By Andy Dougherty (@AndyDougherty10)
Ed. Note- We continue our look at the 100 Greatest Songs of the Modern Era with the final installment of our five-part series.
For Part One and Andy's methodology, click here.
For Part Two, click here.
For Part Three, click here.
For Part Four, click here.
20. London Calling by The Clash, 1979
“Without warning, the drums and guitars hit in unison, opening the song and the album with a heavy hammering groove. It’s like an inverted reggae song -- downbeat chords instead of upstrokes -- though Simonon’s spare bass boom gives it a slight dub feel. From there, it’s all Armageddon prophesying and unwillingness to lay down and die,” said Billboard. Pitchfork described the song as “the record’s cosmic lynchpin: Horrifyingly apocalyptic, ‘London Calling’ is riddled with weird werewolf howls and big, prophetic hollers, Mick Jones’ punchy guitar bursts tapping little nails into our skulls, pushing hard for total lunacy. Empowered and unafraid, [Joe] Strummer reveals self-skewering prophecies, panting hard about nuclear errors and impending ice ages.
He also spitefully lodges some of the most unpleasantly convincing calls to arms ever committed to tape.” PopMatters said, “No time before or since has Joe Strummer been more pointed lyrically, or more vocally persuasive, more rebellious in his individualism, howling as it were because he really meant it; a sincerity that makes his shout, “forget it brother, and go it alone," sound like the easiest solution to being let down and left out by the masses…topping it would be impossible.”
