THIS ATTACK on those who sell out their youthful ideals in order to work for 'The Man' was considered so incendiary by many club DJs in 1979 that they refused to play it for fear of causing riots.

OPENER to the US version of 'The Clash', this was the band developing a sense for melody. An instantly memorable guitar hook drives a vocal line that can never be dislodged.

A SAVAGE indictment of the role of managers in bands' affairs - originally a pop at their own Mr 20 per cent Bernie Rhodes, which became a more universal ode to rebellion.

THE CLASH'S love of early rock 'n' roll led to this cover of one of Sonny Curtis' early classics. It wasn't just the music though - the rebellious spirit fed straight into Strummer and Jones' defiant outlook.

THE OPENING track to The Clash's masterpiece album, this is the essential Clash track. As distinctive as it is instantly recognisable, this sums up everything they ever wanted to say - an anthem for the underground to rally together and fight the oppressors for change.

A SEARING attack on life in late '70s London. Its images of the crumbling Westway and concrete West London horizons was a metaphor for the boredom and lack of hope The Clash felt prevailed at the time.

THOUGH THE Clash would become notorious for their reggae covers, this was their first and arguably their best. Strummer in particular was forever drawing links between the oppression suffered by Jamaica's reggae community and Britain's punk underclass.

INSPIRED BY a newspaper story Strummer read about a group of Iranians who were flogged for owning a disco album, this saw them land their first ever US Top 10 single.

ANOTHER OF The Clash's reggae covers, this time about a Jamaican rude boy who can't live the life his elders have set out for him, preferring to march down his own path.

AFTER WRITING most of their second album in Jamaica, this was Strummer and Jones' paean to getting back home.

POSSIBLY THE Clash's most famous song, this saw them step into the big leagues but it also lost them a lot of fans who were convinced the band had sold out with a new arena-rock sound.

A SENTIMENTAL ode to Mick Jones' lost schoolfriends, arrested committing a robbery while he was at home playing music.

BLEAK, VITRIOLIC and burning with anger, Strummer is launching a fierce attack on US soldiers who refused to take responsibility for the children they fathered in Vietnam.

NOT CONSIDERED much of a songwriter by Strummer, bassist Paul Simenon shocked his singer when he brought him this. Strummer thought it so good he forced Simenon to sing this tale of urban dreads.

AFTER THE success of 'London Calling' The Clash spent more and more time in America. This disco-funk rap was directly influenced by the burgeoning hip-hop scene they discovered there.

this single was another hip-hop inspired track given a dub drum treatment. It bombed spectacularly on release, its stuttered, disco boogie brilliance only recognised years afterwards.

A SATIRE on mobsters' - like rock stars' - need to read their own press, this was also the first moment The Clash started to leave the punk template behind.

THOUGHT TO be too commercial, The Clash were so ashamed of this that they didn't even list it on 'London Calling''s original sleeve. In fact, it's a pop gem - pure melodic brilliance.

The Clash had never actually fused ska and punk before - nor, for that matter, had anyone else. This is the exact moment ska-punk became a genre in its own right.

AFTER BEING caught up in London's 1976 race riots, Joe Strummer was inspired by the black community's refusal to accept their mistreatment; this was his call to arms for the white community to do the same.