Brand New Cadillac

New Heroes, 1979. The author is 2nd from right.

Every musician recalls their first band with great fondness, much like a first girlfriend. But even if the band was less than great, time has a way of putting a shine on things. I think it's because the memory is more about recalling our youth in a pleasant way. My first band happened in 1978 and we named it The New Heroes. The band was more like a club or a gang than any sort of proper business. We had no clue about any of that. We were young, loud and snotty, as that song went. The music was mostly New Wave (when the New Wave was new), Punk and a few 60's oldies given some extra horsepower. We played a lot of songs by popular artists of the day, such as Joe Jackson, The Romantics, Bram Tchaikovsky, Sex Pistols, The Cars, The Police and The Clash.

Ah yes, The Clash. We wanted to BE The Clash, though in our alcohol-fueled youthful ignorance, we didn't understand or even care what their politics were all about. But the songs rocked hard and that's what we understood very well. Besides doing some of their earlier songs, we played "Clampdown", "London Calling", and "Brand New Cadillac", all of which came from the monumentally great "London Calling" album.

The Clash themselves were by no means shy about recording cover versions of their own. Heavily influenced by early Ska and Reggae singles, as well as the burgeoning UK punk scene, The Clash simply adapted these songs to their capabilities. Junior Murvin's "Police And Thieves" and Eddy Grant's "Police On My Back" are not the least of these. Frankly, some of The Clash's more popular songs were covers, such as their take on Bobby Fuller's "I Fought The Law". I have a feeling this feature may be the first of a few featuring songs covered by The Clash. You'd be alright with that, wouldn't you?

For now, here's "Brand New Cadillac" from The Clash. If you feel like you should play it loud, then by all means, do it.

Vince Taylor

Just for the record, The Clash are very high on that short list I've got of bands that I really should have gone to see when I had the chance, but didn't have the 8 bucks for a ticket at the time. Truthfully, it's a rather long list.

The Clash picked up "Brand New Cadillac" from one Vince Taylor, one of the many 2nd shift Elvis clones, like Billy Fury, that had very successful runs in early 60's Britain and Europe, largely due to The King's MIA status of doing any live appearances over there. The style had already been blueprinted by Elvis, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis, but as a singer and performer, Taylor was apparently no slouch; infusing originals and covers with the requisite hiccuping vocal chops and vitality that won kids over. But there ain't nothin' like the real thing, and Taylor and his ilk ran very close to the parody figure of Conrad Birdie, from the Broadway and movie hit, "Bye Bye Birdie". Vince Taylor's personal story is characterized by sad tales of odd disappearances and mental illness that found the rocker eventually going off the deep end; reportedly becoming part of the inspiration for David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character in the process.

Here's Vince Taylor's hit recording of "Brand New Cadillac". The lyric is different enough that it leads me to believe that it's possible The Clash may have just pounded out their version, live in the studio, from off the top of their heads.

Your best bet for finding the recorded work of Vince Taylor is to visit Amazon, where they have a 3 disc box set, a 'best-of', and a few French import reissues. Vince was big in France, back in his day.

The entire catalog of The Clash, most of it being essential for your collection, has been remastered and repackaged for your perpetual enjoyment, and can be found at Amazon, or your local indie purveyor of musical discs and tapes, whom we heartily support.