The Clash " Rat Patrol From Fort Dragg". (Reconstructed Rejected Album).

Welcome back to my site. This time starting with a rejected The Clash album mixed and compiled by Mick Jones, singer and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, co-founder for this British punk band.But first let's know something more about this super 2lp.

Before there was a Combat Rock album , there was other tentatively titled Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg, the initial draft of which was conceived almost entirely by Clash guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones. The bootleg recordings of the Rat Patrol sessions that would eventually surface years later reveal the proposed album to be not only superior to the actual release, but one of the greatest “lost” albums in pop music history.

After a short tour to promoteve the triple album Sandinsta!, The band was back to the studio in New York to complete their fifth LP. Unfortunately, they were not in good shape. Drumming prodigy Topper Headon was drawing ever-nearer to the rock bottom of his nasty heroin habit, while lyricist Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon had re-hired their old manager as a means to wrangle the group’s increasingly unwieldy sound and image.

Mick, the band's only real and functioning musician, the only one with knowledge producing and engineering start to mixed and compiled a new record, The resulting album, which Mick recorded at New York’s Electric Lady Studios from November 1981 to January 1982, was the following

Side A: (18:53)

 1.The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too.(3:45) / 2.Kill Time (edit).(4:48) / 3.Should I Stay Or Should I Go.(3:07) / 4.Rock The Casbah.(3:41) / 5.Know Your Rights (alt.vers.).(3:30) 

Side B: (18:53) 

6.Red Angel Dragnet (edit).(3:20) / 7.Ghetto Defendant (edit).(4:15) / 8.Sean Flynn.(7:21) / 9.Car Jamming.(3:55) 

Side C: (18:13) 

10.Inoculated City.(2:37) / 11.Death Is A Star.(3:08) / 12.Walk Evil Talk (remix).(5:10) / 13.Atom Tan.(2:25) / 14.Overpowered By Funk.(4:51) 

Side D: (18:08)

15.Long Time Jerk (long mix).(5:08) / 16.First Night Back In London.(2:58) / 17.Cool Confusion.(3:12) / 18.Straight To Hell (Unedited Version).(6:49) 

It would have been the Clash’s third release in a row as an expanded 2LP set, sometimes more. Jones’ presented the “finished” product to the rest of the Clash and their label, and the reception was almost unanimously negative. Bit.ly/Tc-fBr Joe Strummer and manager Bernie Rhodes balked at the extended running times of several of the tracks. CBS execs saw the album’s bizarre hybrid of underground genres as a threat to its marketability. Jones was outnumbered, and CBS hired former Who producer Glyn Johns to remix the album to a single LP. Several of Rat Patrol’s best tracks were removed outright, other tracks' lengths were cut in half, verses were changed or left out, and samples and effects stripped away, the result of which is the final product Combat Rock. So much of the original album’s life had been removed in the process, leaving Combat Rock sounding tepid and uneven. 

The original album cover was also rejected for its extreme rawness. The execution in February 1968 in the streets of Saigon of a rebel at the hands of a South Vietnamese police general, a scene captured by the cameras. Sorry if anyone is bothered, but I think it was necessary to have the full album both inside and out.

Anyway, here you have a remix of the album that Jones had planned; plus another disc with additional material. Enjoy it. 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: (1:02:22) 

19.Outside Broadcast.(7:22) (Non-album song. B side from Canada 12-inch EP. November 1982.)

 20.Radio One.(6:17) (Non-album song.  B side from Canada 12-inch EP. November 1982.)

21.This is Radio Clash.(4:09) (Non -album song. A side from 7-inch single. November 1982)

22.Mustapha Dance.(4:22). (Non-album song. A side from U.K “Mustapha Dance” single. 1991)

23.The Magnificent Dance.(5.35). (Non-album song. B side from U.K “Mustapha Dance” single. 1991)

24.Should I Stay Or Should I Go (live).(2:44). B side from “Rock The Casbah” US. single.

(Live Shea Stadium, Queens, N.Y.C. US. October 13.1982)

25.Long Time Jerk (edit).(2:55).(Non-album song. B side from “Rock The Casbah” U.K single)

26.Red Angel Dragnet (Instrumental).(1:44).(Non-album song. B side from Canada “Rock The Casbah” EP. 1982)

27.Straight to Hell (edit).(5:28)

28.Cool Confusion (remix).(3:29).(Non-album song. B “Should I stay of should I go? US. single. 1982)

29.Sean Flynn (edit).(4:25)

30.Ghetto Defendant (Unedited Version).(6;11)

31.Walk Evil Talk (unedited Vocal Mix).(7:35)