Notes

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Clash Take the Fifth Tour
Supported by The Cramps & Dead Kennedys & Rebels

"PUNK ROCK HEART - Joe Strummer 1952-2003
By Annie Toone

The first time I met Joe was late '78 in San Francisco. I was 20 years old. The Clash were in town to play an actual paying gig at Kezar Stadium when they heard we'd set up a Rock Against Racism chapter in SF.

Joe immediately offered to do a free concert for RAR at the Temple Beautiful for all us real punx who couldn't afford the other one. Word of mouth spread like wildfire and the Temple was heaving by the time The Clash arrived. They rocked so hard. I still have my RAR USA t-shirt. Joe often said, "not above me or below me, always with me". He meant it. He NEVER changed."

The last recording from the Tour

The last recording in circulation from the successful Take The Fifth tour, which produced vintage Clash performances on the dates when the audiences responded in kind. The last gig of the tour was 3 days later at the PNE in East Vancouver where there was a mini riot midset and an extraordinary performance according to an eyewitness. This gig at Kezar produced a no less exhilarating performance and has gained legendary status in and around San Francisco.

Bill Graham the promoter who had a stranglehold on live music in San Francisco insulted the band backstage saying “Punk rock ain’t music it’s shit” with the result that a now increasingly wired Johnny Green attacked him. Not a wise move in view of the reputation of his security guys!

This gig provides us with the best sound version of the Clash live rarity, Be Bop A Lula. This Gene Vincent classic (and Neil Kinnock favourite) had been sung by Joe when in the 101’ers and its only other known performance was in Los Angeles 2 days earlier.

The Kezar Pavilion was erected in 1924 in Golden Gate Park, near famous Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco. It still hosts to this day basketball matches and concerts. It would have been favoured by The Clash as there is no fixed seating.

A member of the audience wrote;

The line of fans outside the pavilion was thick with colored and spiked hair, ripped t-shirts, safety pins through noses, dog collars, and leather, leather, leather. People yelled and jeered as they walked or drove by, and the crowd in line responded back in kind. Punk was just getting big in San Francisco, and the atmosphere was quite hostile to punks, who were regarded as "faggots" or worse.

We arrived early to get a good spot inside the show, which had been booked as "festival seating" (i.e., once inside, it was a free-for-all). We got within a person of the stage, and once the first band came on, it was Bedlam: arms flying, punches thrown, and people bouncing up and down frantically. The breaks in between bands were interminable, especially for those of us up front who were drunk, hot, dehydrated, and soaked through with sweat. In a misguided attempt to restore calm, a local radio geek was sent out to babble to the surly, unreceptive crowd who booed and cursed him, flipped him off, and threw shoes and other debris at him.

He goes onto say he got crushed when the Dead Kennedy’s came on and flattened literally by Jello Biafra when he jumped off the stage.

The best recording in circulation is from a 2nd generation source (poorer, higher generation recordings do circulate missing Police & Thieves) it has good clarity but a restricted range giving a mainly top end of sound. Guitars come through best and drums, organ and vocals are decent for an audience recording which suffers from the usual distance problems not helped by the cavernous sound of the venue.

Bass though is a problem giving an unfocussed, distorted and annoying thumping sound but which is easily remedied by turning your bass controls down. There is distortion/over modulation and hiss, which are worse in some parts than others.

Audience noise is not intrusive and there is no significant stereo separation. It is an enjoyable recording where Mick’s playing can be heard well still afflicted by the effects but packing considerable punch.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, this is NOT a Lou Reed show”, is Joe’s greeting to the already drained and tired audience before Safe European Home kicks off a highly energetic and powerful show. Joe is (as usual!) fired up offering add libs to the song and Bored With The USA continues the assault. “As you probably all heard we had a little problem and now we’re gonna exorcise it with a slice of London Calling” Joe gets mixed up with the lyrics repeating the unreleased lyrics “Its time to be tough, the midnight shutdown, who’s had enough”, Mick’s solo comes through well.

Joe’s sings his now customary verse on Jail Guitar Doors with lyrics made up for the night, but on this occasion it’s not clear what he’s on about! An edit loses Mickey’s introduction to the audience but restarts at Joe’s dramatic intro of Wrong Em Boyo; “Deep in the jungle of rhythm and blues, lurks a ghost, undiscovered by the future, forgotten by the past, on my left Mr Stagger Lee and on my right Mr Billy Liar, so you make sure this is a fair contest, no dirty tricks, no kicks below the kook (?) line and no punch up the poop chute and lets rock it!..”

