I was 11 when "London Calling" came out. The Wall, too, I guess. I listened to a little college radio station as a kid and they kept playing this song called "Train in Vain" that I liked by a band called The Clash so I knew I wanted to spend some of my yard mowing money on the album it was on. We had a little variety store in the small Southern Illinois town I grew up in that had a small album bin. I don't know who was responsible for buying music for it but I got some incredible albums there. I saved up my money and went to the store and they had a double Clash album called London Calling. Except Train in Vain wasn't on it! I coulda swore they said it was! I bought it anyway, took it home and put it on. And changed my life. All those amazing songs that sounded so foreign and so cool to a kid from Bumf*ck Illinois. AND, I had an early pressing. Train in Vain WAS on the album, of course, they just added it at the last second and had already printed the materials for the album. They literally scratched "Train In Vain" into the runoff. That album is worth a ton of money today but I either sold it in college (for drugs most likely) or lost it in a flood many years later. I don't remember. What I DO remember is dropping the needle on LC for the first time and feeling my brain being rewired.
There are obviously many great songs on that album but the 2 that got me the most are probably the 2 most throwaway songs on it. "The Card Cheat" and "The Right Profile". I don't know why. Maybe just because they were so different than the rest of the album. Plus, I thought "Profile" was funny
JadeRose wrote:
