In the 1930's, the early days of radio, the BBC Home Service would open its broadcasts by announcing "This is London calling" across the mostly empty airwaves of the times. Then come the 1940's, when London was being bombed to rubble during the blitz but ALWAYS remaining functional in spite of the Luftwaffe's efforts, the phrase "London calling", delivered with calm unhurried measure, carried an extra resonance and defiance.

The song is incredibly good, the vocals are killer, and the bassline is a masterpiece in itself.

A couple years ago I left my phone in a bin at a TSA checkpoint in Seattle.  When the TSA officer caught up to me I was on a bench putting my shoes back on.  He walked up to me with my phone to his ear and said, "excuse me sir, it's London Calling". 🤘🏽😂  Best part of my trip!

"London Calling" was the standard BBC World Service call sign for many years. This was several years before the Thames Barrier was built to prevent the river flooding the city.

It sums up my Gen-X feeling of "whatever" while growing up and living under constant threat of nuclear war.

What made the Clash stand out was the pop sensibility hidden inside the furious punk energy. Their songs often stood out from their peers because you  could sing along! For a time, it was a perfect marriage of Joe Strummer's punk energy and Mick Jones' pop feel.

Ren paid homage at the beginning of Tarantula.
The Clash were my favourite band in the punk era, though they weren't only punk.
This song was used, along with Town Called Malice by The Jam, in one of my favourite films, Billy Elliot. They highlight the police brutality to the striking miners in the 80s. Very powerful.

As a Fulham fan this is one of our anthems. Our ground is on the banks of the Thames, we 'live by the river'.

simply put London Calling is not only great and a classic it is one of, if not the best albums of the 70's . i bought it on import because the US release was months away, best call i've ever made on buying imported LP's. This goes toe-to-toe with "Rumours", "Little Queen", "Highway To Hell",  "Deja Vu", and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".

The phrase "Phony Beatlemania" is partly because there was a popular musical play going on called Beatlemania with actors/singers recreating beatles concerts. Late 70s was seeing a lot of Beatles reminiscing with the movie "Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band", "Beatlemania" and Beatle record reissues. It was like the industry would rather rehash the Beatles than move on to the new music being generated by the youth.

According to Mick Jones of the Clash: "The line about phony Beatlemania biting the dust was aimed at all the touristy sound-alike rock bands in London in the late '70s. We were fans of The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks"—

The Clash is where punk music and attitude met musicality. Arguably the biggest band in the world in it's time.

By the time London Calling came out, hard to still describe The Clash as a pure punk band as musically they were far more sophisticated than their punk peers

If you want to see how the world hasn't changed in decades, check out The Clash "Know Your Rights".

Like Hip Hop, Punk was an unground scene.  The Sex Pistols put punk on the map but they came so hard and so raw, and they burned out so quickly they didn't elevate the genre.

The Clash is the band that brought punk to the mainstream.  Those who would accuse them of selling out should dig into their early years.  They had a sound that had the energy of the pistols but as a band they were simply better musicians.

They stayed true to their sound and the world caught up.

A truly iconic band

The Clash were revolutionaries in every sense of the word. Political as hell, they shed typical punk sounds rapidly after their first record and drew in influences from all over. Originals in so many ways. You are not wrong about how they affected a generation. Joe Strummer got me thinking as a young guy.

"The only band that matters"

The truth was in the newspapers back in 179 and 1980. The Clash Strummer/Jones were already stated to be the best songwriting team since Lennon/McCartney of the Beatles. So this is Joe Strummer in this song that they are not the next Beatles. Because already the Clash had their mania similar to the Beatles.

The track is an apocalyptic state-of-the-world anthem covering multiple fears of the late 1970s, including climate anxieties, economic struggles, and police brutality... The "nuclear error" line was directly inspired by the March 1979 partial meltdown accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. - AI summary

Ren's influence in Tarantula 🔥🔥❤️✌️