Coming to this cold, you might think these CDs actually feature material from THE CLASH's legendary 17 night stint at New York's Times Square Bond's Casino back in the myth-making days of 1981. Well, one track aside, it doesn't, but with 3 lengthy CDs with 64 songs in all (counting the "hidden" final track "The Street Parade"), it's still the most exhaustive way to splurge on THE CLASH's astonishing catalogue.
Actually knocking around since 1991, "On Broadway" goes for the jugular with all the band's singles (and a pretty extensive B-side feature), plus the cream of the album tracks and a few choice rarities that we'll come too in just a few moments.
Moving strictly chronologically, CD1 kicks in with the sawn-off power of the group's first demo recordings with MOTT THE HOOPLE producer Guy Stevens; the "White Riot" single and virtually all the epoch-defining debut album. While there's no denying the white-hot fury of "I'm So Bored With The USA", "Garageland","Police And Thieves" etc, for me the serious business really gets going after regular drummer Topper Headon's arrival and the incredible run of singles starting with "White Man In Hammershith Palais" in the sumer of 1978.
CD2 compiles the best of the unfairly-derided second album, "Give 'Em Enough Rope", recorded mostly in London, but completed in San Francisco with (of all people) BLUE OYSTER CULT producer Sandy Pearlman. Although Mick Jones' epic, autobiographical "Stay Free" may recall growing up in Streatham rather than the Bronx, THE CLASH's worldview was now turning towards the States (not so bored now, eh Joe?), as evinced by the anthemic songs on the early '79 "Cost Of Living" EP, not least Mick Jones' heroic Dylan-meets-Springsteen moves on "Gates Of The West". Not surprisingly, the remainder of CD2 takes in three-quarters of the career-defining double LP,"London Calling"; a heady brew concocted by a zoned-in group ready to conquer, with Mr.Maverick,Guy Stevens again back at the controls.
Kicking in with the strident Eddy Grant cover,"Police On My Back", CD3 is probably the most interesting. Firstly, we gat a chance to revisit a smattering of the brilliance from the vastly under-rated "Sandinista!" triple LP set from 1980. Unwieldy in its' sprawling original form ,it nevertheless proffered high points aplenty, such as the tough "Somebody Got Murdered"(with Topper's dog Battersea on guest growls); Strummer's mighty,Scorsese-influenced "Broadway" and the funky nugget "Magnificent Seven" all included and sounding noticeably more heroic twenty years on.
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There's also a selection from the great 1982 CLASH swansong "Combat Rock" (c'mon, let's pass over "Cut The Crap"), although it would have been nice to have "Overpowered By Funk" and "Inoculated City" rubbing shoulders with the more obvious "Rock The Casbah" and "Should I Stay Or Should I Go". "Inoculated City", especially, pointed the way to Mick Jones' post-CLASH future with early sampladelic heroes BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE.
But to those rarities. Well, CD2 has the undistinguished "One Emotion" from the "Give 'Em Enough Rope" sessions, but more interesting are the tracks from CD3. Firstly we get a bitten-off live take of "Lightning Strikes" from the Bonds' shows, taut and tantalising. Then, there's a neat, soul-influenced take of Ed Cobb's "Every Little Bit Hurts" (Jones leading and Chrisie Hynde following on this "Sandinista!" out-take) and, best of all, the haunting "Midnight To Stevens" (a song for the deceased Guy, no less) from the band's Autumn 1981 London sessions before "Combat Rock" in New York. A further scouring of the vault for more from these sessions sounds like it would prove relevant.A bonus is the detailed booklet, featuring some great Pennie Smith photography, stories from the band (even original drummer Terry Chimes and manager Bernie Rhodes) plus a detailed lyric booklet and a pretty entertaining essay reproduced from the vaults of infamous writer Lester Bangs.
Of course, THE CLASH's fascinating journey has been fleshed out in more detail by the recent "Westway To The World" video, with the DVD version providing (finally) more footage from Don Letts' Bond's Casino footage, so this is by no means the whole story. However, as a tight summation.,crammed with 3 hours plus of virtually unparallelled rock'n'roll and enough ideas to sink a battleship,"CLASH ON BROADWAY" is both a damn fine way to invest thirty quid and a lasting testament to one of the brightest stars in the British rock firmament during the past 30 years.
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