‘Train In Vain’: the song that helped The Clash break America
Despite being ‘so bored with the USA’ in 1977, the history of The Clash is indefinitely tied to the United States. From their infamous riot in New York to the hip-hop influence that inspired guitarist Mick Jones to form Big Audio Dynamite, the lineage of the only band that matters owes a great deal to the cultural landscape of America. That timeline of Americanism can be traced back to ‘Train In Vain’, the song that introduced the London punks to a US audience.
The Clash had first ventured over the Atlantic in the early part of 1979, following the release of 1978’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope. Despite playing alongside the likes of rock ‘n’ roll progenitor Bo Diddley, the tour was not a great success. The band themselves faced some adversity while travelling around the small venues of rural America, with audiences clearly not ready for four lads from London, bedecked in bondage trousers and homemade shirts, to shout at them through a microphone.
While recording arguably their finest work, 1979’s London Calling, the group took a stab at the Mick Jones-penned track ‘Train in Vain (Stand By Me)’. Never intended to be released on the final cut of the record, Jones’ track was meant to go out as a promotional flexi-disc with copies of the New Musical Express. After the NME’s flexi-disc fell through, the ever-resourceful Clash hastily stitched the song to the end of London Calling, though it was not listed in the original track listing.
Thematically, the song is a rare romantic track from The Clash, who usually imbued their songs with strong political messaging and rallying cries for unity. Inspired by Jones’ tumultuous relationship with The Slits guitarist Viv Albertine, the track sees the guitarist take on a refreshing vulnerability. The song’s main lyric, “you didn’t stand by me”, is a direct response to The Slits’ track ‘Typical Girls’, which includes the Albertine-written lyric, “typical girls stand by their man”, in reference to the Tammy Wynette classic.
One of the band’s finest efforts, the song provided Strummer and the lads with their first hit in the USA. Reaching the dizzying heights of 23 in the Billboard Top 100, ‘Train In Vain’ helped to establish the group within the United States.
The success is fairly unsurprising given that the track is likely The Clash’s most commercial effort, at least up until that point in their career. Nevertheless, the song helped to boost the success of London Calling in general, with the album reaching 27 in the US album charts in 1980.
Following the success of ‘Train In Vain’, The Clash went on to have two further chart hits in America. Taken from Combat Rock, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ reached 45 in the charts, though it found something of a resurgence, at least in the UK, after being used in an advert for Levi’s in 1991. The band’s biggest hit in the US, by far, was the seminal 1982 effort ‘Rock the Casbah’, a rare Topper Headon-penned track.
