Your Friday Clash Song: No Elvis, Beatles Or The Rolling Stones …

“1977,” first released as the b-side to the “White Riot” single on March 18, 1977, later included on the Clash On Broadway compilation in 1991.

I chose this song because earlier today, rock ’n roll deejay extraordinaire and Your Best Friend In The Whole World Lin Brehmer of WXRT – who’s obviously a glutton for punishment – chose to answer  The World’s Most Confounding Musical Question on today’s installment of his “Lin’s Bin” feature. (Note: today’s installment has not yet been posted on WXRT’s website. I’ll update with a link when it’s available.)

No,  The World’s Most Confounding Musical Question isn’t Is Dave right about Led Zeppelin?  The World’s Most Confounding Musical Question is: What was THE year in Rock ’n Roll History?

Impossible to say, right? Unpossible, even. As the kids say.

But Mr. Brehmer is nothing if not a lunatic brave soul, and so he came up with four – count ’em, four – years that qualify: 1964, 1969, 1977 and 1993. Actually, I could just leave it at that, because I think a pretty strong argument could be made for any of those years … and because they all occurred in my lifetime; ergo, they must be important.

But I don’t get paid to say “good enough for me,” so I have to explain why I think of those four, 1977 was THE year.

First of all, take a look at a partial list of albums released in 1977:

The Ramones, Leave Home

The Buzzcocks, Spiral Scratch

The Damned, Damned, Damned, Damned

Cheap Trick, Cheap Trick

Iggy Pop, The Idiot

The Clash, The Clash (UK version)

Dave Edmunds, Get It

The Jam, In the City

Parliament, Live: P-Funk Earth Tour

The Tubes, Now

Little Feat, Time Loves A Hero

Bob Marley, Exodus

Neil Young, American Stars ’n Bars

Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True

Iggy Pop, Lust For Life

Cheap Trick, In Color

Talking Heads, Talking Heads: 77

Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane, Rough Mix

Rolling Stones, Love You Live

Ian Drury, New Boots and Panties!!

Boomtown Rats, Boomtown Rats

Tom Waits, Foreign Affairs

XTC, 3D-EP

The Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols

Blondie, Plastic Letters

Graham Parker and the Rumour, Stick To Me

The Ramones, Rocket to Russia

The Jam, This Is The Modern World

Brian Eno, Before and After Silence

All kinds of great stuff there, to be sure, but what really stands out is the emergence of punk and what came to be known as “new wave” (a cloying 1980s marketing term, but it stuck). The Clash, Ramones, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop, Boomtown Rats, the Jam … even the Sex Pistols (whom I consider to be the Monkees of punk, but that’s the subject of another post) – it’s hard to imagine another year in rock history with as many genuinely new acts exploding on the scene at the same time. And by “new,” I mean revolutionary. I mean acts that tore down the walls and built the whole thing over again from the ground up. New, like that.

Because if you look at the full list of albums released in 1977, you’ll realize that’s exactly what rock ’n roll needed at the time.

So, yeah, “1977”:

In 1977

You’re on the never never

You think it can’t go on forever

But the papers say its better

I don’t care

Cause I’m not all there

No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones

In 1977 …

Ah, yes. I remember it well. Now: Turn. It. Up.