A band records an album where the bassist never plays a note, the credited guitarists are almost inaudible, and the drummer is replaced by a machine. That band was The Clash, the British punk group once called the only one that mattered, and on November 4, 1985, they released their sixth and final studio album, Cut the Crap.
New lineup and Munich sessions
The record arrived on CBS Records in the United Kingdom, but the group that made it barely resembled the one fans knew. Before the sessions, guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon had been fired. Their replacements were three unknown musicians: guitarists Vince White and Nick Sheppard, plus drummer Pete Howard, each paid a weekly wage of 100 pounds rather than signed to a recording contract. The sessions took place early in 1985 at Weryton Studio in Munich, Germany. Engineer Michael Fayn was hired because he was affordable and had experience with programmable drum machines.
Bassist Paul Simonon, a founding member, did not appear on the final recordings at all. The bass parts were played by Norman Watt-Roy, formerly of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, though his name never made the album cover. The drum tracks were handled by an electronic drum machine, and the new guitarists were buried so deep in the final mix that they could barely be heard.
Bernie Rhodes takes the controls
The man pulling the strings was Bernie Rhodes, the band's manager, credited as producer under the pseudonym Jose Unidos. Rhodes had chosen the album's title from a line in the film Mad Max 2, and he co-wrote most of the songs with frontman Joe Strummer. But the two men were locked in a struggle for control of the sound and direction of the group. The title came from a line in the 1981 film Mad Max 2, chosen by Rhodes. That choice set the tone for an album built on confrontation rather than collaboration.
Rhodes took charge of the arrangements, the track order, and the final mix, layering in samples and sounds from television broadcasts as he chased a blend of electro, hip-hop, and cut-up technique. During one session he smashed a drum kit, and Howard walked out of the studio. The only moments the participants remembered fondly were the football-style chants on the choruses, recorded with dozens of friends and relatives. Strummer wanted synthetic drums to compete with Mick Jones's drum machine. The song "We Are the Clash" was written as an answer to Mick Jones's lawsuit, and its album version differs from the 1983 live recordings and demos.
One song rose above the chaos. This Is England, released as a single on September 30, 1985, kept some of the reggae influence of earlier Clash records, and Strummer called it the last great Clash song. Its line about the South Atlantic wind blowing pointed back to the Falklands War. But Strummer later admitted he never heard the whole album before it reached the shops in 1986. Epic Records expected the album to build on the band's American momentum and budgeted a costly video for the lead single. Strummer later said he would never work with a drum machine again.
The British music press tore the record apart, and within weeks Strummer disowned it and dissolved The Clash. He even offered Mick Jones a chance to return, but Jones refused. The album that was meant to continue the band's story instead became the one the group's official discography leaves out.