Recommendations of the Editorial team
The 100 Greatest Musicians of All Time: The Clash – Essay by The Edge (U2)
Thousands of garage bands across Ireland and the UK have sprung up just because of The Clash. For U2 and many others of our generation, seeing them live was a life-changing event. There’s no other way to describe it.
I still vividly remember the first time I saw The Clash. That was in Dublin in October 1977. They toured their first album and played to a 1,200-person capacity hall at Trinity College.
Dublin had never experienced anything like it. The performance made a huge impact, and I still meet people today – DJs or musicians – who are in the music business because they saw this concert.
U2 were still a very young band back then. And completely blown away. We asked ourselves: Why do we make music?
They showed us what we needed
What the hell is this even about? The members of The Clash were certainly not world-class musicians, but they could make a noise, that was unmistakable – the pure, physical energy, the anger, the conviction. They were uncouth in every way, and they made no secret of the fact that they cared about much more than precise playing and cleanly tuned instruments. This wasn’t just entertainment.
It was a matter of life and death. Because of them we were able to take ourselves seriously too. I think we would hardly have become the band we are if we hadn’t experienced this concert and this band. They showed us what we needed. And it was all about the heart.
The social and political themes of the songs were very inspiring – for U2 at least. It was a wake-up call: get smart, get upset, get political and then say it, loudly.
What’s interesting is that the Clash members were completely different types. Paul Simonon came from art school and Joe Strummer from a diplomatic household. But you could clearly feel that they were brothers in arms. They were in total agreement, complaining about injustice, about a system that they were simply fed up with. And which they felt had to go.
It’s a shame that The Clash no longer existed. Your music is timeless. There’s so much fighting spirit in it, so much soul, that it just doesn’t age.
You can still hear them today in Green Day and No Doubt, Nirvana and the Pixies, and of course in U2. With The Clash you never had the feeling that they were slowing down. They were serious. You can hear that.
