The Clash's epic song "The Card Cheat" impresses me more and more as time goes by. At the time they recorded it I'm sure no one was expecting them to venture so far into Elton John territory, to the extent that doing so posed a real risk.
I've never considered the possibility of having stuffed animals act out the lyrics. It's a memorable effect. Kind of reminds me of Stepan Chapman's "Revenge of the Calico Cat".
2 comments:
Was there controversy about the piano riff sounding like Elton John's style? It does a bit but the thought never occurred to me. Jerry Lee Lewis and Leon Russell were pretty rocking piano players too - among a number of musicians. Come to think of it Chico Marx always makes me smile too. (Imagine those boys as a band - hard to not now, eh?)
That was a pretty neat little video. Then again, the song is too good to have any video spoil. I wish we'd seen them live - the closest we got was seeing Big Audio Dynamite.
Oh, I was just thinking that people already had prejudices about what a punk band could sound like, and what the Clash should sound like. They were outside-the-box thinkers, though, and took in other influences. It's not exclusively an Elton John think, although the grand piano helps. It's also a little late-Beatles.
I'm sure it must have been a thrill to see them live. Really it seems like there were just a couple of years where they were touring in the US. Of course Big Audio Dynamite sound like they were a thrill too.
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