:: cocktail rock: drinks inspired by the clash ::

I recall my amazement back in 1982 when The Clash’s video for “Rock the Casbah” came on MTV. The edgy haircuts, the musicians stomping in the sand in front of an oil rig, the military-cut outfits, and of course the armadillo running by in various scenes caught my attention as something very different from the new wave and pop videos that station had been playing. I got exposed further to the band when my brother bought the 2-CD set of The Story of the Clash, but my true education of fitting The Clash into the scope of things was when I became a radio DJ at WHRB’s punk, hardcore, and experimental programming, the Record Hospital, during graduate school. There, I had access to music that had similar political messaging as well as punk that hybridized with reggae, rockabilly, and other influences. The Clash formed in 1976 in the early moments of the British punk scene around a year after the Sex Pistols began and concurrent with groups like The Damned, The Vibrators, and The Jam. The original band line up consisted of Mick Jones and Joe Strummer on both guitars and vocals, Paul Simonon on bass, and Terry Chimes on drums. Chimes’ initial time with the band was short for he was replaced by Topper Headon in May 1977 soon after the release of their first album, and the roster remained more or less as such until Headon was kicked out until he beat his drug habit and until the band was officially retired with Strummer’s death in 2002. Joe Strummer in a New Musical Express article in late 1976 described the band’s manifesto as “I think people ought to know that we’re anti-fascist, we’re anti-violence, we’re anti-racist and we’re pro-creative. We’re against ignorance.”

The band’s sound over the years fused their version of punk with reggae, dub, jazz, ska, funk, rockabilly, and hip hop throughout their tenure, and they sung about issues including racism, drugs, classism, aristocracy, police, and government overreach. The ties to Jamaican music were most strongly linked to bassist Simonon who grew up in heavily black neighborhoods in London where he bonded with the West Indian population there and witnessed police actions that rang out as institutionally racist to him. The band’s progressive voice was rather radical for the times and ventured into socialist, humanist, and anti-capitalist realms at various points.

It is hard to do The Clash justice in just a few paragraphs, so here are a few highlights. The most iconic image of the band is Simonon at a 1979 show smashing his bass in frustration of how the bouncers were treating the audience (see the final image below). In 1981, the group invited hip hop acts like the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash to open for them, and this appreciation and cross-pollination also reared itself in songs like “The Magnificent Seven” and later in Jones and Strummer’s side project Big Audio Dynamite. In more modern times, their “Straight to Hell” song about societal injustices circa 1982 was sampled into the pro-immigrant 2008 hit “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.

For this project, I asked bartenders to help me by submitting cocktails based on songs or lyrics from The Clash, and if they were up to it, explaining how and why they connected to the band and song in creating the recipes. With stirrings of rebellion, political consciousness, and humanitarian issues in current day society, it felt like the right time to pay respect to The Clash with this cocktail biopic.

London Calling
1 1/2 oz London Dry Gin
1/2 oz Fino Sherry
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
2 dash Orange Bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with an expressed grapefruit twist.

It felt like a slight not to include this drink invented at London’s Milk & Honey by Chris Jepson. He submitted the drink to a cocktail competition hosted by Drinks International in 2002, and it has become a modern gin staple. The Gin Sour with fino sherry tribute to The Clash’s 1979 song has a classic feel to it reminding me of the dry vermouth version, the Laughing Soup, from Boothby’s 1934 World Drinks and How to Mix Them although others have associated it with the Barbara West also from the 1930s.

Death or Glory
3/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum
3/4 oz Old Monk Rum
1/2 oz Angostura Bitters
1 oz Cherry Heering
1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass, and garnish with an expressed lemon twist.

The first The Clash-named drink that I personally had was this one paying respect to the 1979 song “Death or Glory”. It was created at Trina’s Starlite Lounge in Somerville, MA, in 2013 by one of the co-owners Beau Sturm and was included in my second book, Boston Cocktails: Drunk & Told. Both Beau and co-owner Josh Childs have had some bangers of musically-inspired drink names on the menu, and this one lured me in when Angostura Bitters was the third ingredient in the description instead of last. If love and hate were tattooed across the knuckles of my hands, I would be raising up the former in the approval given the elegant balance of this complex recipe.

Clash City Rockers
1 1/4 oz Rum-Bar Gold Rum
3/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1/2 oz Akashi-Tai Yuzu Sake
1/2 oz Passion Fruit Purée
1/2 oz Honey Syrup (3:1)
1/2 oz Clementine Juice
1 dash Orange Blossom Water
1 pinch Salt

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a dehydrated clementine slice.

Gergő Muráth dubbed this drink after one of The Clash’s singles released following their first album in the UK that was later included in the American release of said debut. Gergő developed it in 2019 while bartending at Trailer Happiness in the same London district, namely Notting Hill, that The Clash first called home. He picked the name for it is one of his favorite songs from the band, and he appreciated its connection to other musicians such as reggae DJ and producer Prince Far-I who are mentioned in the lyrics. The pair of Jamaican rums is duly noted here.

