From the start, the Clash has made a religion out of being non-conformists—either by rarely doing what would appear to be in thier best interests, or by refusing to fulfill people's expectations of them. The secret to all this, of course, is that they themselves don't know what's next on the agenda; their unpredictability isn't so much a smokescreen as a blank screen. As a result, a lot of speculative writing constantly dogs them. Every new record runs into the same futile argument: Are they true musical revolutionaries, discarding any style that has become uncomfortable, or are they merely dilettantes, easily bored and petulantly moving on to new toys?…

London Calling, all four sides of it, took in so much more musical territory than its predecessor, the hard-rocking, love-it-or-leave-it Give 'Em Enough Rope, that it left some listeners ummoved and uncertain about the Clash's new direction. Yet...