at a glance...

Hometown: London, England
Formed: 1975

Members:
Joe Strummer -vocals, guitar
Mick Jones -vocals, guitar
Paul Simonon -bass, vocals
Nicky "Topper" Headon -drums, piano
Mikey Dread -producer, toasting

Bands in the family :
Mikey Dread, Big Audio Dynamite, Big Audio Dynamite II, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Allen Ginsberg, Ellen Foley

Before the review proper begins, let's just heave a tiny little sigh for the demise of vinyl. Vinyl really made the original 1980 release of this disc the balls, because it was a 10" record called Black Market Clash and was all funky and in-betweeny and didn't have a lot of music on it but you didn't care, because it was all great and besides, look at it, it's so cute! Okay, we're over that little trip down memory lane. Let's give a marginal hooray for the advent of CDs, because that means Epic was able to beef this up to over 77 minutes and add a whole bunch of extra dance mixes and b-sides and lost singles, which was kind of the point in the first place but now it's longer, and besides it fits better into my CD player now.

This is a really great disc with one major problem; I'll get to the problem next paragraph. About ¾ of Super BMC consists of songs you cannot really find in any version anywhere else, which makes it pretty essential if you're a Clash-o-phile. If you're not yet, then this might actually be a great place to start. This will be your reasoning: Shit, this rocks hard. If they really couldn't find room for great tunes like "The City of the Dead," "1977," "Gates of the West," and "Long Time Jerk" on their regular albums, they must really have been all Cibula says they are. This CD underscores the tightness and versatility the band always possessed in the studio but somehow never get credit for; check out "Listen" and "Time Is Tight," two instrumentals (the latter a Booker T. and the MGs cover) that just WAIL. And the dance mixes, usually pretty dispensable, WAIL as well. This CD just WAILS.

So here is my petulant complaint to Epic and its momma Sony. The original vinyl had the original "Bankrobber" single on it as well as "Robber Dub," but you bounced "Bankrobber" off the reissue. What for, except naked, bald-assed greed? Oh, I'm sure your very nice reps would say, "Well, we wanted to get more tracks on the CD," and they'd mean it, too - they're very sincere. But you could have lost "Jail Guitar Doors," which sounds a whole lot like the version on The Clash, and that could almost have done it. But no, you want suckers like me who love "Bankrobber" to go buy The Singles or, worse yet, The Clash On Broadway just to get one song - two if you count the original "Armagideon Time," but the dub version here is almost nine minutes long, so it's okay. "Bankrobber" was the cornerstone of the vinyl version, dammit - I want my song! Repent! Re-release! Power to the People!

But I really like this disc anyway. I'm sorry. I'll shut up now. Thanks.

If you like The Clash, check out:
The Clash Live: From Here To Eternity
The Clash Give 'Em Enough Rope
The Clash London Calling
The Clash ¡Sandinista!
The Clash The Clash
The Clash Combat Rock
Various Feel Like Jumping: Best Of Studio One Women
The Who Odds and Sods
The Jam Snap!
Mikey Dread Happy Family/African Anthem

-- Matt Cibula