Clash Debut - UK vs. USA

[scannest]

Gotta say, I am a flag waving, jingoistic, "USA USA" mothereffer when it comes to this one. Purists will scoff, but adding those amazing singles while deleting the weakest tracks was some accidental brilliance there. Especially when the US version didn't get released until 2 years after it came out in Britian.
Anyone have strong feelings for one version over the other?

[lewdd]

I may have to go with the USA version solely because you got one more song. I like the songs on the UK version that were dropped on the USA version and vice versa.

[scannest]

I like the songs on the UK version that were dropped on the USA version and vice versa.

I like them just fine, but if you put them up head-to-head with the ones added for the US I don't think there's any comparison.

[lewdd]

The remastered version of the USA version is on my want list on Discogs.

https://www.discogs.com/The-Clash-The-C ... se/2964826

[gregpolard]

US was the first one I heard. Owned the vinyl back then and the UK tracklist still throws me off. I can't imagine it not opening with Clash City Rockers.

[JGJR]

Gotta say, I am a flag waving, jingoistic, "USA USA" mothereffer when it comes to this one. Purists will scoff, but adding those amazing singles while deleting the weakest tracks was some accidental brilliance there. Especially when the US version didn't get released until 2 years after it came out in Britian.
Anyone have strong feelings for one version over the other?

I'd be right with you except "48 Thrills" is one of the best Clash songs ever and they took it off? Crazy.

I don't have a strong preference, though, tbh. I guess push comes to shove the U.S. version since I heard it many years before the UK one, but the UK one is the only one I consider to be their real debut.

[pedro]

I'd be right with you except "48 Thrills" is one of the best Clash songs ever and they took it off? Crazy.

You should hear "48 Hours". It's even better.

As for the question at hand, I love it all. I do consider the UK version the "first album" and the US version a compilation. But it's all essential.

For the record, I heard GEER first, then the US comp and then, a little while later, I found out about the first album. It was right around the time London Calling came out.

[version sound]

US, since it’s the one I grew up with. Same with Are You Experienced.

[JGJR]

I'd be right with you except "48 Thrills" is one of the best Clash songs ever and they took it off? Crazy.

You should hear "48 Hours". It's even better.

As for the question at hand, I love it all. I do consider the UK version the "first album" and the US version a compilation. But it's all essential.

For the record, I heard GEER first, then the US comp and then, a little while later, I found out about the first album. It was right around the time London Calling came out.

I always confuse the name of that song. Ha ha. My trajectory: Combat Rock -> U.S. version of debut (agree that as I said earlier as well, it's a compilation) -> GEER -> LC -> Sandinista!

[JGJR]

Same with Are You Experienced.

Bigly; probably my favorite of the redone U.S. track list type albums except maybe the 1st Generation X Lp. Replacing a so-so blues track and rearranging the order and adding singles = a much better album IMO but also I grew up with that version, too, like most here I'd imagine?

[version sound]

Same with Are You Experienced.

Bigly; probably my favorite of the redone U.S. track list type albums except maybe the 1st Generation X Lp. Replacing a so-so blues track and rearranging the order and adding singles = a much better album IMO but also I grew up with that version, too, like most here I'd imagine?

“Red House” has always been my least favorite Hendrix song, so no loss there. I do like “ Can You See Me” and “Remember,” but I agree that it’s stronger with the singles.

Generation X I strongly disagree about, but I also grew up with the UK version.

The first Clash LP (US version) was one of the first non-Sex Pistols punk records I ever heard (along with Wild In the Streets), so I definitely have a sentimental attachment to that version.

[patient_ot]

USA mainly because that's how I heard it and you couldn't get the UK version for in the U.S. easily for a long time. Now there is no real reason not to check out both.

[version sound]

Any of you Clash super fans have the US first LP with the printed inner sleeve?

[pedro]

Yes.

[JGJR]

My copy also has the insert. Do you need a scan?

[version sound]

My copy also has the insert. Do you need a scan?

Thanks for the offer, but I don’t really need it. I literally just found out it existed the day I posted this thread. I’ve never seen one before. Apparently, only the first US press had the printed inner sleeve. I’ll definitely be checking every time I see a used copy from now on (which isn’t actually that often).

[JGJR]

My copy also has the insert. Do you need a scan?

Thanks for the offer, but I don’t really need it. I literally just found out it existed the day I posted this thread. I’ve never seen one before. Apparently, only the first US press had the printed inner sleeve. I’ll definitely be checking every time I see a used copy from now on (which isn’t actually that often).

