The Clash - Legacy and Influence

Legacy and Influence

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Clash number 28 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and in 2010, the band was ranked 22nd on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to The Times, the Clash's debut, alongside Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, is "punk's definitive statement" and London Calling "remains one of the most influential rock albums". In Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, London Calling ranked number 8, the highest entry by a punk band. The Clash was number 77 and Sandinista! was number 404. In the magazine's 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, "London Calling" ranked number 15, again the highest for any song by a punk band. Four other Clash songs made the list: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (228), "Train In Vain" (292), "Complete Control" (361), and "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" (430). "London Calling" ranked number 48 in the magazine's 2008 list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

In John Robb's description, the Clash's debut established the "blueprint for the sound and the soul of what punk rock would be about.... The Clash were utterly inspirational, utterly positive, and they offered a million possibilities." Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers, the first major punk band from Northern Ireland, explained the record's impact:

he big watershed was The Clash album—that was go out, cut your hair, stop mucking about time, y'know. Up to that point we'd still been singing about bowling down California highways. I mean, it meant nothing to me. Although The Damned and the Pistols were great, they were only exciting musically; lyrically, I couldn't really make out a lot if it.... o realise that were actually singing about their own lives in West London was like a bolt out of the blue.

The Clash also inspired many musicians who were only loosely associated, if at all, with punk. The band's embrace of ska, reggae and England's Jamaican subculture helped provide the impetus for the 2 Tone movement that emerged amid the fallout of the punk explosion. Other musicians who began performing while the Clash were active and acknowledged their debt to the band include Billy Bragg and Aztec Camera. U2's The Edge has compared the Clash's inspirational effect to that of the Ramones—both gave young rock musicians at large the "sense that the door of possibility had swung open." He wrote, "The Clash, more than any other group, kick-started a thousand garage bands across Ireland and the UK... eeing them perform was a life-changing experience." Bono has described the Clash as "the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2."

In later years, the Clash's influence can be heard in American political punk bands such as Rancid, Anti-Flag, Bad Religion, NOFX, Green Day, and Rise Against as well as in the political hard rock of early Manic Street Preachers. California's Rancid, in particular, are known as "incurable Clash zealots". The title track of the band's album Indestructible proclaims, "I'll keep listening to that great Joe Strummer!" The Clash's involvement with Jamaican musical and production styles has inspired similar cross-cultural efforts by bands such as Bad Brains, Massive Attack, 311, Sublime and No Doubt. They are credited with laying the groundwork for LCD Soundsystem's "punk-funk". Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers ranked London Calling above the work of his father, Bob Dylan, as the record that “changed his life”. Bands identified with the garage rock revival of the late 1990s and 2000s such as Sweden's The Hives, Australia's The Vines and America's The White Stripes and The Strokes evince the Clash's influence. Among the many latter-day British acts identified as having been inspired by the Clash are Babyshambles, The Futureheads, The Charlatans and Arctic Monkeys. Before M.I.A. had an international hit in 2008 with "Paper Planes", which is built around a sample from "Straight to Hell", she referenced "London Calling" on 2003's "Galang". A cover of "The Guns of Brixton" by German punk band Die Toten Hosen was released as a single in 2006. A version by reggae legend Jimmy Cliff with Tim Armstrong from Rancid was scheduled for release in November 2011. American-Irish punk band Dropkick Murphys released a cover of the song on Anti Heros vs Dropkick Murphys in 1997.

In June 2009 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band opened their concert in Hyde Park, London, with 'London Calling'. The concert was later released on DVD as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: London Calling - Live in Hyde Park. Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven, Dave Grohl and Elvis Costello did the same song on The Grammy awards in 2003 as a tribute to Joe Strummer who had passed away the year before.

The band has also had a notable impact on music in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1997, a Clash tribute album featuring performances by Buenos Aires punk bands was released. Many rock en español bands such as Todos Tus Muertos, Café Tacuba, Maldita Vecindad, Los Prisioneros, Tijuana No, and Attaque 77 are indebted to the Clash. Argentina's Los Fabulosos Cadillacs covered "Should stay or should I go!",London Calling's "Revolution Rock" and "The Guns of Brixton" and invited Mick Jones to sing on their song "Mal Bicho". The Clash's influence is similarly reflected in Paris-founded Mano Negra's politicised lyrics and fusion of musical styles.