London SS tapes does exist

Mick Jones, Carbon/Silicon, BAD and cetera.
Rat Patrol
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 15431
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 9:23pm
Location: A flat burning junkheap for twenty square miles

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Rat Patrol »

Jimmy Jazz wrote:Is it definite that "Ooh Baby Ooh" is actually The Clash? I always thought it might have been a London SS, or some kind of Mick Jones demo that got labeled as The Clash on bootlegs just because they re-used the music for Gates Of The West.
It was a London SS tune recycled for rehearsals in '76 and maybe a couple of the very first live shows until they got enough new material written. Lyrics, at least. I sort of doubt Mick was writing arrangements that complex when he was 21.

Jimmy Jazz
User avatar
Graffiti Bandit Pioneer
Posts: 1552
Joined: 16 Jun 2008, 6:40pm

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Jimmy Jazz »

Rat Patrol wrote:
Jimmy Jazz wrote:Is it definite that "Ooh Baby Ooh" is actually The Clash? I always thought it might have been a London SS, or some kind of Mick Jones demo that got labeled as The Clash on bootlegs just because they re-used the music for Gates Of The West.
It was a London SS tune recycled for rehearsals in '76 and maybe a couple of the very first live shows until they got enough new material written. Lyrics, at least. I sort of doubt Mick was writing arrangements that complex when he was 21.
But is that recording we have of it, that's usually listed as a GEER outtake, really The Clash or could that be a London SS demo?

TeddyB Not Logged In
User avatar
Graffiti Bandit Pioneer
Posts: 2013
Joined: 06 Feb 2009, 8:42pm

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by TeddyB Not Logged In »

GEER. or at least Basing Street '78. Same track later overdubbed for Gates of the West.

x3em
User avatar
Bang Ice Geezer
Posts: 158
Joined: 19 Jun 2008, 7:04pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by x3em »

Just listened to it again, and it does sound kind of glam~ish. Musically it could certainly have been a dolls track. Holy crap if they sounded even remotely that good.

Heston
User avatar
God of Thunder...and Rock 'n Roll
Posts: 38356
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: North of Watford Junction

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Heston »

Jimmy Jazz wrote:Is it definite that "Ooh Baby Ooh" is actually The Clash? I always thought it might have been a London SS, or some kind of Mick Jones demo that got labeled as The Clash on bootlegs just because they re-used the music for Gates Of The West.

Seeing as Ooh Baby Ooh and GOTW have an identical backing track, it's pretty safe to say it's definitely a Clash performance.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

Rat Patrol
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 15431
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 9:23pm
Location: A flat burning junkheap for twenty square miles

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Rat Patrol »

Heston wrote:
Jimmy Jazz wrote:Is it definite that "Ooh Baby Ooh" is actually The Clash? I always thought it might have been a London SS, or some kind of Mick Jones demo that got labeled as The Clash on bootlegs just because they re-used the music for Gates Of The West.

Seeing as Ooh Baby Ooh and GOTW have an identical backing track, it's pretty safe to say it's definitely a Clash performance.
Yes. Nobody knows what the London SS version or the LeveneClash '76 version sounded like because there's no recordings in circulation, but the arrangement was very different from what Mick wrote in '78 that eventually became GOTW. Only thing held over from the circulating version are the lyrics.

Jimmy Jazz
User avatar
Graffiti Bandit Pioneer
Posts: 1552
Joined: 16 Jun 2008, 6:40pm

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Jimmy Jazz »

I never realized it was the same exact backing track, don't listen to it much. I was skeptical since it sounds so unlike something they would do at that time.

edit: listening to it now for the first time in years, and yes it's pretty obvious it's Tops on the drums, shoulda known.

x3em
User avatar
Bang Ice Geezer
Posts: 158
Joined: 19 Jun 2008, 7:04pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by x3em »

Jimmy Jazz wrote:listening to it now for the first time in years, and yes it's pretty obvious it's Tops on the drums, shoulda known.
I am not arguing that that recording was london SS, but Topper was their drummer as well for a brief period so in theory that would not prove anything ;)

Marky Dread
User avatar
Messiah of the Milk Bar
Posts: 58886
Joined: 17 Jun 2008, 11:26am

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Marky Dread »

x3em wrote:
Jimmy Jazz wrote:listening to it now for the first time in years, and yes it's pretty obvious it's Tops on the drums, shoulda known.
I am not arguing that that recording was london SS, but Topper was their drummer as well for a brief period so in theory that would not prove anything ;)
This is 100% a Clash track but I have to say it would be fabulous to here anything by The London SS.
Image

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

Seventeen
Corner Soul
Posts: 41
Joined: 25 Jun 2008, 10:27am

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Seventeen »

Tony once told me he as an audio tape so something does exist -- will it be shared, is something else entirely.

101Walterton
User avatar
The Best
Posts: 21973
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 5:36pm
Location: Volcanic Rock In The Pacific

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by 101Walterton »

Seems that everyone involved has a tape and no one wants it heard, what does that tell you.

eumaas
User avatar
Klezmer Shogun
Posts: 23579
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 8:10pm
Location: deep in your Id

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by eumaas »

101Walterton wrote:Seems that everyone involved has a tape and no one wants it heard, what does that tell you.
Nothing, really. Many times artists are not good judges of their work's quality.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25804
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by matedog »

A Strummerless apolitical version of 76 Clash interests me very little. Like even the 76 shows, if it did leak, it probably wouldn't get more than one or two listens on my end.

Obviously though, I wouldn't oppose it being leaked.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Silent Majority
Singer-Songwriter Nancy
Posts: 18702
Joined: 10 Nov 2008, 8:28pm
Location: South Londoner in the Midlands.

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Silent Majority »

I think with the amount of people involved, it would be a bit of a licensing nightmare for the record companies.
A Strummerless apolitical version of 76 Clash interests me very little. Like even the 76 shows, if it did leak, it probably wouldn't get more than one or two listens on my end.

Obviously though, I wouldn't oppose it being leaked.
That isn't really what it would entail. I understand they're a lot more New York Dolls/Stones-y than anything else.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


www.pexlives.libsyn.com/

Marky Dread
User avatar
Messiah of the Milk Bar
Posts: 58886
Joined: 17 Jun 2008, 11:26am

Re: London SS tapes does exist

Post by Marky Dread »

matedog wrote:A Strummerless apolitical version of 76 Clash interests me very little. Like even the 76 shows, if it did leak, it probably wouldn't get more than one or two listens on my end.

Obviously though, I wouldn't oppose it being leaked.
Well for starters it's not any fucking version of The Clash any more than The 101ers were The Clash. Dolls, Stooges and MC5 were the influence for these boys with perhaps a little Modern Lovers thrown in and any group who have those bands as an influence gets my vote.
Image

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

Post Reply