A year after
The Clash bursted onto the scene with their acclaimed self-titled debut and gave punk the much needed political drive it needed, they followed it up with a record that tends to go under the radar since it is sandwiched between their furious debut and their masterpiece,
London Calling. Released in 1978,
Give 'Em Enough Rope was The Clash sustaining their new found following with much more social and political songs about pissed off British youth. Songs like "Safe European Home, "English Civil War," "Drug Stabbing Time, "Tommy Gun," were audio documents as to what was going on in London and beyond at that time. With its original title as
Rent-A-Riot, The Clash were on the verge of stirring up something big. Yet, while the album reached number 2 on the British charts and number 128 on the US charts and was actually the first album of the band to be released in the U.S. After the release and buzz about The Clash, CBS Records then went and finally released the band's self-titled debut with an alternate cover and tracklisting, taking out the song "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A." Yet, all these years later and with all of the global conflicts going on now,
Give 'Em Enough Rope is just as much as a document of 2012 as it was in 1978.
