Split Single #3: “Pressure Drop” by The Clash / “The Harder They Come” by Keith Richards

I was once devoted to The Clash. In USA, I saw them play 5 times. The first time was one of the best, the last time was . . . . . . . depressing. www.thedailyswarm.com/watch/clash-pressure-drop-nissan/

The Rolling Stones plied the Blues, while The Clash emulated everything, and perhaps, tried to do too much. The Clash had better dub (“One More Time” with Mikey Dread), but The Stones have the better riff. Even Mick Jones says the first Clash album was the best.

Yet, Mick Jones still makes the grade:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37MENt8cvRg

These two 45 rpms flatten the distinction between “Punk Rock” and “Classic Rock” as both sides of the fray try “the new stuff”, with neither attempt really coming off.
In fact the two songs are “oldies”, canonical Reggae for the connoisseur or the totally clueless.

Continuing the dissolution of genres, on a later reissue of “Run Rudolph Run” (the above single’s flipside) Richards replaced “The Harder They Come” with “Pressure Drop”.

I’ll give Keith the final word (on Reggae covers) as it is his single above (not The Rolling Stones): “I was convinced that (Start Me Up) was a reggae song. Everybody else was convinced of that. “It’s reggae, man.” We did 45 takes like that. But then on a break I just played that guitar riff, not even really thinking much about it; we did a take rocking away and then went back to work and did another 15 reggae takes. Five years later, Mick discovered that one rock take in the middle of the tape and realized how good it was. The fact that I missed “Start Me Up” for five years is one of my disappointments. It just went straight over my head. But you can’t catch everything.”www.guitarworld.com/article/keith_richards_hot_stuff