Baba O'Riley

No, I haven't only just heard the One Direction "cover" of The Who's great song and been horrified at their cheek, that's old news, at least a month old, and as Pete Townshend has apparently come out and said it's fine - no IPR has been compromised, who would I be to argue anyway?

So why bring it up again? Well, I've just been having a bit of a "punk" day, and to cut a short story long, it began by listening to Sandinista!, the triple-album by The Clash, a follow up to the double London Calling. Incidentally that made me think "surely it was London's Burning?" but that was of course on the first album, along with White Riot and the wonderful cover of Police and Thieves. But back to Sandinista!. I'd never listened to it as I always thought it was rubbish, because that's what I'd heard or read (and a triple album is a bit of an investment when you're at college) but it's not rubbish at all. An hour into it on Spotify and I hadn't hit the "next track" button, which is pretty unheard of for me these days. Well worth a listen, which I guess means I have to give Fleetwood Mac's Tusk a spin, previously rejected for the same reason.

I enjoyed listening to Mick, Topper and Co, so much so that I figured a punk playlist was in order. The Damned, Buzzcocks, Ramones - the usual suspects. And then I got to playing X-Ray Spex. Germ-free Adolescents. Surely that's the song that 1D ripped off? Or X-RS ripped off from The Who? But still, no matter; as Townshend says, it's all three chord stuff, you can't have a copyright on that. So not really anything to say about it, is there?

I bet you're glad you came here now. You may as well at least listen to Poly Styrene, Laura Logic and the other :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGROSJbCPV8‎

One thing I also didn't know before today. Poly passed away peacefully in her sleep two years ago. Makes you think.