My Top 1000 Songs #320: Rush

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

After four highly creative, varied, and seriously underrated albums, Mick Jones disbanded his post-Clash outfit Big Audio Dynamite and formed a new combo, the name slightly altered to BAD II (and, later, simply Big Audio). I'm not nearly as fond of the work from these iterations of the band, but there were a few highlights here and there, most notably "Rush," from 1991's The Globe. It's probably the most gleefully fun, unabashedly lightweight track from the various BADs, a two-chord romp over a scratchy drum loop. The samples are a riot (incorporating The Who's instantly recognizable "Baba O'Riley" keyboard hook, as well as an oddball spoken-word interlude in the middle), and it's just a big ol' bag o' fun, Mick sounding like he's having a blast. In a world of absolutely essential, often revolutionary Clash music, not to mention plenty of fascinating and groundbreaking BAD tunes, there's something to be said for something that aims to be little more than party mixtape fodder.

Live 1992: