You have the right not to be killed. Murder is a crime. Unless it is done by a policeman or aristocrat.
~~ "Know Your Rights", The Clash (1982)

In the early days of the 1980s, when MTV, could still (maybe) claim to be sort of "alternative" and new, two of my favorite videos they would play were of the premier punk rock icon, The Clash: "Radio Clash", and "Rock the Casbah." Other than Rage Against the Machine, which other bands does MTV give airtime to nowadays that bite so hard the hand that feeds them?

The Clash began their career "way back" in 1976. Paul Simonon (who had never played before picking up a bass for The Clash), Mick Jones, and Joe Strummer, under the guidance of manager Bernie Rhodes, threw together material from Strummer's and Jones's first attempted bands, the 101'ers and London SS, and began playing out. Rhodes was apparently trying to play catch up with his boss Malcolm McClaren's success with the Sex Pistols. With bullet-holed shirts, gobs of spit, and a furious stage presence, the band opened for the Pistols "narchy Tor" (1977), grabbing much atention.

Only playing three shows that tour, The Clash nonetheless wrangled a contract from CBS Records in February 1977. Their self-titled first album The Clash (Sony/Epic, 1977), was recorded in three weekends, and in Spring 1977 their first single, "White Riot" hit number 12 on the British charts. This was a year of minor scrapes with the law for members of the band, cementing the ruffian toughguy image they were portraying.

Further albums followed: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Sony/Epic, 1979), the double album London Calling (Sony/Epic, 1979), which Rolling Stone voted "Best Album of the 80s", the 10-inch Black Market Clash, (Sony/Epic. 1980), the sprawling triple-album Sandinista (Sony/Epic, 1980), Combat Rock (Sony/Epic, 1982), and the oft-critically maligned Cut the Crap. (Sony/Epic, 1985).

The band broke up soon after, with Mick Jones going on to form Big Audio Dynamite, and Joe Strummer landing a few acting gigs before fronting The Mescaleros.

You have the right to free speech, as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it.
~~ "Know Your Rights", The Clash, 1982

Regardless of your opinion on their musicianship, or even whether you liked the band's music at all, the fact remains that The Clash pointed out life's bitter ironies for the poor, the oppressed, the trod upon, and the outcast. With such song like "Charlie Don't Surf", "Career Opportunities", "Guns on the Roof", "Guns of Brixton", "Clampdown," and so many more, The Clash painted a vivid picture of injustices inherent in, and perpetrated by the modern Western world.

How sincere were they? Does it matter? As one anonymous reviewer puts it:

Indeed, the Clash's politics were an extension of the original Britpunks' roots in glam - guerrilla chic, if you will; according to interviews and articles, the Clash were as concerned with clothes as they were with communism vs. capitalism. As Sting, once remarked, the Clash's flirtation with Marxism was a great marketing strategy.

No, you can't credibly spark a revolution from a major corporate label; the Clash were never as rebellious as they pretended to be. That all said, however, you can inspire a lot of people with art - lord knows how many people's lives were changed by the first Clash album. On that level, then - the individual one - the Clash were anything but a failure. They encouraged young punks to look a little beyond beer and mohawks, and - hell, why am I talking about punks for? Any young person receptive enough can hear the Clash dramatize their frustration and anger at the complacent injustice of a world that leaves a handful of undeserving elites with the keys to power and parties, and the rest of us rubbing our hands together in the cold . . . Funny that this is articulated by a group of successful rock stars, but that's the essence of the Clash, and probably rock 'n' roll itself - modern contradictions evaded, bypassed, and steamrollered by the power of the music.

You have the right to food money, providing of course you don't mind a little humiliation, investigation, and if you keep you fingers crossed, rehabilitation.
~~ "Know Your Rights", The Clash, 1982

Without belaboring the atrocious "œboy/girl bands" examples too much, the dearth of current socially conscious, outspoken bands that get public airing and corporate promotion, that actually say something in their lyrics beyond the common pap, is depressing. If not intentionally designed so, this lack of substance, talent and brainpower in most contemporary "pop" musicians and bands results in the common masses turning into unquestioning automatons led from fad to trend and back again.

Chuck D of Public Enemy said it best when discussing his ire over "black" music and entertainment being usurped by nefarious corporate interests:

...tell your friends and family there really is a "poison goin' on" and it's within your midst. The people have been REDUCED to "sheeple". Without the control over the realities that make a community, it means that a fantasy world can be sold or placed to fill a void. Cats flock to images that project the same make-up of people that represent their neck of the hood resulting in people being "what they see". This is dangerous to any consistence of building in the so-called hood. It results in a paradox of not only "art imitating life" but "life imitating art". This twisted life imitating art can mainly be connected to the two central media outlets that black folk have been subservient to for reflective information; the facade and illusion of BLACK RADIO and what we see of us on TELLIN' LIES TO YOUR VISION = television. The people have been REDUCED to "sheeple" . . . Somebody gotta fight for the COMMONS, GOODIE MOBS, DEAD PREZ'S, TALIB KWELIS, MEDUSAS, for equal if not more airtime, and the positive material that most artists create but record companies are afraid to market because it might appear to be 'un-hip' or out of date.

Then Chuck D offers a simple alternative, not a new idea but a good one: "I suggest that local artists try not to out-pimp the UNIVERSAL JAY-Zs, out-ball the CASH MONEYS, or out-murder the JA RULES. If they hold a clean glass to a dirty one and talk about feeding the people instead of feeding off them then the local artists will have fuel against the machine." But it isn't just black entertainment that is being subverted, watered down, and neutered, it's the way of almost all mainstream popular music today.

Following a tradition of artists like Woody Guthrie, John Lennon and The Fugs, among others, The Clash still sound relevant today, nearly 16 years after their breakup. They sang about issues the media conglomerates won't touch, and would rather not have the lower classes be reminded of. Artists willing today to sing and point out our social inequities are rarely given time in the limelight at the mic.

Know your rights. These are your rights, all three of them. It has been suggested in some quarters that this is not enough! Well, get off the streets, get off the streets. Run. Don't you have a home to go to- smush!
~~ "Know Your Rights", The Clash, 1982