History Music / CutTheCrap

* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: Not just for the semi-profane word "crap", but also, in choosing that title, they were opening themselves up to snarky critics making jokes about the title in reviews (along the lines of "the album should take its own advice").

* CrapsackWorld: "This is England" is about what the state of society in England had become at the time the album was recorded. Suffice to say that the lyrics don't seem to have aged well either.

''Cut the Crap'' is the sixth and final album by Music/TheClash, released in 1985. It's also the one that the band doesn't like to talk about, and not without good reason: the album was so heavily plagued by poor production and a ton of infighting and tanked so hard as a result of these tense circumstances that Joe Strummer was reportedly depressed and demotivated enough to call it quits with the Clash in 1986, not long after its release.

Things weren't going well even when the album was being recorded. Almost all of the original lineup had been dropped due to various problems that dogged them, and Bernie Rhodes had been brought back as the band's manager; Rhodes would ultimately bear the blame for the resulting backlash that the album had, as he was the one that tried to take full control of what the album should be like, let alone its production. Strummer wasn't happy with this power-grasping; the recording sessions were said to have been highly intense, to the point where he planned to name the album ''Out of Control'' as a TakeThat towards the situation before Rhoades overruled him and stuck ''Cut the Crap'' atop the record sleeve. In the end, Strummer ended up writing most of the songs, while Rhodes kept his grip on the album's production.

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon after in early 1986. The album is seen by critics, analysts, fans, and the public at large as a pariah in popular music, and in the Clash's own merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations, with "This is England" being the only source of representation it ever gets, if at all. Most official retrospective material about the Clash consequently leaves a vague chronological hole after ''Combat Rock'', hastily glossing over ''Cut the Crap'' and skipping straight to the band's dissolution in 1986. The closest the Clash ever got to acknowledging this album's existence was by permitting its inclusion in the 1999 remastering campaign of their back-catalog and by allowing it on streaming services-- even then, the arrival of ''Cut the Crap'' in both of these campaigns was a begrudging and heavily belated one, to the point where the turn-of-the-millennium remaster was [[NoExportForYou only released in Europe]].

* IntentionalyAwkwardTitle: Not just for the semi-profane word "crap", but also, in choosing that title, they were opening themselves up to snarky critics making jokes about the title in reviews (along the lines of "the album should take its own advice").

* AbsenteeMusician: Joe Strummer is the only Clash member to appear on most of the album. Guitarists Nick Sheppard and Vince White's contributions were almost entirely buried in the mix, while drummer Pete Howard and longtime bassist Paul Simonon's contributions were replaced entirely, the former with a drum machine, and the latter by session bassists.

* TitleOnlyChorus: Most of them.

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon after in early 1986. The album is seen by critics, analysts, fans, and the public at large as a pariah in popular music, and in the Clash's own merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations, with "This is England" being the only source of representation it ever gets, if at all. The closest the band ever got to acknowledging its existence was by permitting its inclusion in the 1999 remastering campaign of their back-catalog and by allowing it on streaming services-- even then, the arrival of ''Cut the Crap'' in both of these campaigns was a begrudging and heavily belated one, to the point where the turn-of-the-millennium remaster was [[NoExportForYou only released in Europe]].

However, a few songs, such as "This is England", were given praise nonetheless, and the album's songwriting is generally seen as on-par with previous Clash material-- it's the production that's the real issue. The album has also been VindicatedByHistory somewhat, but many Clash fans still see it as just tragic. Those who knew its troubled development have come to see it as a massive WhatCouldHaveBeen that went wrong due to the constant struggle for power that dogged the album's development; many others pretend that the album never happened. Bernie Rhodes meanwhile denied that the album flopping was his fault, blaming changing tastes and censorship. Nevertheless, the album remains to be the most infamous in their catalogue, and served as the GenreKiller for PunkRock as a mainstream force in the 1980s, with the genre returning to its underground roots and staying there from that point onwards (barring the brief PopPunk boom of the late 90's and early 2000's).

