Bankrobber—The Clash

#365Songs: April 22

Today is the day we wrap up #ClashWeek. We’re six songs in, and we’ve pulled one song from each of the band’s six “official” albums.

Which gives us, today, the opportunity to choose a non-album song.

Oooh, but what song to choose???

And, how obscure to go?

The Combat Rock sessions produced some pretty dynamite options — How’s about “Cool Confusion” or “First Night Back in London?”

There’s also the Cost of Living EP, which gave us The Clash’s brilliant cover of “I Fought The Law,” as well as the shockingly artistically mature “Groovy Times”:

They discovered one black Saturday
That mobs don’t march they run
So you can excuse the nervous triggerman
Just this once for jumping the gun
As they were picking up the dead
Out of the broken glass
Yes it’s number one, the radio said
Groovy times have come to pass!

Alternatively, there is also, of course, “City of the Dead,” one of the band’s most popular non-album tracks, notable for its early horn-driven sound. Or “Long Time Jerk,” one of the few Clash tunes solely credited to Paul Simonon as the songwriter.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of listening time spelunking around for options. Ultimately, I settled on two final choices, both of which are songs I just outright love — not for their relative obscurity, per se, but simply because they’re brilliant songs.

So, in the end, it was a toss-up between “This Is Radio Clash” and “Bankrobber,” and I obviously went with “Bankrobber.”

Why?

Well, here’s the thing. The Clash were a wildly MODERN group in every sense of the word. They absorbed and reflected so many different influences — consistently defying prevailing genre conventions in the process — at a time when so many social-cultural walls were yet to come down.

London Calling, for example, can rightly be seen as one of the most powerful and profoundly modern summary statements on global culture made by any artist at that time.

However, if there’s a criticism to be levied against that album, it may be that the breadth lacks focus; even as the sprawl is comprehensive, the moments within its ecosystem can seem disconnected. That may be a statement in and of itself, and the discordance — if there is any — between tracks such as, say, “Brand New Cadillac,” “Jimmy Jazz,” “Clampdown,” “The Guns of Brixton,” and “The Right Profile” may be the point.

But at the same time, the suspicion lurks that it’s a kind of genre tourism at work.

Which is really why “Bankrobber” is such an utterly staggering accomplishment.

Because, in just this one song, it seems to me they’ve brought everything they have within them to bear on the result — a song that is as much downtempo reggae as it is American Outlaw ballad; as much political statement as it is lullaby; as much call to arms as it is a call to lay them down. It’s a folk song, it’s a punk song, it’s a reggae song, it’s a trip-hop song, it’s a labor song, it’s a rebel song, it’s an anthem.

In other words, they bring to bear everything they are and everything they’re capable of, in the service of creating something so simple and so beautiful, it’s hard to believe someone somewhere actually sat down with pen, paper, and a guitar to write it. It feels as if it must have just somehow arrived fully formed from the heavens.

Is it a sad song? A happy one? An angry one? A regretful one? A funny one?

The truth is, it’s everything. It’s literally an everysong.

It’s a solid piece of life advice as well, and a pretty astute encapsulation of the band’s worldview:

Some is rich, and some is poor
And that’s the way the world is
But I don’t believe in laying back
Sayin’ how bad your luck is

And how’s this for a modern-day mantra-meets-cautionary tale?

The old man spoke up in a bar
Said “I never been in prison
A lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison

Honestly, I can’t think of a better song to conclude what has been, for me, a really lovely week of music. If #ClashWeek has been half as enjoyable for you as it has been for me, then I think it’s been a lovely week for all.

~

Start following the #365Songs playlist today, and listen to each new song with each new article!