Passion Is Fashion:
The Real Story of the Clash
By Pat Gilbert
Da Capo Press
List Price $18.95
Review by Kennedy Weible
Pat Gilbert begins his chronicle of The
Clash's story with a first person, present-tense conversation
with Joe Strummer, that he ends with the line "Little did
we know that within eighteen months he would be dead." Besides
setting an ominous tone, this technique also proves to the reader
that Gilbert knows his territory, and the people in it, personally.
His tome-an impressive 404 pages if you include the index, discography,
bibliography, and other assorted back matter-not only tells the
story of The Clash, but draws a character out of the time in
which the band was conceived, birthed, and then thrived. Gilbert
knows better than to glorify a band like The Clash, a band that
is attributed with a large social and political weight, as simply
that. He goes into surprising depth about the economic, social,
and political realities of England during the time each of the
band members were children, then teenagers, then The Clash. And
he makes cohesive connections between the upbringings of all
the band members, and the ideals they were determined to live
up to as a band. He describes all this in the easy-to-follow
and understand manner that marks the best historians. Like a
punk-rock Howard Zinn. Gilbert uses the present tense technique
from the Strummer conversation at the beginning of each chapter,
with the other living band members and an assorment of roadies,
managers, entorage, and Svengalis. It's all very Citizen Kane-a
modern journalist mining survivors for the story.
Gilbert has written an intelligent and
historical look at a band and a time period. The world was covering
its ears as the death-rattle of the 60s revolution faded and
punk rock and hostility were perched over England, and Gilbert
explores all aspects of culture/genre shift, even some of the
more abstract. He writes, "Mentioning the Situationists
in the context of punk often elicits theatrical groans and accusations
of punk being intellectualised [sic] thirty years after the event."
This is the kind of book that starts each chapter with two quotes.
Gilbert is no mere fanboy though, and he
points out The Clash's less redeemable qualities-like their habit
of publicly trashing anyone who was ejected from their inner-circle-and
holds them accountable for some of their more ridiculous preachings.
When Strummer pulls out a knife during an interview and says,
"Suppose I smash your face in and slit your nostril with
this, right? If you don't learn anything from it, then it's not
worth it, right?" Gilbert doesn't hesitate to point out
that he "sounds like an idiot."
This is a band story that you won't have to dumb yourself down
to read. Passion is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash
covers the comraderie and affection the guys had for one another,
the political and social upheaval of the times that they trew
themselves into, and the progression that music owes the likes
of The Clash, all in a delicately woven prose, meant to support
the story without ostentaion or dramatics.
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