This Is Big Audio Dynamite | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1 November 1985 [1] | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 43:09 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Mick Jones | |||
Big Audio Dynamite chronology | ||||
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Singles from This is Big Audio Dynamite | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B− [4] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
The Great Rock Discography | 7/10 [6] |
Mojo | [7] |
MusicHound | 4/5 [8] |
PopMatters | 7/10 [9] |
Record Mirror | 4/5 [10] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [11] |
Smash Hits | 7/10 [12] |
This Is Big Audio Dynamite is the debut studio album by the English band Big Audio Dynamite, led by Mick Jones, the former lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Clash. It was released on 1 November 1985 by Columbia Records. The album peaked at No. 27 on the UK Albums Chart and at No. 103 on the Billboard 200, and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Three singles were released from the album, all of which charted in the UK. "The Bottom Line" released a month before the album, barely made the Top 100, peaking at No. 97, becoming their lowest charting single, whereas its follow-up single "E=MC²" released in 1986, became their only Top 20 hit, peaking at No. 11, and becoming their best-selling single. The final single from the album, "Medicine Show" also released in 1986, became their last single to chart within the Top 40 under the original line-up, peaking at No. 29. The music video for "Medicine Show", directed by Don Letts, featured two other former members of the Clash, Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon as police officers as well as John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd.
A remastered Legacy Edition was released in 2010 with a second disc composed of alternate mixes and versions. In 2016, independent vinyl reissue label Intervention Records reissued the album on 180-gram vinyl. [13]
The album's cover depicts most of the band dressed in cowboy clothing as a four piece band, minus keyboardist Dan Donovan who took and designed the photo.
Lenny Kaye at Spin said, " It's not an easy album and rewards repeated listenings. The beat-box rhythms, the sing-along choruses, the special effects and voice-overs, the impressionistic lyrics whose scattered imagery creates its effect through cumulative force rather than narrative—we are far removed from the Clash's explicit political statements." [14]
All tracks are written by Mick Jones and Don Letts, except where noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Medicine Show" | 6:29 | |
2. | "Sony" | 4:30 | |
3. | "E=MC²" | 5:54 | |
4. | "The Bottom Line" | Mick Jones | 4:35 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
5. | "A Party" | 6:40 |
6. | "Sudden Impact!" | 5:03 |
7. | "Stone Thames" | 4:05 |
8. | "BAD" | 5:54 |
Total length: | 43:09 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Medicine Show" (12-inch remix) | 7:10 |
2. | "Sony Dub" | 4:15 |
3. | "E=MC2" (12-inch remix) | 6:31 |
4. | "The Bottom Line" (12-inch remix, edit version) | 7:20 |
5. | "A Party Dub" | 7:01 |
6. | "Sudden Impact" (12-inch mix) | 6:07 |
7. | "Stone Thames" (12-inch mix) | 6:18 |
8. | "BAD" (Vocoder version) | 6:28 |
9. | "Electric Vandal" | 3:22 |
10. | "Albert Einstein Meets the Human Beatbox" | 5:35 |
11. | "BAD" (US 12-inch remix) | 6:16 |
12. | "This Is Big Audio Dynamite" (7-inch non-LP B-side) | 3:44 |
Credits are adapted from the This Is Big Audio Dynamite liner notes. [15]
Big Audio Dynamite
Production and artwork
Medicine Show
Sampled liberally throughout this song are sound bites from four motion pictures, three of them Spaghetti Westerns. This list is based on order of appearance.
Sony
E=MC²
Sudden Impact
Big Audio Dynamite were an English band, formed in London in 1984 by Mick Jones, former lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Clash. The band mixed various musical styles, incorporating elements of punk rock, dance music, hip hop, reggae, and funk. After releasing a number of well-received studio albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Big Audio Dynamite broke up in 1997. In 2011, the band embarked on a reunion tour.
The Clash were an English rock band that formed in London in 1976 and were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they used elements of reggae, dub, funk, ska, and rockabilly, and they contributed to the post-punk and new wave movements that followed punk. For most of their recording career, the Clash consisted of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer, lead guitarist and vocalist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon, and drummer Nicky "Topper" Headon.
The Clash is the debut studio album by the English punk rock band the Clash, released on 8 April 1977 through CBS Records. Recorded and mixed over three weeks in February 1977 for £4,000, it would go on to reach No. 12 on the UK charts, and has been included on many retrospective rankings as one of the greatest punk albums of all time.
Super Black Market Clash is a 1993 compilation album released by the English punk rock band The Clash. It contains B-sides and rare tracks not available on the group's regular studio albums. The album is an expanded repackaging of the 1980 release Black Market Clash, a 10-inch EP containing nine songs. The man in the foreground of the front cover art on both releases is Don Letts, who worked with The Clash on several projects and later was a founding member of Big Audio Dynamite.
