MTV Rockumentary Part 1

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Interviewer: Unknown and offscreen.
Kurt Loder: MTV journalist doing voice-over.

[Interview in pool hall]

Interviewer: So how long have you been playing together?

Mick Jones: About a year.

Joe Strummer: A year and one week.

Int: And how did you get together?

MJ:Well, I was in a group with him [points at Paul Simonon] and we met him [points at Joe Strummer] in the street. Right. And we said to him, "we don't like your group." Right. And he said, "I kind of agree with you." And by that it was a Saturday and on a Monday he had joined our group and we told him we had a group.

Int: And what happened then?

MJ: Then we started practicing.

Concert footage: "1977."

Kurt Loder: In the early 1970's just as it seemed as that American rock had settled for good into a deep corporate sleep, brash new bands like Television and the Ramones started disturbing the peace in downtown Manhattan. In 1975 their punk buzz spread to England where the Sex Pistols appeared and quickly inspired an army of dole-queue kids to pick up instruments of their own. Joe Strummer was already in a group called the 101'ers and Mick Jones and Paul Simonon were playing in a band called London SS. In the summer of 1976 they launched one of punk's most electrifying groups, opening for the mighty Sex Pistols whom they would long outlast as the Clash.

Paul Simonon: I couldn't play an instrument so Mick sort of taught me the rudiments. And from then on I sort of used a bit of my own ideas and which was like to get these stickers and write the notes and stick them of my bass on the neck so I could see where to put my fingers.

MJ: Part of the punk thing that didn't matter was that you couldn't play.

KL: The original Clash lineup included former London SS drummer Terri Chimes and guitarist Keith Levene who soon left the group. Another key member of the team was manager Bernard Rhodes who helped assemble and serve as a guardian of its raw and adventurous spirit.

JS: Bernie imagined the Clash and then he built it to fit the specifications of his vision. But the Clash wouldn't exist without Bernie's imagination.

Concert footage: "1977."

PS: We rehearsed at this place that our manager got, Bernie Rhodes. It was a place in Camdentown, and it was this used railway yard. We had this, well put it this way, he got the place and we had to spend our time painting it up.

MJ: This is how it came about that we had all this Jackson Pollock style paint all over our clothes. It was really a catchy thing about the Clash in the early days was we were that everything was covered in paint.

Concert footage: "Garageland."

KL: The group's new look definitely seemed to work now all they needed was a name.

MJ: One of the names that we had before we had the Clash was the Weak Heartdrops from the Big Youth song. Another I think was the Psychotic Negatives, but now neither of those worked.

PS: It really came to my head when I start reading the newspapers and a word that kept reoccurring was the word "clash", so I thought "the Clash, what about that," to the others. And they and Bernard they went for it.

Concert footage: "White Riot."

KL: By 1977, punk rock was all the rage in England and CBS Records signed the Clash for a reported $200,000, immediately raising cries of sellout from some punks. Despite the big bucks though, the band recorded its debut album in a very punk-like rush.

Concert footage: "White Riot."

MJ: We did our first record really quickly after that. We were in the sutdio. We had a single first, our first single: "White Riot." And we did the record in like three weekends at CBS studios.

PS: We did a tour with the Sex Pistols but the thing is we only did about three or four of them because it was supposed to be like thirty dates but the problem was we got banned from playing a lot of places. So we were on this coach just driving all over England being told that you can't play here.

MJ: In those days they used to, the religious group of the town used to come out and sing hymns and stuff outside the venue if you were allowed to have it on, especially on the Anarchy tour.

Concert footage: "I'm So Bored With The USA."

MJ: We had "I'm So Bored With You" and Joe misheard apparently, he misheard, he heard it as "I'm So Bored With The USA" and said, "oh OK, that's good. I can work with that." But that song was always misconstrued because it was not about being bored with America. It was about being bored with the Americanization of the UK in Europe. That's what we were saying. It was always misconstrued when ever we came and played in the States. They would say, "what do you mean, 'I'm so bored with the USA.'" But it wasn't meant to be that.

PS: Bernie [encouraged us to sing] about things that affected us really. We had a lot of discussions in the early days, the four of us and with our manager Bernie. Bernie sort of made the point of saying that we should write about things that affect you.

KL: Convinced that The Clash album was too raw for America CBS passed on a US release. And then watched it become a huge smash as an import fueled by its explosive sound and songwriting.

JS: Well I would sit all weekend in a kitchen with a typewriter I would stay at it all day and all night and no one would come 'round. The phone was hidden in a drawer with three pillows tied around it with ropes so you couldn't hear it. I emerged with one piece of paper and felt this thing was magical. I said give it to Jonesy. OK. And two or three days later it would sing. I mean, the words were no longer a strange poem. You know, it had a tune, [sings] "Midnight." it sang.

Concert footage: "White Man In Hammersmith Palais."

KL: By this point drummer Terri Chimes had left, but the Clash and the whole punk point of view were unstoppable. British authorities looked at punk and saw violence, but the Clash saw only dancing fans.

PS: Terri Chimes, our drummer at that time, left the group because a lot of people used to throw bottles and stuff at us when we played because they didn't like punk.

Concert footage: "Janie Jones."

MJ: We just were concerned about the welfare of our fans. That was probably because we were fans ourselves.

Concert footage: "Janie Jones."

MJ: Let them go! They're fuckin' dancing. They're dancing, not fighting! Let them go! Leave them alone.

JS: Come on, knock it off. We still got another song to do yet.

JS: And they were saying you can't hear the words and the words are really great you know, really great. And you can't hear them. Bet you think that's ironic.

Video footage: "Tommy Gun."

PS: With the success of our first record we could have said we've hit it and said let's stick to this formula and do that for the rest of our lives, but we were constantly changing ourselves and trying to push forward.

Video footage: "Tommy Gun."

KL: True punks at heart, the Clash refused to be slaves to punk fashion. They recorded their second album with a big name American producer Sandy Perlman, best known for his work with Blue Oyster Cult. And there was another new element in the mix too, a powerful drummer named Nicky "Topper" Headon.

JS: Topper could handle anything and his jazz, his jazz licks were right in. There's an old rock 'n' roll saying. I don't know how true it is but it says: a group is only as good as their drummer or a group can only be as good as the drummer. And in this case it was true because we didn't have anything holding us back.

KL: The Clash took part in a film project, Rude Boy and slammed out an EP called The Cost Of Living, both featured the band's resounding cover of the 1966 Bobby Fuller Four hit "I Fought The Law."

Concert Footage: "I Fought The Law."

MJ: The first time we came to America it was just John [Joe Strummer] and myself first and we were in the studio in San Francisco and it was on the jukebox, "I Fought The Law" with a lot of stuff. You know, we just played music we liked by other people and stuff.

Concert Footage: "I Fought The Law."