach of London Calling yields a spectacular set that includes not only the original album and the Vanilla Tapes but also a 3rd disc, a DVD that contains The Testament, a 45-minute documentary on the making of London Calling that includes studio and live footage, 16 minutes of B/W studio footage filmed during the making of the album, a "London Calling" video clip, a "Train in Vain" video clip, and a "Clampdown" video clip. (Note: this DVD was unavailable for review due to final touches still being made.)

This 2004 re-issue of London Calling contains the exact same remastered material (which sounds great) as previously issued on January of 2000. But that is not the scope of this release. This special edition release is a great combined collector's set bringing together the legendary components mentioned above intended to provide lovers of The Clash with a complete and historical look at the sessions. The Legacy Edition gives a gander at the skeletal makeup of the sessions, the finished product and video documentation. You can consider this release a gift from Clash-mates, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, who hand-picked the tunes from the Vanilla Tapes for inclusion into this set. It's all fitted together in a lavish multi-panel fold out digipak with a mylar slipcase.

There's not much that can still send a shiver down my spine after so many years. London Calling can still do that. And it does a righteous job of it.

Commemorative? Hell no! It's bloody essential.