White man, (“I’d just like you to use your imagination a little bit, you can transform this hall into the Hammersmith Palais”) is a very enjoyable performance despite Mick’s guitar effects making it sound like bag pipes on the solo. Next Mick screams out “1-2-3-4 like a man possessed, as a great Clampdown shreds the Kezar Pavilion with Joe keeping up the momentum on the ending section by shouting impromptu lyrics and screams. There are 3 separate tape dropouts on this song.

Joe announces that bizarrely the PA is on loan from the crooner Paul Anka. Julie’s Working for the Drug Squad makes a welcome return with Mickey’s tinkling on the ivories heard to good effect. An edit restarts with the opening chords of a terrific Clash City Rockers before Joe’s screams and “Woah’s!” announce another highlight of these later Take The Fifth shows, Police & Thieves. Mick delivers a lengthy fine solo followed by Mickey’s organ fills solo, the pace and volume falls then explodes again as Mick screams “coming in”. A great moment typifying the excitement of The Clash live.

Next “It’s me Mick, it’s about the nick in Brixton, called Stay Free”, with his end of song guitar codas right up in the mix. For most of the tour Mick had used an old hollow bodied electric guitar on this song with a result that it is hardly heard, so maybe this guitar had now been ditched. Mick’s solo on Complete Control comes through well here too.

Career Opportunities gets a unique and preamble “Just like to talk about some job opportunities a little bit…it’s a bottle containing angel dust, here’s the top, Ok give them their booze back, now Johnny Green come out here and it back, give it back Johnny” .As Johnny comes on stage Topper & Paul play a military drum roll intro from Johnny Comes Marching Home. Johnny then shouts into the mic “and I ain’t Freddie Mercury either!” What was that all about?!

It’s a great blast through the first album set closers to the encores. As an inventive Armagideon Time ends Mick plays the gentle intro to Capital Radio accompanied with light drum fills from Topper. The music pauses with feedback swirling around the Pavilion then a manic Mick screams “1-2-3-4” and Capital Radio shreds the audience. Tonight the song does not get the extended ad-libbed middle section and runs straight into White Riot.

The highly enthusiastic crowd won’t let the band go calling for a second encore, Joe comes back on and says “You gotta go home” there’s an edit and then its straight into a blistering Brand New Cadillac with Joe Ely adding some vocals or rather screams! Joe Ely continues to help Joe out on a heavy guitar drenched Be Bop A Lula. Great to hear The Clash tackling this rock’n’roll classic and a great performance ends on a high.

"The 79 shows, Santa Monica civic, Palladium and Kezar in the city (sf) were spit drenched, poseur, stage hopping affairs.....Vicious crowds. (Although the Santa Monica Civic has a place in my heart, as it was close to our home and we saw countless shows there including a wild Joe Strummer with Xander Schloss on lead concert in the late 80’s that was something special)

The punk thing was just happening in 79 and la was more orange county punk (black flag, circle jerks, germs etc etc) than san francisco. (Dead Kennedy’s etc). Which was more “authentic” punk than LA

The two cities hate each other, (still do) culturally, sport teams, you name it.. It must have been mind blowing for the clash to step into what is basically another world, California. A lot of anger from The Clash, it must have been hard to play with people spitting on you and jumping on the stage just to show off.

Still the energy, humor and wit of joe are what i remember best. For better or worse, all venues had no seating anywhere near the floor, so it was general crush down front. No mercy was shown to the weak."

Nearing the end of their highly successful Take the Fifth tour, The Clash and Dead Kennedys played the Kezar to a spit-drenched, sweat-soaked, high-flying crowd milling about in 'festival seating' [code word: chaos] accommodations. The atmosphere outside the auditorium was hostile, pitting punks in ripped t-shirts, leather accoutrements and spiked hair against horn-honking hoi polloi, and the atmosphere backstage hit a new low, or high, too, depending upon on one's viewpoint. Promoter and perfectionist Bill Graham insulted the British socio-political punk phenoms, saying "... Punk rock ain't music, it's shit..." prompting an attack by their already wired road manager, Johnny Green. Not a smart move, given the well-paid security backstage.