The Clash in first tracks

Wednesday I was listening to “The First Collection” by punk-indie band Lemuria, and I found myself replaying the first track, “Hours,” for hours and hours. But all puns aside, I realized that both of Lemuria’s albums have the best songs up front.

I feel that’s how it should be with any album.

I’m not saying that the best song should be the first track; I’m just saying it should showcase what an album is all about. The Clash understood this.

In the spring of 1977, an album hit stores in Britain. The cover was a black and white band photo with a green border, and at the bottom, almost scribbled in orange letters, read “The Clash.” If you didn’t know what you were getting into, the first track would let you know.

The drums kick in, and we hear small chimes of a slicing guitar. Joe Strummer starts singing in his sneering voice. You can almost smell his working-class attitude.

The band is blasting through, and at two minutes and seven seconds, the lead track “Janie Jones” is nearly finished before it begins.

It’s so catchy that you can sing along without even realizing its lyrics are telling the story of a pop singer willing to have sex with disc jockeys for airplay.

The ode to Janie Jones shows us what the album is all about — short, punchy jaunts that you can dance to, with Joe Strummer’s smart and witty lyrics. The Clash can get political and tackle topics such as race riots and the struggles of the working class without losing its danceable edge.

By track one of 1978’s “Give ’Em Enough Rope,” we get a reiteration of what the band is.

“Safe European Home” hits hard. The band comes in like Olympic sprinters at the sound of the first drum beat. Strummer is singing about an ill-fated trip to Jamaica, while Mick Jones comes in with backup vocals.

The song is full of changes and breakdowns, and at almost four minutes, the band teaches us that they haven’t changed, they’ve just gotten better. The band’s second album, while not as good as its first, shows us that The Clash is building on its creative power, just as this first track builds on “Janie Jones.”

In December 1979, the band released one of the best albums in history. “London Calling” starts with Jones skanking hard on guitar while Paul brings in a booming bass riff. The band is tight. The band is firing on all cylinders, everyone playing his heart out.

This is how music should sound. This is an intro to the best double album of all time — a combination of styles delivered as powerfully as Strummer’s howling on its title track. This is a perfect song to lead into the perfect album.

We knew The Clash was exploring the idea of what punk was, but when you play track one of its overblown “Sandinista!” we see how far the band has really come. In about one year, The Clash went from being the best band in rock music to making a hip-hop record.

“Magnificent Seven” is a great song; it’s catchy with memorable lyrics, but at five and a half minutes, this is not The Clash.

Sure enough, just like the first song, this album is a long exploration of styles. Just as “Magnificent Seven,” it has great moments, but it really shows us how The Clash has dropped the ball.

By 1982’s “Combat Rock” we see The Clash at a political height, and the lead track “Know Your Rights” lets us see this. It’s a jaunty song with a funky bass and a nice shuffle beat. It’s a good song, but it comes out of nowhere.

“Know your Rights” is a good song, but nobody wants an entire album of it — certainly not when it’s coming from what people dubbed as “The only band that matters.”

By 1985 the band was done, and the crap-tastic “Dictator” is a perfect introduction to the ironically titled, “Cut the Crap.” It is a travesty to even think that this song is from the band that brought us “London Calling.”

I’m sad to think that The Clash didn’t make more music, but when I think of this song I’m glad it broke up before there was a chance to further tarnish its legacy of great albums led by great first tracks.