“#1 in the USA”: The Clash on the best American band
Like many people in the modern age, The Clash had a complicated relationship with the United States. Of course, without the pioneering influence of American artists like Patti Smith, The Stooges, and The New York Dolls, the style of punk rock that first inspired The Clash would have never happened. Throughout their time together, The Clash regularly attacked elements of American politics and culture while simultaneously celebrating its cultural exports and the importance of artists like the MC5.
One of The Clash’s earliest comments on their cousins over the Atlantic came on the band’s debut album, with the song ‘I’m So Bored of the U.S.A’. As the title suggests, the song takes a less than favourable view of the nation, with a particular emphasis on how US culture was coming to dominate the high streets, cinemas, and restaurants of the band’s stomping ground in London. Nevertheless, the group were always keen to espouse the joys of their American influences, which only seemed to increase in prevalence as their discography continued.
Particularly after the band visited the US in 1979, returning in the early 1980s to soak up the early moments of hip-hop and graffiti culture, America became a continued source of inspiration and importance for the group. On those tours, ‘I’m So Bored of the U.S.A.’ became an ironic end-of-set anthem for audiences, because it was clear that Joe Strummer and the band were endlessly indebted to US audiences.
For the most part, though, the American artists who inspired The Clash had come years before their arrival in the States—figures like Bo Diddley, for instance. Prior to the advent of hip-hop, there did not seem to be many American acts that The Clash genuinely enjoyed, aside from the proto-punk icons that were The MC5. From their formation in 1963, MC5 pioneered an inventive garage rock sound and offered an abrasive alternative to the self-absorbent hippie age.
A notable highlight within the sound of The MC5 was the guitar stylings of Wayne Kramer, who paved the way for virtually all future punk and alternative rock guitarists. Strummer was particularly influenced by the proto-punk guitarist, so much so that he name-dropped Kramer in his early composition ‘Jail Guitar Doors’. Originally written for Strummer’s band The 101ers, the track eventually made it to the tracklisting of The Clash’s eponymous debut album and eventually made it onto the radar of Kramer himself.
Following the demise in relevance of The MC5, Wayne Kramer took to selling drugs on the street, eventually landing him a prison sentence in 1975 for dealing cocaine, which prevented him from witnessing the rise of punk. “When I got back from prison,” Kramer later recalled, “just after I got home, The Clash came to Detroit. I went over to meet them because one of my friends told me that they had written a song about me.”
The song itself is not necessarily about Kramer, though it does namedrop the guitarist in the lyrics, “Let me tell you ’bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine, a little more every day,” which reflect the guitarist’s post-MC5 struggles with the law. “So, I went backstage and said hello to Mick Jones and Joe Strummer,” the guitarist continued, “And they gave me a copy of a single, and they had written, ‘To Wayne Kramer, #1 in the USA.’ I was very proud of that.”
The accolade of being the number one artist in America, at least according to The Clash, is a fairly impressive one to hold on to, but one which Wayne Kramer was certainly deserving of. You only need to look at his early performances with The MC5 on tracks like ‘Kick Out The Jams’ to realise his colossal importance in the development of the punk and alternative rock scene, which The Clash dominated.
