Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling - Hardcover

Gray, Marcus

4.17

149 ratings by Goodreads

9780224085649: Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224085646 ISBN 13: 9780224085649

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2009

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Twenty-eight years after its original release, The Clash's London Calling was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a 'recording of lasting qualitative or historical significance'. It has topped polls for the best album of the seventies (and of the eighties). It regularly makes the top five in Best of British album polls. And it has placed, on average, in the mid twenties in the Greatest Albums of All Time polls for the last twenty-something years.

No mean feat when artists the stature of The Beatles and Bob Dylan have many of the top slots, and so many other ground-shaking, heart-breaking and mind-expanding albums fail to make the lists at all.

'Iconic' is a much abused word, but the cover of London Calling has a genuine right to claim it: Q voted Pennie Smith's cover the best rock'n'roll photograph of all time in 2002, and the instantly recognisable image of Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar has inspired countless imitators (including Mickey Mouse).

Joe Strummer once remarked that The Clash didn't made it big it in the traditional way, by shipping multi-platinum, but rather 'in the culture'. London Calling's songs are rich in lyrical and musical allusion, and since the album's release, that wealth has trickled back down into our everyday lives, in ways both obvious and subtle.

The Beatles had their lumps felt in Revolution in the Head, and Bob Dylan had his hinterland explored in Invisible Republic. Now The Clash's finest hour and five minutes gets a book telling when, how and where it was made, detailing the stories behind its songs, placing the album in contexts personal, musical and socio-political, noting its impact upon release, and considering the ripple effects since, both in The Clash members' own careers and 'in the culture'.

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Review:

rev'd Andrew Perry: `There are amazing stories.' --MOjo

rev'd Simon Goddard: 4 * `mind-boggling meticulous analysis of the Westway-Wonders' finest hour... this endless feast of a book.'
--Q Magazine

`Gray's book is a triumph in that his obsessive detail enhances and illuminates a classic record' --The Herald

"...well written and thoroughly researched...This seems to be the kind of celebratory chronicling that [lead singer Joe Strummer himself]...might have welcomed."
--The Times Literary Supplement

Book Description:

One of the greatest rock and roll records of all time, and one of the greatest bands, finally get the book they deserve

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