Even though they only played as a band for about 7 years, their legacy has continued, and on September 9 (in the UK) and September 10 (in the US), The Clash will be releasing Sound System, a 12 disk box set, shaped like an eighties boom box. A 33-track 2 CD best-of compilation, The Clash Hits Back will also be released September 9 and 10.
It’s sequenced to (nearly) mimic a set at Brixton Fair Deal from July 19, 1982, with the addition of eight tracks.
The set has re-mastered versions of their five studio albums; 1977’s The Clash, 1978’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope, 
1979’s London Calling, 1980’s Sandinista!, and 1982’s Combat Rock. It will also include video of their first recording session in 1976, unreleased demos from later that year, B-sides, remixes, outtakes, live cuts and all of their music videos.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently interviewed bassist Paul Simonon about the upcoming release in an article. He was mainly involved in the design and content of the box set and had this to say about it; “We hit upon the idea of making it a boombox, because the cassette-recorder boombox is a thing that every member of the Clash had and carried around. There’s quite a lot of photos of us traveling in all parts of the world playing music via our boomboxes.”
Guitarist Mick Jones was involved more in the music aspect as well as the re-mastering, and in the same Rolling Stone article Simonon described the importance of the work, “He said he was a bit skeptical about re-mastering until he experience what it meant. It doesn’t mean messing with the original record. He discovered when they initially transferred the music to CD they only got about 80 percent of the music. You weren’t hearing 20 percent of it. So now he’s found that 20 percent, and its 100 percent.”
I think Joe Strummer would be proud of this box set, and for any fan of rock n’ roll, this is going to be a piece of art that will represent the immortality of The Clash.
You can read the full Rollling Stone Interview with Paul Simonon by clicking HERE.
The Clash Links:
Joe Strummer; Remembering A Legend
The Clash – Sound System iTunes
The Clash Website
The Clash Facebook
Article By: Andrew McClatchy
Watch: The Clash – Sound System Cut Out Show