Michael Geoffrey Jones is a British musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as co-founder and lead guitarist of punk rock band the Clash, until his dismissal by frontman Joe Strummer in 1983. In 1984, he formed Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts. Jones has played with the band Carbon/Silicon along with Tony James since 2002 and was part of the Gorillaz live band for a world tour in 2010–2011. In late 2011, Jones collaborated with Pete Wylie and members of the Farm to form the Justice Tonight Band.
Dreadzone are a British electronic music group formed in 1993 in London by ex-Big Audio Dynamite drummer Greg Roberts and musician Tim Bran. They have released eight studio albums, two live albums, and two compilations.
The Globe is the sixth album by alternative dance group Big Audio Dynamite II, their second album credited under that name instead of Big Audio Dynamite. It was released on 16 July 1991 in the United States, and in August elsewhere else, just after their limited UK-only album Kool-Aid and includes reworked versions of some of its songs. The Globe was certified Gold by the RIAA. Some CD versions came with the live album Ally Pally Paradiso as an additional disc.
"(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash. It was originally released as a 7-inch single, with the b-side "The Prisoner", on 16 June 1978 through CBS Records.
The discography of the British punk rock band the Clash consists of six studio albums, two extended plays, two live albums and 31 singles.
No. 10, Upping St. is the second studio album by the English band Big Audio Dynamite, led by Mick Jones, the former lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Clash. The album's title is a pun on 10 Downing Street, the headquarters of the Government of the United Kingdom. The album reunited Jones for one album with former Clash bandmate Joe Strummer, who was a co-producer of the album and co-writer of 5 of its 9 songs.
Megatop Phoenix is the fourth and final studio album by the original line-up of English band Big Audio Dynamite, released on 4 September 1989 by CBS Records. Mick Jones and Bill Price produced the album. It was recorded at the Kinks' Konk Studios in Hornsey, London, who were considered an inspiration in the album's liner notes.
Leo Williams, also known as E-Zee Kill, is an English-Jamaican bassist residing in the United Kingdom.
Tighten Up Vol. 88 is the third studio album by the English band Big Audio Dynamite, released in June 1988 by Columbia Records. The album peaked at No. 33 on the UK Albums Chart and at No. 102 on the Billboard 200 but was their first not to receive a certification.
"E=MC2" is a 1986 single by the English band Big Audio Dynamite, released as the second single from their debut studio album, This Is Big Audio Dynamite (1985). The song was the band's first Top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 11. Additionally, it peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the United States. The song features prominent dialogue samples from the crime drama film Performance (1970). The song is also played during the opening titles of the French movie Forces spéciales (2011).
Planet B.A.D. is a compilation album by Big Audio Dynamite. The album was released 12 September 1995.
Super Hits is a compilation album by Big Audio Dynamite. The album was released on 4 May 1999.
"V. Thirteen" is a song by the English band Big Audio Dynamite, released as both a 7" and 12" single from their second studio album, No. 10, Upping St. (1986). "V. Thirteen" was one of 5 tracks that former Clash lyricist and lead vocalist Joe Strummer co-wrote with Mick Jones on the album who also co-produced the album, including this single, with Jones. Following the disappointing sales of "C'mon Every Beatbox", "V. Thirteen" was released as the second single from the album, charting slightly higher by peaking at No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart, and No. 15 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs.
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash from their fifth studio album Combat Rock, written in 1981 and featuring Mick Jones on lead vocals. It was released in 1982 as a double A-sided single alongside "Straight to Hell", performing modestly on global music charts. In the United States, "Should I Stay or Should I Go" charted on the Billboard Hot 100 without reaching the top 40. The song received greater attention nearly a decade later as the result of an early-1990s Levi's jeans commercial, leading to the song's 1991 re-release, which topped the UK Singles Chart and reached the top 10 in New Zealand and many European charts. The song was listed in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.
"The Bottom Line" is a song by English alternative dance band Big Audio Dynamite, released as both a 7" and 12" single from their debut studio album, This Is Big Audio Dynamite (1985). It was written, and produced by Mick Jones, his debut single with a band singing lead vocals since being fired from the Clash in 1983. Whilst not a hit in their home country, peaking at No. 97 on the UK Singles Chart, it was a Top 40 hit in Australasia, peaking at No. 34 on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart, and No. 38 on New Zealand's Recorded Music NZ chart.
"Medicine Show" is a song by English band Big Audio Dynamite, released as both a 7" and 12" single from their debut studio album, This Is Big Audio Dynamite (1985). Written by Mick Jones and Don Letts about a fictitious medicine show, and following the success of "E=MC2", "Medicine Show" was released as the third and final single from the album, peaking at No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart, and No. 42 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was their final top 40 single in the UK with the original line-up.
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