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon after in early 1986. The album is seen by critics, analysts, fans, and the public at large as a pariah in popular music, and in the Clash's own merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations, with "This is England" being the only source of representation it ever gets, if at all. The closest the band ever got to acknowledging its existence was by permitting its inclusion in the 1999 remastering campaign of their back-catalog and by allowing it on streaming services-- even then, the arrival of ''Cut the Crap'' in both of these campaigns was a begrudging and heavily belated one, to the point where the remaster for ''Cut the Crap'' was [[NoExportForYou only released in Europe]].

Cut the Crap is the sixth and last album by the Clash, released in 1985. It's also the one that the band doesn't like to talk about, and was one of the major reasons for their break-up in 1986. The album was plagued poor production and a ton of infighting to the point that the album tanked, so hard in fact that Joe Strummer was reportedly depressed and demotivated to the point that he decided to call it quits with the Clash not long after its release.

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon after in early 1986. In The Clash's merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations. The closest the band ever got to acknowledging its existence was by permitting its inclusion in the 1999 remastering campaign of their back-catalog-- and even then it was [[NoExportForYou only begrudgingly released in Europe]] in 2000, a year after all their other albums were remastered and re-released.

However, a few songs, such as "This is England", were given praise nonetheless, and the album's songwriting is generally seen as on-par with previous Clash material-- it's the production that's the real issue. The album has also been VindicatedByHistory somewhat, but many Clash fans still see it as just tragic. Those who knew its troubled development have come to see it as a massive WhatCouldHaveBeen that went wrong due to the constant struggle for power that dogged the album's development. Many others pretend that the album never happened. Bernie Rhodes meanwhile denied that the album flopping was his fault, blaming changing tastes and censorship. Nevertheless, the album remains to be the most infamous in their catalogue, and served as the GenreKiller for PunkRock as a mainstream force in the 1980s, with the genre returning to its underground roots and staying there from that point onwards (barring the brief PopPunk boom of the late 90's and early 2000's).

* IndecipherableLyrics: "Dictator" suffers from this thanks to murkiness and electronic cacophony Rhodes' mixing.

Cut the Crap is the sixth and last album by the Clash, released in 1985. It's also the one that the band doesn't like to talk about, and was one of the major reasons for their break-up in 1986. The album was plagued poor production and a ton of infighting to the point that the album tanked, so hard in fact that Joe Strummer was reportedly depressed and demotivated to the point that he decided to call it quits with The Clash not long after its release.

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems— Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon after in early 1986. In The Clash's merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations.

However, a few songs, such as "This is England", were given praise nonetheless, and the album's songwriting is generally seen as on-par with previous Clash material— it's the production that's the real issue. The album has also been VindicatedByHistory somewhat, but many Clash fans still see it as just tragic. Those who knew its troubled development have come to see it as a massive WhatCouldHaveBeen that went wrong due to the constant struggle for power that dogged the album's development. Many others pretend that the album never happened. Bernie Rhodes meanwhile denied that the album flopping was his fault, blaming changing tastes and censorship. Nevertheless, the album remains to be the most infamous in their catalogue, and served as the GenreKiller for Punk Rock in the 1980s.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[StreisandEffect The one album they don't want you to hear.]] And good God is it not worth hearing.]]

-> "It's amazing that The Clash can really lay claim to [[Music/LondonCalling one of the best albums ever in rock]] and one of the ''worst'' albums ever in rock."
-->--'''[[WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop Anthony Fantano]]''', [[https://youtu.be/ijSNFrieKe8 "The Clash Tier List"]]

Oh dear... ''that'' album...

