The three artists that shaped The Clash
Rock music would never be the same once The Clash crashlanded with their debut album. Although punk had started with artists like the Ramones and Sex Pistols going back to essentials, hearing Joe Strummer and Mick Jones going back and forth on songs that were informed by the politics of the time felt like watching the rock and roll revolution taking place on record. Although The Clash had phenomenal songs at their disposal, they were nothing without the other musical revolutionaries that came before them.
When Strummer was first coming up, he was initially shaped by the sounds of Bo Diddley. Being one of the progenitors of rock’s foundation, Diddley’s trademark rhythmic accents would become a style of music all on its own, influencing artists as varied as punks, singer-songwriters, and even hair metal bands.
Discussing how Diddley shaped him, Strummer said that it was more about the message in Diddley’s music than the precision of the notes, saying, “It’s an inspiration because I’m not the world’s greatest fretman either… people can get caught thinking it’s all about technique when it’s not really about technique all, it’s about something even more exciting and unidentifiable.”
Then again, The Clash were more than just one style of rock music. Across their debut and beyond, the band toyed with every piece of their musical framework, which included pieces of reggae bubbling up from Jamaica. Outside of their core ethos, Lee Scratch Perry was also a significant turning point for the group, even performing a version of ‘Police and Thieves’ on their debut album.
While many may have seen the gesture as cultural appropriation, that was never what The Clash intended. Since most of their upbringing revolved around being at the bottom of the societal food chain, Strummer saw Perry’s music as another way to rebel, using the foundation of his songs to make his form of protest music like ‘White Riot’.
As the band carried on into the 1980s, they were undergoing yet another change when making albums like Sandinista. Being a triple album experience, the record featured some of the most varied instrumentation on a Clash project, including more than a few moments that veered towards hip-hop.
Looking back on their influences, the band were inspired to take on the sounds of hip-hop thanks to artists like Grandmaster Flash, who was just arriving on the scene with tracks like ‘The Message’. Upon hearing them for the first time, Strummer said that his entire musical perception was changed, explaining, “When we came to the U.S., Mick stumbled upon a music shop in Brooklyn that carried the music of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, the Sugar Hill Gang… these groups were radically changing music, and they changed everything for us.”
Although each artist had radically different styles, the way The Clash incorporated their music into their compositions had more to do with what they stood for. While Bo Diddley, Grandmaster Flash, and Lee Scratch Perry may have sounded disparate, their need to make music based on their view of the world resonated with Strummer and Jones, each looking to make their own take on the world through their music.
That influence wouldn’t stop after The Clash, either, with Jones incorporating even more beat-centric to his solo outfit Big Audio Dynamite. Even though The Clash has the pedigree of a punk rock band, ‘The Only Band That Matters’ had much more on their mind than a fistful of power chords.
