2000 Great Songs #1484: This Is England

In the pantheon of bad albums by great artists, The Clash's 1985 swan song Cut The Crap rises to the top. It's arguably a Clash album in name only, Joe Strummer pulling together a new supporting cast after Mick Jones bails to form Big Audio Dynamite (releasing a stellar debut that makes the simultaneously-issued Crap all the more depressing by comparison). Which isn't to say there aren't still a couple redeemable songs that one could cull for an imaginary final Clash album, or that the album couldn't be slightly salvaged if re-created stripped of the lousy production and the the endless faux-anthem football-cheer choruses.

The one legitimately great song on the record (and the only one acknowledged by band archivists as a Clash song for compilation purposes) is "This Is England." And, sure, it's still bogged down by the sloggy production and amateurish drum machine and football-cheer chorus like the rest of the LP. And, ok, maybe I enjoy it in part because, coming from one of my all time favorite bands, responsible for my favorite album of all time, I was relieved just to find a few minutes of good-enough music on a last gasp of a record bearing their name.

Nonetheless... I do think it's a solid song, and I've never hesitated to include it on Clash mixes.

Live audio:

"Rebooted" re-creation:

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