It’s the only Clash album not to feature Jones and, boy, is he missed. Here then are there their albums, rated from worst to life-changing first. Musically and lyrically, The Clash refused to be “little Englanders”, embracing a world beyond their roots, drawing on rock’n’roll, reggae, calypso, jazz, folk, blues, soul, and sometimes bolting them together (or taking them apart) with a genre-busting experimentalism that they rarely get any credit for. It was about us, about you, about the big wide world that waited for you. Their music wasn’t about how deep they were or how troubled, how wasted they were on drugs or the pressures of fame. Most rock’n’roll is solipsistic and inwards-looking – but from London Calling onwards, The Clash looked outwards. Because while they were in love with the rock’n’roll woah – and made music for people with Ford Cortinas and dead-end jobs – London Calling, Sandinista! and Combat Rock are albums for grown-ups, albums you take with you after the anger subsides, when you start being less self-obsessed and begin to look out into the world.
