The fact that rock bands like The Clash , with their "Magnificent Dance" track got heavy rotation at Paradise Garage and Loft shows the openness of the late seventies black American music scene.
Just four years after Combat Rock, with "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go" still firmly ensconced in the radio consciousness of the Western World, Greil Marcus went Hebdige one better. His book Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century used the punk events between 1976 and 1979 as the touchstone for his ambitious title. Lipstick Traces places the full weight of the history of the twentieth century intellectual avant-garde squarely on the shoulders of punk. For Hebdige, punk was emblematic of particular sociocultural moment in history; for Marcus, punk was emblematic of the nature of twentieth-century history itself. All of this scholarship romanticizes the idea of punk as a kind of living history that is not only historically interesting but necessary to subvert, from within, what is constructed as a creeping fascism of government in league with consumer culture. -- Greg Wahl in http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue02/features/roots1.htm
SHOPPING:
The Clash - London Calling [Amazon US] By the time 1979 rolled around, the Clash were no longer, strictly-speaking, a punk group. They had a lot more to offer, fusing their punk style with ska, reggae, blues, traditional rock, pop. From the driving bass opening to the title track to the untitled pop love song, "Train in Vain", this is as flawless an album as they get.
Studio 54, the Underground Classics - Kenny Carpenter [Amazon US]
1. 3 million synths - Jankel, Chas
2. Magnificent dance - Clash
3. I'll do anything for you - Morgan, Denroy
4. Love sensation - Holloway, Loleatta
5. Can't fake the feeling - Hunt, Geraldine
6. You're the one for me - D-Train
7. Let's go dancin' - Sparque
8. Take a chance - Pleasure
9. I'm in love - King, Evelyn 'Champagne'
10. Paradise - Change
11. Haven't been funked enough - Extras
12. Candidate for love - Monk, T.S.
13. Mysteries of the world - MFSB
14. Can't keep holding on - Second Image This is the only disco compilation with The Clash's Paradise Garage and Loft Classic "Magnificent Dance" on. Not a very good comp I should say, except for Loleatta, Geraldine Hunt, Extras and MFSB.