The Clash: Cut the Crap

The Clash: Cut the Crap

1985

Epic Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Dictator  2. Dirty Punk  3. We Are the Clash  4. Are You Red..Y  5. Cool Under Heat  6. Movers and Shakers  7. This is England  8. Three Card Trick  9. Play to Win  10. Fingerpoppin  11. North and South  12. Life Is Wild  13. Do It Now


To this day I'll never understand why someone would make a crappy album and then call it "Cut the Crap." You're just asking for it...But I hate to be the 10 billionth person to heap abuse on "Cut the Crap" so I'm only going to say positive things about it...Here goes...

1. It's really innovative that "Dictator" sound like 10 songs playing at once! I think I hear a punk song buried in there somewhere, but there's a radio playing over the entire thing so it's hard to tell...And oh, yea,  ff you're a big fan of  fake synth horn "BRAAPS" and fake synth pan flute "TOONKS" there's a lot of 'em and they're mixed 10 times louder than any other instrument or vocals, so it has that going for it...



2.  Everybody mentions this, but "This is England" is a truly great song that's absolutely worthy of the band name..No amount of boxy drum machines or poorly mixed synths can mute its melancholy glory...

3. You wouldn't know it from the album, but if you take out the drum machines, obnoxious synths and even more obnoxious gang chants, there's some good songs in here...If you don't beleive me look up the live versions or demos from this timeframe...

Listen to "The Pouring Rain"...

or this particularly excellent live take of "North and South"...

...and who would have thought that "We Are the Clash" wasn't their worst song? This live version rules! I'd always read Joe's claims that "Cut the Crap" was supposed to be some return to punk form, but that always confused me when I listened to the actual end product... Listening to the live take,  I finally know what he's talking about!

This is what "Dictator" sounds like when 10 other songs aren't playing over it...

I could sit here and post videos all day, but I think I've made my point..."Cut the Crap" should have only been a minor disappointment and not a disaster in the same league as Velvet Underground's "Squeeze"...

 

It's too bad it's been so maligned...I honestly think if someone sat down with these master tapes, stripped things down, laid some real drums over it, and give the thing a professional mix, it'd probably finally find an audience,...So howzabout it? Something along the lines of "Let it Be...Naked."

Yea! I think it's a fine idea! "Cut the Crap...Naked!" Boy, that sounds bad...But it's a fine idear! Let's restore Joe's legacy!Here's "This is England." Enjoy...