Time softens

The Clash revolution looks positively tame in retrospect | Arsenio Orteza

"Comedy," Carol Burnett once said, "is tragedy plus time." Replace "comedy" with "acceptance" and "tragedy" with "rebellion," and you have The Clash.

The Clash Live: Revolution Rock (Epic/ Legacy) comprises band-member interviews, occasional voice-over narration, and 22 full-length performances. It follows the group from 1977, the year of its debut, to 1982, the last year its best-known lineup performed. Profoundly, what seemed anarchic at the time now seems distinctly unthreatening.

As fans of Elvis Presley and the Beatles can confirm, such a transformation is nothing new. But it's especially striking in the case of The Clash, a group rooted in the violence-prone class warfare of Thatcher-era England.