The Clash – Give’em Enough Rope

12Nov11

It surprises me how often this album gets overlooked, even by some Clash fans. Sure it’s more overproduced than their debut album and the song writing isn’t as consistent as say London Calling, but it was really foreshadowing what would be coming next.

The pure 1977 punk sound, ex. Sex Pistols, debut Clash album, was already evolving by the end of that year. The Sex Pistols were pretty much finished by ’78 and bands like the Talking Heads and Devo were taking punk music and molding it into something else. The Clash was doing the same thing and one sees it happening on Give’em Enough Rope.

Songs like “Safe European Home”, “Tommy Gun” and “English Civil War” still has that raw energy of their debut album, but the songwriting has definitely matured. And a song like “Stay Free” shows how Mick Jones was coming into his own with his songwriting style that would show up on London Calling.

I have always seen Give’em Enough Rope as the stepping stone that marked the The Clash from being only a punk band to a killer rock and roll band with their punk attitude still anchoring their sound and songwriting.

Fun factoid: While Give’em Enough Rope was the second Clash album, it was the first Clash album released in the U.S.