london calling is a classic album for a reason

their song Guns of Brixton has one of my favourite bass lines ever, worth checking it out

Paul's bassline on police and thieves is fucking awesome.

The Damned "Love Song " will check off all of the boxes you are looking for. Great early British punk rock song.

I heard a part of an interview with Stewart Copeland from the Police talking about an early “punk” tour in which The Police and The Clash (among other bands) traveled across Europe together. He says that Sting and Paul Simonon really clicked over talking about bass technique in the back of the bus.

one of my (many) fave Clash songs...And it's genius songwriting: Strummer wrote the lyrics in reference to Mick Jones' childhood. He really managed to put himself in his shoes and that first line always floors me: "I wasn't born so much as I fell out Nobody seemed to notice me". Those words are so evocative and any Clash song sung by Jones is a gem to me. London Calling as a whole is just a masterpiece! I've been listening to it since I was maybe 16 and it's always stayed with me.

Gang of Four is a great one. As a young player you love an out front line you can hear

The Clash were a huge influence on Tim Armstrong and Rancid’s sound. “Spanish Bombs” off of London Calling in my personal opinion is one of the best songs ever written. When you talk about the dichotomy in punks songs of the lyrical content versus the actual music that song is a prime example. Very dark subject matter (war, death, etc…) but it’s all over just a beautifully written song. Definitely recommend checking it out. Also, “I’m Not Down” is another favorite of mine off of that album.

Paul was a huge reggae fan, that’s a big part of why he’s such a great bassist.

So here for Simonon

When I was younger and angsty I thought this album was too weak sounding to be punk. Fast forward a few years, and I now get it. Amazing songwriting and playing on this album. I love this song.

I was contemplating giving this album a play through today. This feels like a sign that I should follow through with that.

London Calling is a facinating album, one of my absolute favourites. They put so much thought and incorporated so many influences into the songs, every song is wildly different. It sounds so fresh and creative to this day and it took them way beyond "just" punk rock.

The only band that matters! I really enjoyed this! Thank you. Maybe some Stiff Little Fingers or The Jam next.

Hell yeh so many great British bassists John Entwistle, Sting, Simon Gallup, Pete Hook, John Paul Jones, Andy Rourke

Gang of Four- Damaged Goods Exactly what you are looking for in terms of British punk/post-punk bass

Great video. If you're doing early British punk bands, you **have** to do a song by The Jam. Tons of them with great basslines, but probably the most iconic of theirs is Down In The Tube Station at Midnight from their 1978 album All Mod Cons.

Joy Division - She‘s lost control, Dead Souls or Atmosphere have got some fantastic bass lines that really take the songs to another level. Absolutely essential post punk. Peter Hook is one of my favourite bass players.

Grade 2 are a top tier modern punk rock band that have a classic British sound, but modern at the same time. Definitely worth checking out!

New Model Army. Vengeance and No Rest Albums , Any track is pure class. Bass plyers name is Stuart Morrow.

Also, Check out Graham Maby (Joe Jackson) - anything off his 1st two albums and, Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello) Anything from This Years Model for starters...Lipstick Vogue perhaps

Lost in a Supermarket lives rent-free in my head.

Love The Clash!!!!!! I'd highly recommend checking out Clamp Down, The Magnificent Seven, and This is Radio Clash. All great songs, with cool bass lines.

Paul Simonon, one of the greatest alongside JJ Brunell and MIke Watt. And this song showcases exactly - as do a lot of his basslines. Hysterical watching Joe Strummer have to tune his bass on stage! And yes, always P-Bass (usually white) with a pick.

Paul was playing bass less than 3 years when London Calling was recorded. .he has amazing feel and great note selection for a beginner

Also, the title for the show Kids in the Hall comes from this song: "kids in halls and the pipes in the walls"

Has he done any Joe Jackson? I'd love to hear what you think of Graham Maby's playing and Joe's songwriting. I'm the man and look sharp were some of the first albums I found that made me fall in love with vinyl and vintage stereos

There are a bunch of great British punk/post- punk bass players. Some of my favorites-JJ Burnel of the Stranglers, Dave Allen Gang of Four, Segs Jennings of the Ruts (Ruts Dc) who was also the bass player for Alabama 3 known for Woke up this morning….the Sopranos theme song, Steve Hanley of the Fall, Ali McMordie-Stiff Little Fingers, Bruce Foxton of the Jam.

Getting to see Paul Simonon live while playing bass in the Good, the Bad & the Queen was transcendental, to say the least.

"Stiff Little Fingers" are an Irish Punk band from way back, they were originally named "Highway Star" (after the Deep Purple song). They've had 2 bass players, Ali McMordie originally. He was replaced by Bruce Foxton. If that name is unfamiliar, He was Paul Weller's bassist in "The Jam", who also is a pretty established producer. So that's 2 for you, The Jam are officially a post-punk band, but find Me an old school Punk Who doesn't have at least 1 record with BF on it. SLF - "Gotta Gettaway" it's got a bass lead and it's 3:35, maybe their longest song. The Jam - "That's Entertainment", lead bass. This band was very Rickenbacker for most of their music. In this song, there's no other electric guitar than the bass, 2 acoustic guitars fill it out. At 3:32 it's kind of long for The Jam as well.

