On this week’s podcast, I talk about International Clash Day, an annual celebration of the Only Band that Matters that takes place on February 7 each year. Seattle radio station KEXP began International Clash Day in an impromptu fashion ten years ago when a listener asked, in response to a deejay playing a Clash song, why the station didn’t play more Clash (always a good question!), and the deejay obliged. Since then, the celebration has grown around the world, from the US to Europe to Latin America and beyond.
International Clash Day seems to sneak up on me every year (maybe next year I’ll remember that it’s coming), but it’s always a good time to break out the guitar and give a few Clash tunes a test drive. Don’t worry; I do not torment you with my guitar playing on this episode … except for a few seconds. But those few seconds come from my favorite Clash song of all time, “Spanish Bombs” from London Calling. “Spanish Bombs” recalls the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the world’s first fight against fascism and in many ways a precursor to World War II. The song focuses on the writers, artists, and musicians who joined the cause to defend the government against Franco’s fascists, which is quite appropriate given the Clash’s own anti-fascist activism. It’s worth remembering, too, that American novelist Ernest Hemingway and British novelist/journalist George Orwell went to Spain to defend the republic against the fascists. Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is an amazing memoir of his time there.
From International Clash Day I turn to the Grammys, noting that the Clash won exactly one award — the 2003 Grammy for Best Long Form Video for the documentary film, Westway to the World. I also weigh in on Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ performance of and Grammy win for the song “Unholy,” which caused a right-wing meltdown on social media. Petras made history as the first openly transgender woman to win a Grammy, but she was not the first trans Grammy winner of all time. That was Wendy Carlos, the classical artist who won three Grammys under her former name in 1970 for her pioneering Moog synthesizer works.
I also discuss the Grammys tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip hop, featuring some of the legends of the game (Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Grandmaster Flash, Ice-T, Method Man, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, and RUN-D.M.C., among others) and the Clash’s connection to the genre.
Finally, in this week’s Great Artists, Good People segment, I talk about British punk icon Billy Bragg, a close friend of Joe Strummer and an excellent songwriter in his own right. Among many fantastic songs, Bragg’s 1991 hit “Sexuality” was a celebration of gay rights at a time when that was still controversial. But, not to be outdone, Bragg updated the lyrics in 2021 to embrace and celebrate trans and nonbinary people as well, showing tremendous growth as a person and giving a well-deserved middle finger to the haters in the UK. We should all grow old like this.
So please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments. And as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
