The Clash: Westway to the World
Filed Under: Music, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review , music on dvd
By: Erik Swift
December 2003
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When one thinks of the original punk rock scene in the mid-1970s, it’s usually about a landmark album (“Never Mind The Bollocks”), the NY-based CBGB’s scene dominated by the Ramones, crap attitude (The Sex Pistols) talent less musicians (Pistols) and death (Pistols). With the exception of 1986’s excellent biopic “Sid & Nancy,” there are so many stories here that are only now being told with the respect and reverence deserved. “End Of The Century – The Ramones Story” garnered raves at this year’s NY Film Festival, and Julian Temple’s “The Filth And The Fury” passed the daunting test of tying the rise and fall of the Pistols to the British societal woes of that decade. However, only one punk band truly has an immeasurable musical influence, and that would be the Clash.
The Clash was a rarity among punk bands. Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, Topper Headon and the late Joe Strummer were accomplished musicians that were unfashionably bold enough to be politically conscious, lighting a flame that U2, Midnight Oil and Rage Against The Machine would keep alive in later decades. They also thought beyond most of their peers by incorporating reggae, rockabilly, dub and what could arguably be construed as rap into their music. Their brief yet fiery seven-year existence is chronicled in the excellent 2001 Don Letts documentary “Westway To The World.”
If you’re looking to see the Clash perform, you won’t get much. You will get great stories like Jones’ about bringing “I’m So Bored With You,” – a song about his girlfriend – to the band and watching Strummer promptly turn it into “I’m So Bored With The U.S.A.” It’s enthralling to hear Strummer illustrate the punk DIY aesthetic as he recounts building the band’s first microphone stand out of a record player, a broom handle and bricks or Headon confess his smack addiction cost the Clash their career. The tales of idiot record company executives, fans ahead of their time and puking on Buddy Holly’s grave have been heard before (OK, maybe not), but witnessing four men twenty years beyond their most famous work embracing it together is a testament to their lasting power.
The most annoying thing about some of the bootleg-quality concert footage is its brevity. It’s a bummer to see the band ripping into “Clash City Rockers” or “White Men In Hammersmith Palais” when it cuts to an interview. It’s even more annoying to see that happen during well-shot material like the band’s final TV appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live’. However, that’s the only downer in a disc packed with over an hour of extra interviews and the long-lost 1981 featurette, “Clash On Broadway.” The original negative destroyed, a surviving screening copy of this 23 minute film finds the Clash at Bond’s in New York City’s Times Square during their historic seventeen-show stand at the venue. Seeing the band strap on their guitars with the spaghetti Western music of Ennio Morricone playing behind them and going out to take on the crowd is great – four guys leaving the dressing room to slay any nonbelievers with their guitars drawn and ready to fire. That very shot sums up the Clash – warriors who fought the law, and won. “Westway To The World” proves it.
Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!
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