On reflection, the British punk movement was perhaps defined less by the music that came out of it and more by the attitude and energy that went into it. Style and guile often prevailed over ability; independence over commercial or even critical success.
You didn’t have to play great, you just needed a reason to get up and play. It was about the freedom to create. It was about honesty. It was about swagger.
And so, while Mick Jones and Joe Strummer were responsible for the bulk of The Clash’s output, you could say bassist and co-founder Paul Simonon epitomised the band’s punk ethos to a far greater degree. He was the heart, the soul and, crucially, the style of The Clash. And remains one of the genre’s most iconic figures.
Brought up in Brixton, Simonon was the son of an artist and librarian and was all set for the Byam Shaw School of Art before he met Mick Jones in 1976 and formed The Clash. Jones and Strummer were the primary musicians and would initially write the bass parts for Simonon to play. Simonon was chiefly responsible for the band’s look, vision, artwork and name. But he worked damn hard on his musicianship too and in time forged his own unique playing identity.
It wasn’t until the third album, the seminal London’s Calling, that Paul got a writing credit. His first full-song contribution was The Guns Of Brixton. Full of snarly, effortless cool and cross-pollinating subculture insight, it was quite the arrival. The song’s defining slouchy bassline was later sampled by Norman Cook for Beats International’s number one hit Dub Be Good To Me.
As his musical contribution to the band increased, Simonon developed a fluid yet combative style that shone through many of their most notable efforts – Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Straight To Hell and This Is Radio Clash to name just a few. His basslines were rarely complex but were very often clever, impactful and memorable – and drew on numerous socio and musical influences.
Simonon was instrumental in bringing dub and reggae sounds into the band – and into the punk arena in general. As he once said in an interview: “I couldn’t hear the bass on The Who, but with reggae I could work out the basslines and play along…. Each bassline in Jamaican music, to me anyway, was a bit like how you move your feet. It’s like how you dance to it.”
Simonon started out playing a Rickenbacker but switched to the meatier mid 70s Fender Precision Bass, which was far better suited to his aggressive all-action stage persona. Simonon wrestled with the bass in more ways than one one. Slung low, angled down, he would play hard, often causing himself serious shoulder damage.
A gig in New York in 1979 resulted in the infamous cover image for London Calling, where Simonon wielded his Fender Precision vertically downwards with furious abandon, axe-like into the stage. Immortalised in the album’s artwork, it is one of punk’s most enduring images. A statement of intent.
As if to perfect the look, Simonon had slapped a skull and crossbones sticker on the body, added drip painting to the pick guard and scrawled “PRESSURE” across the top.
When The Clash disbanded in 1986, Simonon continued to work as an artist and musician with The Good, The Band and The Queen and Havana 3am. He also appeared on Bob Dylan’s Down in the Groove and Plastic Beach by Gorillaz. Simonon’s purposeful dub style has been a prominent feature in Damon Albarn’s projects and suits the Blur man’s desire for melodic, quirky, shape-shifting pop.
Paul Simonon’s: Five Defining Basslines
The Guns Of Brixton
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Plastic Beach (Gorillaz)
This Is Radio Clash
Gun To The Head (The Good, The Bad & The Queen)
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