4/27/13

An Album A Day #26: The Clash LIVE AT SHEA STADIUM [2008]

[Today's album, as drawn randomly from the hat, was supposed to be another album but as HERC researched that record, he realized tomorrow would be a much better day to feature it as the last Album A Day for the foreseeable future.  He reached back into the hat and came up with today's featured disc.]



There had been teasing glimpses into the legendary and much bootlegged 1982 concert captured on today's album before it's official release in 2008. A couple of the performances had been featured on the live compilation From Here To Eternity and the official video for "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (below) was filmed there at Shea Stadium as The Clash opened for The Who on a pair of rainy October nights in 1982.


But none of that had prepared HERC for what he first heard when he dropped the needle pressed Play.  It was as if he was at the show albeit dry and warm but drenched in the music.  It is one of HERC's few regrets that he never  had the opportunity to see The Clash live on stage in person.



Unarguably at the apex of their creative and performing powers, The Clash took stormed the stage that night and as the show progressed, they won over the crowd, the overwhelming majority of whom were there to see the headliners on their Farewell Tour.  In the grand scheme of things, it could have been a symbolic passing of the torch from one of the greatest live bands of all time to the only band that mattered.  It is indeed a sick, cruel twist of irony that the so-called Farewell Tour turned out to be the first of several, with The Who continuing to tour more than 40 years into their career while The Clash imploded barely 18 months after this historical performance.



The complete performance from the second night on Wednesday, October 13, 1982, was brilliantly recorded and then remastered for this release - HERC admits it sounds a little too polished; not as rough and edgy as an Eighties punk concert should sound.  But taken as released, Live At Shea Stadium is easily one of the Top 5 live albums HERC has ever laid his ears on, a monumental tribute to the magnificent band The Clash.


Given the authority, HERC might have added the two songs (below) to the otherwise well-balanced, career-spanning setlist:


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