If you're curious as to why there seems to be a rather vague chronological void in Music/TheClash's history after ''Combat Rock'', there's a good reason for that. The unfortunately named ''Cut the Crap'' is the sixth and last album by the Clash, released in 1985. Let's just say that it was messed up so badly by poor production and a ton of infighting that the album (unsurprisingly) tanked, and it's still seen as a strange album to this day-- many who have heard it like to pretend that it never happened, and those who do acknowledge its existence regard it as a cautionary tale about how ''not'' to produce a record. The album tanked so hard in fact that Joe Strummer was reportedly depressed and demotivated to the point that he decided to call it quits with The Clash not long after its release. Yep, this album pretty much destroyed The Clash. In case you need convincing any further as to how much of a disaster this album was, ''even The Clash themselves were horrified by this album''.

Things weren't going well even when the album was being recorded. Almost all of the original lineup had been dropped due to various problems that dogged them, and Bernie Rhodes had been brought back as the band's manager; Rhodes would ultimately bear the blame for the resulting backlash that the album had-- and quite rightly too, because he was the one that tried to take full control of what the album should be like, let alone its production. Strummer, unsurprisingly, wasn't happy with this power-grasping at all; the recording sessions were said to have been highly intense, to the point where he planned to name the album ''Out of Control'' as a TakeThat towards the situation before Rhoades overruled him and stuck ''Cut the Crap'' atop the record sleeve. In the end, Strummer ended up writing most of the songs, while Rhodes kept his grip on the album's production. And oh '''man''', did it go wrong.

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon after in early 1986. In The Clash's merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations. That's how much The Clash hated this album. To this day, it ranks alongside ''Music/LetItBe'' by Music/TheBeatles and ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' by Music/DavidBowie as a prime example of how poorly-handled and overblown production can kill an album regardless of the songwriting's quality.

It's not all doom and gloom though. A few songs, such as "This is England", were given praise nonetheless, and the album's songwriting is generally seen as on-par with previous Clash material-- it's the production that's the real issue. The album has also been VindicatedByHistory somewhat, but many Clash fans still see it as just tragic. Those who knew its troubled development have come to see it as a massive WhatCouldHaveBeen that went wrong due to the constant struggle for power that dogged the album's development. Many others pretend that the album never happened. Bernie Rhodes meanwhile ended up having to live with the fact that he produced an album so bad, it was ridiculed by not just the fans and the critics, but ''the band itself''. That's not something you find out every day.

* IndecipherableLyrics: "Dictator" suffers from this thanks to the cavalcade of electronic fuckery throughout Rhodes' mixing.

* TheOathBreaker: During production, this album was meant to be another brilliant chapter of success for The Clash. One that might have kept them going into the late 80s and possibly the 90s had it succeeded. Well, heh... no. Once you've heard this album, you'll likely never think of The Clash in the same way again. Do so at your own peril.

-> "There's 'bad', then there's 'so bad it's good', and then there's this."
-->--[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQOorbmPSRs&lc=Ugz8jp21VBo8mu3TXv94AaABAg A YouTube comment on 'Dictator']]

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon afterwards. In The Clash's merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations. That's how much The Clash hated this album. To this day, it ranks alongside ''Music/LetItBe'' by Music/TheBeatles and ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' by Music/DavidBowie as a prime example of how poorly-handled and overblown production can kill an album regardless of the songwriting's quality.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[StreisandEffect The one album they don't want you to see.]] ]]

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems-- Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out (not helped by the fact that people mistakenly thought that the "Jose Unidos" pseudonym for Rhoades was referring to himself), declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life, and disbanded the Clash soon afterwards. In The Clash's merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson: very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations. That's how much The Clash hated this album.

It's not all doom and gloom though. A few songs, such as "This is England", were given praise nonetheless. The album has also been VindicatedByHistory somewhat, but many Clash fans still see it as just tragic. Those who knew its troubled development have come to see it as a massive WhatCouldHaveBeen that went wrong due to the constant struggle for power that dogged the album's development. Many others pretend that the album never happened. Bernie Rhodes meanwhile ended up having to live with the fact that he produced an album so bad, it was ridiculed by not just the fans and the critics, but ''the band itself''. That's not something you find out every day.