I came across it at the record store in my hometown when I was 16 right after we'd just moved there. Like most of the punk records in that store back then, they were in the very back along with mostly used metal/hard rock records and the like, so you had to dig, but oh what I found there. My copies of Out of Step (4th press; blue/white stripe; $3.50), Poison Idea's War All the Time (original), the 1st Suicidal Tendencies Lp, Shudder to Think's Funeral at the Movies and others all come from that store, all $4 except the PI because it was new. I found that one (Clash s/t U.S.) and bought it because it was $4 and didn't buy London Calling because it was $8. I have to laugh at that now. I still don't have a vinyl copy of London Calling, oddly.

I had no idea about pressings or whatever at the time and honestly, I was today years old when I found out it's only on the 1st U.S. press (though I recognize the image from the Clash on Broadway box set, too) and I couldn't even remember if my copy had the insert, but it's one of the records I've had the longest that I still have (about 30 years now).

[version sound]

Yeah, that was a great era for cheap used vinyl. Even though I had a decided preference for CD at that point, I would buy cheap used vinyl on occasion. I paid a premium for Big Star’s Radio City (Line white vinyl) and Third (PVC second press; different cover, same stampers as the first). IIRC, they were $8 or $10 each. Most other records were $2-$5. That era actually lasted into the early ‘00s (pre-vinyl revival and pre-Discogs). In the early ‘00s, I bought OG UK pressings of Spiritualized’s Let It Come Down and Amazing Grace for $10 each. I’m still kicking myself for passing on Royal Albert Hall (also at $10). My biggest score was an OG mono Safe as Milk with the bumper sticker, also for $10 and later re-sold for $200.

[JGJR]

Yeah, that was a great era for cheap used vinyl. Even though I had a decided preference for CD at that point, I would buy cheap used vinyl on occasion. I paid a premium for Big Star’s Radio City (Line white vinyl) and Third (PVC second press; different cover, same stampers as the first). IIRC, they were $8 or $10 each. Most other records were $2-$5. That era actually lasted into the early ‘00s (pre-vinyl revival and pre-Discogs). In the early ‘00s, I bought OG UK pressings of Spiritualized’s Let It Come Down and Amazing Grace for $10 each. I’m still kicking myself for passing on Royal Albert Hall (also at $10). My biggest score was an OG mono Safe as Milk with the bumper sticker, also for $10 and later re-sold for $200.

I didn't hear Big Star until the mid-'90s and by then (especially by the late '90s up through the mid to late '00s), I was in the same position as you were (preference for CDs but continued to buy a bunch of mainly used vinyl), but yeah, of course, I wish I'd also bought all of those Spiritualized releases on vinyl since I got them both right when they came out on CD, but I'm not even sure they'd be available in that format new back then, even at the specialty/indie stores I went to and still go to today (Vintage Vinyl and Princeton Record Exchange are thankfully still kicking; CD World not so much, but they sold vinyl, too).

All that said, I feel very fortunate to be able to buy a lot of those $2-$5 records (sometimes even cheaper) back then, just not those particular bands. I think the 1st Spiritualized release I bought new on vinyl was Sweet Heart Sweet Light and I still haven't picked up the last one (should do that at some point).

To bring this back to The Clash, my very nice copy of Give Em Enough Rope (U.S.) comes from Vintage Vinyl circa '93 and it was $1.99. I'm pretty sure I got my copy of Sandinista! for like 5 bucks back then at another beloved store that's long gone (Curmudgeon Music; checked the price tag; it's $6). I got my copy of Combat Rock (with the 10,000 Flushes sample) for peanuts alongside some other things from a friend around the same time period and that haul also included the original pressing of the Faith/Void split that I still have. I think it might've also had the United Blood '89 pressing, too; wish I'd kept that one. I think I paid him like $10 or something.

[version sound]

I got my GEER at the Arlington Central Library shop. I also got Rock for Light and Singles Going Steady, presumably from the same donor. All 50 cents each.

[JGJR]

I got my GEER at the Arlington Central Library shop. I also got Rock for Light and Singles Going Steady, presumably from the same donor. All 50 cents each.

Was this in recent years? If so, that is unreal. My copies of Rock for Light and Singles Going Steady come from that much earlier time period that we were talking about earlier (early to mid '90s); same year. My copy of Rock for Light used to belong to the late Paul Decolator of Pleased Youth, etc. and I got Singles Going Steady a few months later for $3.99 (price tag is still on there).

[version sound]

I got my GEER at the Arlington Central Library shop. I also got Rock for Light and Singles Going Steady, presumably from the same donor. All 50 cents each.

Was this in recent years? If so, that is unreal.

In the early ‘00s. They had a little shop in the library with donated books and magazines and a crate or two of records. All records were 50 cents. Those were definitely out of the ordinary. It was usually all easy listening and classical. Those three all definitely came from the same collection and stink of stale smoke, but at that price, I’m not complaining.