Forgive me for another post - but the bass line on The Clash - White Riot (original 1977 version) is pretty memorable.

Suggestion: Refused - Summerholidays vs Punkroutine

Billy Bad Breaks by the Damned (with Paul Gray on bass, I think) is my favorite all time punk bass line.

Topper is a truly incredible drummer. If you listen to his drumming on the whole of London Calling it's phenomenal. Sidenote, Simonon is self-taught and had only been playing bass for ~3 years when this was recorded.

The bass playing is so good compared with other songs on that album, it's almost as if someone else played bass

Paul Simonon's tone is still one of my fave ones to this day.

Fun fact-That's Paul smashing his bass on the London Calling album cover. Was apparently his favourite bass and he regretted it. But what an album cover!

Paul Simonon is my all time favorite bass player. His playing was tasteful and had great tone. He was the embodiment of cool and inspired me to pick up the bass.

Rancid's album "Life Won't Wait" was heavily influenced by the Clash album "Sandinista!". Both are great albums worth checking out!

I’m 56 yo, try to stay relatively current with new music, and yet this has remained my all-time favorite album for decades now.

Magnificent 7 is just amazing! Some wicked syncopated riffs

Tasty bass by Simonon here indeed! Thanks for checking it out😀 Another suggestion: JJ Burnell from the band The Stranglers. They didnt consider themselves as punks but their first 3-4 records does definetively have a lot of punk in them. And the bass playing is outstanding by JJ Burnell (french parents) JJ also did the main vocals on a few of their songs such as «Something better change». Check out «Nice and Sleazy», «Get a grip on yourself», «Hangin around», «No more heroes» And why not check Scott Reeder of Kyuss. That man is all over the bass all the time! Tune down to C and enjoy! Excuse me if you already had those guys on your channel, Im new here.

If you're exploring British punk looking for interesting bassists to analyze, I recommend checking out The Stranglers. Their bassist, JJ Burnel, has a very unique approach, and an unmistakable crunchy bass tone.

Paul uses white Fender heavy 346 picks (I have one of his - a good friend of mine was in a popular band and hung out with Paul a bunch of times, and she gave me one of his picks since I'm a bassist). Paul was huge influence on many bassists (myself included; I have a 1980 white P-Bass) - even Duff McKagan cites Paul in this regard, which he said is why he plays a white P-Bass too!

I am a guitarist rather than a bass player but I love your videos dude. They are really fascinating and you explain the role of the bass playing in the songs really well. I am thinking of taking up the bass guitar once I am a little bit happier with my guitar playing. I don't see that as a relegation, as you have proven time and again, the bass is extremely important especially in punk rock. Keep up the great work dude 😀

Love this breakdown! Fastest bass player from this era of punk coming out of Europe... The Rezillos - Flying Saucer Attack The walking is absolutely insane!

I really appreciate all these deep dives into the theory and technique behind the bass parts to these songs. Through you I’m hearing songs I’ve loved for 20+ years through new ears, and it’s inspired me to re-listen to a lot of my favorite albums lately to see what nuances I can pick out that I may have missed before. If you’re looking for British punk suggestions to check out I cannot recommend Gang of Four highly enough. Pretty much anything off their first album would be worth breaking down.

Paul Simeon didn’t played at Bass before he joined the clash. They taught him how to play bass he joined the band for his. Looks go read the book last gang in town.

love hearing all these punk tunes covered, keep it up!

The bass line for this song has a cool beat and a smooth sound. I’m not as familiar with this song but it has made my list of songs to check out. Thanks for the video.😎

One of my all time favorite songs, didn't expect this one at all. Got London Calling tattooed on me as a wee youngin. Kind of surprised Guns of Brixton wasn't the clash pick but I definitely can't complain!

Check out the Vibrators - Whips and Furs. One of the coolest punk bass lines ever!

The Clash doing the Magnificent Seven of you want a deep bass line! Great Clash reaction!

This song gets me right in the feels. Probably my favourite Clash song.

The Specials! Nite Klub or maybe Concrete Jungle (there's a good live on KZfaq).

So happy you finally got around to it. The way he adds "something" to every song on that album elevates them. London Calling and Guns of Brixton are testaments to that. Both are pretty easy to play but genius

The whole of London Calling is brilliant. My favorite song and bassline is Rudie Can't Fail and the best groove on that album is Revolution Rock. Paul Simonon learned to play bass by listening to reggae because they were the only records with audible bass. Many of the basslines on LC were written by guitar player Mick Jones and taught to Paul, so the riffs are second hand but the groove is all Paul. He absolutely has a feel of his own that blends flawlessly with Topper Headon's drums and those songs come ALIVE.

Subhumans- From the Cradle to the Grave another long track lasting the full length of an LP

I feel like this song foreshadows both 80s Indie/New Wave and 90s Britpop.

Awesome! Everything I know about ska punk bass writing/ performing I learned from Matt Freeman & Paul Simonon.

