The Clash -- "Bankrobber"
Of course, the single of "Bankrobber" is a great track, and I'm not one of those people who insists that The Clash were only at their best during their live shows, but the live version of this song from the June 9, 1981, performance at Bond's International Casino in Times Square is, quite simply, one of the best-ever recordings of one of the best-ever bands. The bootleg of this show, taken from an FM radio broadcast, is pretty high quality, and the band was at its peak in the summer of 1981. The Clash had, for a little while at least, become a New York band, and they sound as if they are playing on home turf here at the end of a long string of over-capacity shows in New York. DeNiro was there. The young Beastie Boys were there. Fab Five Freddy was there. I don't think Andy Warhol was there, but he would show up next year when the band played Shea Stadium.
Joe Strummer was there, of course, doing what Joe Strummer did best. His lyrics here take the romanticized idea of robber as folk hero and give it a bit of a West Indian send-up. Mick Jones was playing a pretty laid-back role in versions of the song from about this time. If you listen to earlier live versions of the song, you can tell that he couldn't quite figure out at first what to do here--this is not a guitar-powered song--but now he's got it figured out: don't do much of anything. Instead, the bass and drums drive the song, and Topper Headon is at his absolute best. Subtlety is not exactly the right word to describe Topper's drumming, but it is a far, far cry from the John Bonham school of pounding the skins. Finesse is a good word. Rapid-fire. The galloping beat that drives the last set of choruses is one of the greatest triumphs of his career.
Just so you get the right version of the song, here's a link to the song on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXxdAIFVcAM&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL34C99A19FFEBCDE2
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