-> “It’s amazing that The Clash can really lay claim to [[Music/LondonCalling one of the best albums ever in rock]], and one of the worst albums ever in rock.”
-->--'''[[WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop Anthony Fantano]]''', [[https://youtu.be/ijSNFrieKe8 “The Clash Tier List”]]

Oh dear... ''that album...''

If you're curious as to why there seems to be a rather vague chronological void after Combat Rock, there's a good reason for that. The unfortunately named ''Cut the Crap'' is the sixth and last album by Music/TheClash, released in 1985. Let's just say that it was messed up so badly by poor production and a ton of infighting that the album (unsurprisingly) tanked, and it's still seen as a strange album to this day - many who have heard it like to pretend that it never happened. The album tanked so hard in fact that Joe Strummer was reportedly depressed and demotivated to the point that he decided to call it quits with The Clash not long after its release. Yep, this album pretty much destroyed The Clash. In case you need convincing any further as to how much of a disaster this album was, ''even The Clash themselves were horrified by this album''.

Things weren't going well even when the album was being recorded. Almost all of the original lineup had been dropped due to various problems that dogged them, and Bernie Rhodes had been brought back as the band's manager; Rhodes would ultimately bear the blame for the resulting backlash that the album had - and quite rightly too, because he was the one that tried to take full control of what the album should be like, let alone its production. Strummer, unsurprisingly, wasn't happy with this power-grasping at all; the recording sessions were said to have been highly intense. In the end, Strummer ended up writing most of the songs, while Rhodes kept his grip on the album's production. And oh '''man''', did it go wrong.

When released, the album was shelled with ridicule from critics and fans alike. Flopping in the record stores and the charts was only the least of The Clash's problems - Joe Strummer himself was personally horrified as to how the album turned out and declared it to be an OldShame for the rest of his life. The Clash itself called it quits soon afterwards. In The Clash's merchandise, the album is pretty much treated as an UnPerson. Very little is mentioned about it in their history books (if at all), and it is completely omitted from box sets and compilations. That's how much The Clash hated this album.

It's not all doom and gloom though. A few songs, such as "This is England", were given praise nonetheless. The album has also been VindicatedByHistory somewhat, but many Clash fans still see it as just tragic. Those who knew its troubled development have come to see it as a massive WhatCouldHaveBeen that went wrong due to the little struggle for power that dogged the album's development. Many others pretend that the album never happened. Bernie Rhodes meanwhile ended up having to live with the fact that he produced an album so bad, it was ridiculed by not just the fans and the critics, but ''the band itself''. That's not something you find out every day.

[[caption-width-right:350:An unfortunate title for a tragic album.]]

If you're curious as to why there seems to be a rather vague chronological void after Combat Rock, there's a good reason for that. The unfortunately named ''Cut the Crap'' is the sixth and last album by Music/TheClash, released in 1985. It was messed up so badly by poor production that the album tanked, and it's still seen as a strange album to this day. It tanked so hard in fact that Joe Strummer was said to have been depressed to the point that he disbanded The Clash not long afterwards. Yep, this album pretty much destroyed The Clash. In case you need convincing any further as to how much of a disaster this album was, ''even The Clash themselves were horrified by this album''.

* TheOathBreaker: During production, this album was meant to be another brilliant chapter of success for The Clash. One that might have kept them going into the late 80s and possibly the 90s had it succeeded. Well, heh... no. Once you've heard this album, you'll likely never think of The Clash in the same way again. Do so at your own peril.

--> --[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQOorbmPSRs&lc=Ugz8jp21VBo8mu3TXv94AaABAg A YouTube comment on 'Dictator']]

* TheOathBreaker: Once you've heard this album, you'll likely never think of The Clash in the same way again. Do so at your own peril.

* TheOathBreaker: Once you've heard this album, you'll likely never think of The Clash in the same way again. Do so at your own peril.
* TroubledProduction: The album suffered from this spectacularly.

Oh dear... ''That album...''