Illustration from The Bad Mrs Ginger by Honor C. Appleton, 1902
The secret shame of my relationship with the Clash is that, as a kid, I thought Mick Jones was the band's frontman. I think I saw the video for "Train in Vain" on MTV in the '80s and unintentionally drew some conclusions. It wasn't until I finally got around to buying London Calling almost a decade later that I realized that there was this other guy called Joe Strummer. To this day, though, the most accurate way to sum up my opinion of the Clash is, "My favorite songs are the ones with big pop hooks, which basically means all the Mick Jones songs and a few others." I know it's not suppose to be that way, but what can I do? Go listen to some Big Audio Dynamite II, I guess.
It's probably no surprise that Sandinista! is my favorite Clash album, as I value music by number of songs above all else (I'm only kind of kidding). There are plenty of great Strummer-sung songs on Sandinista! - "Charlie Don't Surf" and "The Street Parade" are two of my favorites - but "Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)" might be my number one Clash song ever. It's kind of a weird one, with its pop edge blurred by heavy reverb and organ drone, but it has a simple guitar part that comes through and acts as the main hook. It has three evocative verses that stay on the right side of tacky invective, but just barely (listen for the questionable use of "bourgeoise" in the second verse). And each verse ends with a stretched out note that sounds like the lead-in for a big chorus, but it never comes. Instead, the three verses come in succession and then the band vamps over an extended outro, repeating lines from Phil Ochs' "United Fruit". I'd like "Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)" just as well if Strummer sang it, but the band gave the vocals on this kind of song to Mick Jones, and he does a good job with it.
"Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)" by the Clash
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