Rums of Brixton
3/4 oz Pusser’s Rum
3/4 oz Neisson Rhum Agricole Blanc
1/2 oz Orange Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Orange Syrup (*)
Absinthe (as a rinse)

Shake with ice, strain into an absinthe-rinsed coupe glass, and garnish with an expressed lemon twist.

(*) Orange Syrup:
Zest of 1 Orange
8 oz Orange Juice (freshly squeezed and strained to be pulp-free, by volume)
8 oz Sugar (by volume)

Combine zest and sugar and let sit for one hour. Add orange juice, whisk until the sugar is dissolved, strain, bottle, and refrigerate. Syrup kept cold should be good for 2 weeks.

Jace Sheehan, bartender at Boston’s Eastern Standard and Equal Measure when this was submitted, offered up this recipe dubbed after the song “Guns of Brixton” from the 1979 album London Calling. Jayce explained the drink he crafted for a guest tiki shift in 2016, “The inspiration behind the cocktail stems from my love of punk music and the correlation to current affairs. The song was originally written to describe the heavy-handedness of police, the recession, and other urban factors of the time. Pusser’s English rum [founded 1979] as the base is an ode to this era.” The extra time taken to make the orange syrup is worth it!

Police and Thieves
2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
1/4 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Cinnamon Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass.

Frank Cisneros submitted this recipe name after a song on The Clash’s first album in 1977 that was a cover of Junior Murvin’s 1976 reggae track. Frank came up with this crowd pleaser for the opening menu at the Gin Palace in Manhattan where it became one of the most popular drinks during the bar’s span from 2012 to 2015.

Wrong ‘Em Boyo
1 oz Navy Strength Jamaican Rum
1 oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Salers Gentian Liqueur
1/2 oz Blanc Vermouth
2 dash Fee’s Walnut Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an expressed orange twist. Suze or Avèze will substitute for Salers in a pinch.

Cocktail enthusiast and home bartender Craig Eliason who I know from eGullet and Kindred Cocktails sites offered up this honorific to the track from the 1979 London Calling album that was a cover of a 1967 song retelling the Stagger Lee legend by The Rulers from Jamaica. Much like me, Craig first encountered the band through the “Rock the Casbah” video on MTV, and he fell in love with the band after buying London Calling. Craig described, “Split base of gin from England and rum from Jamaica seems an obvious choice for the band. I also think the earthy gentian quality of Salers fits the bitter energy of the band. The rather high ABV doesn’t feel out of place, too!” His mix definitely captures the group’s energy and influences rather well in the glass.

Sherry, Don't like it?
2 oz Yobo Kish Earth Mushroom Soju
1 oz Amontillado Sherry
4 dash Coffee Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass rimmed with a sugar-cracked black pepper rim.

Connecticut bartender Anthony DeSerio made up this unique aperitif cocktail for his bar that he named after a spin on the lyric “Sharif don’t like it” from The Clash’s 1982 “Rock the Casbah”. Sharif is Arabic for a title of respect for a noble or highborn, but Anthony does not feel that sherry gets the respect it deserves. He paired it with an umami-laden California-made soju crafted with smoked mushrooms that the brand developed in partnership with Top Chef-competitor Kristen Kish.

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now
1 oz Amaro Montenegro
1 oz Amontillado Sherry
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Jim Beam Black Bourbon

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass.

Sam Treadway, bar director at Backbar in Somerville, MA, has been amazing me with his creativity with gems like this one since I started sitting at his bar when he helped to open up Drink in Boston back in 2008. Sam named this one after a lyric from the 1982 hit from the Combat Rock album (the song title itself lacks the word “now”), and he used the menu subtitle, “When deciding on your next move, just drink this. If you stay to have this lower ABV riff on a Black Manhattan then the rewards will be double.” Sam explained how the lyric “one day it’s fine and next it’s black” made him latch on to the Black Manhattan (a Manhattan made with an amaro in place of the sweet vermouth) as inspiration and the double-aged bourbon, Jim Beam Black, for fortification.

Overpowered by Funk
1 oz Smith & Cross or similar Jamaican Aged Rum
1 oz Cachaça
1/2 oz Cynar
1/2 oz Crème de Banane
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube.

After I put out the call for recipes, a bartender called dibs on a song, “Lost in the Supermarket”, that I already had a recipe for; therefore, I developed this one inspired upon spotting the song title in the band’s 1982 Combat Rock album. Like the Wrong ‘Em Boyo recipe, I too latched onto the reggae aspect to reach for my bottle of Smith & Cross, and I followed up with cachaça since the duo worked well in the Jah Rule that I had just made from the Easy Tiki book. I rounded things off with the funky amaro Cynar as well as banana liqueur. I never did receive the Lost in the Supermarket recipe from that bartender, but mine as a Rob Roy-Apple Negroni mashup can be found here on the blog.