Brit punk: the Damned, Crass, Slits, Poison Girls, Conflict, Discharge, Varukers, UK Subs, Adverts, Generation X (Billy Idol), Ruts, Doom, Zoundz, Wire 💥🇬🇧🏴‍☠️🎸

By the time of London Calling, The Clash weren't a punk band anymore - they had evolve to something cleaner, softer and groovier. I actually love both their punk debuts (their sophomore album is one of the best debut albums ever) and everything that followed untill Sandinista! (included). Saw them in '78 (punk) and '80 (London Calling era) - both great but very different concerts.

Before I even watch this video, let me just say that this has been my favorite clash song for as long as I've liked the clash. Mainly due to the fact that it's a very bass driven song. So it's pretty cool that someone requested it.

Suggestion for British punk: The Damned - Wait for the blackout, the bassist is Paul Gray

Great content, man!!

Crass. Bloody revolutions.

The algorithm brought me to this reason for whatever reason the algorithm has. I hope you get to really spend time listening to this album, it's amazing. Spanish Bombs is my personal favorite song from it.

London Calling might be favourite album , my big brother played it endlessly in our bedroom when I was about 11 years old. Not a typical punk record. I strongly recommend listening to the whole album.

"Lost In The Supermarket" is a great tune.

If you want to hear a great bassist from the British punk/pub era then check out Norman Watt-Roy, who played with Ian Dury, Wilko Johnson amongst others, and also, apparently if myths are true, played bass on some Clash tracks on Sandinista.

Suggestion: Lagwagon - Obsolete Absolute

a telling thing you said was 'its not a ballad but it feels like it' .. that's absolutely right. it sounds sad and thoughtful

Having such a great time watching you in your discovery of punk recently. Would love to see you reacting to some Sublime stuff from the 40oz album (can't actually decide one song). There's also this gentleness and warm and groove feel but very dancy and still punk. I bet you'll like it too! Cheers from a brazilian part-time bassist! :)

Oh hell yeah, my favorite Clash song!

This period is epic... ! Check Nothing left from Buzzcocks And The Damned ! Especially with bassist Paul Gray... he plays in Rickenbacker and was on Eddie and the Hot Rods and UFO too. From the Damned with him : Wait for the Blackout , 13th floor vendetta, Billy bad breaks, life goes on (stolen by Nirvana)...

Probably my favorite clash song good choice

‘Why Can’t I Touch it?’ Buzzcocks for more early British punk with killer bass.

London Calling was where The Clash strayed further from the more straightforward punk sound they had started out with. That's not necessarily a bad thing. As good as they were when sticking to a more raw punk sound, they had the talent to meld together a lot of different genres without it sounding cheesy or forced. It's an incredible album from start to finish.

My all time favorite band

Topper getting proper props on drums!

Please do a video on The Jam " A Town called Malice"

British punk? Have a listen to "No Rest" by New Model Army. While they might not recognise themselves as Punk, their fans kinda do, and there's a whole lot of very interesting bass playing by one Stuart Morrow. Or alternatively, listen to "My Country" from the same album. They were a trio at the time but sure knew how to fill out their sound.

From Rock Steady to Dub, P. Simonon was into Jamaican music, going to sound systems that has built his approach. I think that mattered a lot in his space building, as much as his sound (like JJ Burnel from the Stranglers).

I read that Mick Jones, the guitarist, actually recorded the bass for this one, but not sure about that. Perhaps some hardcore Clash people can chip in?

Also, another great British punk band and song... Everybody's Happy Nowadays, by The Buzzcocks.

Satanic Surfers from Sweden. Skate punk legends with legendary gnarly bass lines. ❤

I LOVE this song!

For British punk you need to do Wait for the Blackout by The Damned

Try with band from Belgrade, Sarlo Akrobata, song- Rano izjutra- 1981.

Stranglers!!! JJ is a beast!

That album cover of Paul about to bury his bass into the stage floor. Captured by Pennie Smith. The greatest rock photo ever taken

his playing is very atypical... the bass line of "train in vain" is strangely simple and difficult at the same time. You could take a look at it too 🙏

Listen to all of the songs from London Calling. Otherwise Guns of Brixton is a Simonon song. I'm not a bass player but he started in The Clash without knowning how to play at all. I must give him the credit for doing so much bass play that is still recognized today.

You should react to Morphine. The singer Mark Sandman plays a two-string slide bass.

Definitely check out Therapy by The Damned

Definitely check out Generation X. Everyone recognizes Billy Idol's voice, but the band behind him was doing some interesting stuff. Also recommend some of the female fronted bands like X-ray Spex and the Slits.

You need to check out The Warning’s 2 latest songs - Hell You Call A Dream (official live performance) and their just released performance video with studio audio, Automatic Sun (it goes so hard!)

I think you’d have a good time with the rest of the London Calling album as well

I love The Clash. This was a fun one. I would recommend Revolution by Authority Zero, Skeletons by Much The Same (great intro), and Fading Out by Mute. A good time to be had by all.

Though Paul is an amazing bass player, it's worth noting that Mick, Joe, Topper, and session musicians Mickey Gallagher and Norman Watt-Roy (from the Blockheads) have all wrote /played bass parts on Clash songs. Lost in the Supermarket always sounded like Mick to me.