I think the magic realism of the Pistols trumps the social realism of The Clash every time.
Not that I listen to them very often; hardly ever, in fact. But their music is like a place you go in your head that captures a whole attitude, a whole way of being.
It's funny how I somehow absorbed this spirit before I heard any of the music. It was banned from the radio, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was banned from WH Smith in Woking too (not that I had enough money to buy singles when I was eleven). Nevertheless you could imagine the spirit of the music simply by projecting from its reflection in outraged responses. I back-combed my hair, and went round saying "punk rock". No one was outraged, or even amused.
Holidays in the Sun was the first song I heard on the Sunday evening Top 20 countdown, and I recorded it on my £8 (a lot of money in those days) tape recorder. I had no idea what the marching sounds signified, and I had no idea what Belsen was.
Eight years later I adopted Anarchy in the UK as something of an anthem, but in a drunken singalong Lou could remember the words much better than I could.
I bought this CD soon after it came out, tempted by the limited edition live CD, which, inevitably, is barely above bootleg quality and notable mainly for how genuinely pissed off Johnny sounds with the audience.
 MusicBrainz entry for this albumdisc 2 |
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