16. The Clash, "London Calling"
After yesterday's, um, unpleasantness , it is so nice to get an album like this, an album I love completely that also happens to be one of the Greatest Albums Ever Recorded, Slam-Dunk edition. The opening chords to the first track, the title song, sound like an alarm, a staccato siren, and the song is an alarm, a warning about the myriad fears of the Cold War era, when disaster always seemed a day or so away: The ice age is coming, the sun's zoomin' in Engines stop running, the wheat is growin' thin A nuclear error, but I have no fear Cause London is drowning, I, I live by the river The alarmlike quality of the song is accented by Topper Headon's martial drums, pounding out a march that matches Joe Strummer's guitar. Strummer's voice is typically hoarse and strained, and that quality lends itself to the time-is-running out anxiousness of the song. Strummer's wolf howls and yelps only add to the feeling of doom. I guess this was called "punk,...

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