Soundtrack Saturday

Back in February as part of my Soundtrack Saturday series I wrote abut Joe Strummer and his songs for the soundtrack to the Alex Cox film Walker. Joe's soundtrack work in the 80s and 90s requires further posts- both Sid And Nancy and Permanent Record benefited from bespoke Strummer solo songs and Joe contributed to other soundtracks too, Grosse Pointe Blank in 1997 and Black Hawk Down in 2001. 

But today's post isn't a Joe Strummer post, it's a Mick Jones post. Coincidentally, Mick celebrated his 70th birthday this week, two days on 26th June- belated happy birthday Mick! 

After splitting from The Clash in 1983 Mick formed Big Audio Dynamite and Mick's love of film formed a big part of the B.A.D. sound and world- the Spaghetti Western samples in Medicine Show and the entire lyric to E = MC2 was a tribute to director Nic Roeg (see my post about Performance also from February this year). Don Letts and Mick Jones were film obsessives and film references pepper the B.A.D. back catalogue. 

In 1990 the original Big Audio Dynamite line up of Mick, Don, Dan Donovan, Leo Williams and Greg Dread recorded their final song together, Free, for the soundtrack of a film called Flashback. I've seen Flashback, we rented it on VHS at some point on an evening with nothing to do in 1990. Flashback was directed by Frank Amurri and stars Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Sutherland. Hopper is a 60s anarchist/ hippie who has been on the run for twenty years, accused of disconnecting Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew's train carriage. Kiefer Sutherland plays an FBI agent who has apprehended Hopper and has to take him back across the USA for trial. It's an action/ adventure/ comedy. As the unlikely duo make their way back to Washington it becomes clear that Sutherland's FBI agent character was raised in a hippy commune and used to go under the name Free. Hopper is partly playing a reprisal of his character from Easy Rider but two decades down the line- I've only seen the film once and it seemed entertaining enough at the time and if anyone can play a 60s survivor with a screw loose in 1990 it's Dennis Hopper. 

B.A.D.'s song Free was only available on the soundtrack to the film (until it appeared on a CD compilation called Planet B.A.D. in 1995). There are two versions...

Free (Club Mix)

The Club Mix is seven minutes long and filled with acid house enthusiasm, a sampled voice opening the track saying, 'it should be kickin' in about now. Synths, big 1990 Italo piano chords, stuttering voices, and then Mick's vocal. The Club Mix spirals on and on, more samples from the film, more synths and acid house and then Hopper's character Huey saying, 'once we get out of the 80s the 90s are gonna make the 60s look like the 50s'. 

Free (LP Version)

Free was a Jones/ Dan Donovan co- write. The LP Version is more song based, with extra verses and more flow. 

Flashback's soundtrack contained a mix of 60s legends and late 80s/ dawn of the 90s artists- Edie Brickell and R.E.M. rub shoulders with Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, Flesh For Lulu with Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat and Steppenwolf. Dylan's version of People Get Ready, a Curtis Mayfield cover, hasn't appeared anywhere else. The film (but not the soundtrack) contained a two more Big Audio Dynamite songs- The Bottom Line and C'Mon Every Beatbox. 

The Bottom Line is one of Mick Jones' best songs, one of B.A.D.'s best. It was remixed for the film, Mick's melody and invention remaining intact but in truth its not the equal of the 1985 version, the 12" mix being the definitive take of the song. 

The Bottom Line (Film & Club Version)

After the original B.A.D. line up split, Mick carried on recruiting a new band and renaming them B.A.D. II. They re- recorded Free as Kickin' In for their Kool Aid album which was later reworked and re- released as The Globe. I think Mick was making it up as he went along at this point. Dan left shortly after. B.A.D. II have some really good moments- The Globe's title track for one, Rush for another. 

In 1993 Mick and B.A.D. found their way onto the soundtrack to a film called Amongst Friends, a low budget New Jersey mobster/ friendship film directed by Rob Weiss. But that's a story for another Saturday. 

V.A. Saturday And Meeting Paul Simonon

Last Saturday Paul Simonon and Dan Donovan DJed at Then Golden Lion in Todmorden, a night billed as The Casbah Club. I had a ticket and a promise from the generous hosts that we could get a moment with Paul before he played. My love of The Clash (and related offshoots) goes back decades and the thought of a chat with Paul, a brief moment for a photo and a signature was a little mind boggling and I was a little concerned I'd be a babbling idiot- or that it wouldn't happen. As promised though, Gig got us a few moments with Paul and Dan after they'd had some tea upstairs in The Golden Lion. I don't think I was a complete bumbling idiot but I did tell him (succinctly I think) what his band meant to me and that he must hear that all the time. 'It changed my life too', he said. He was lovely, happy to have a chat and sign my copy of White Man (In Hammersmith Palais) and pose for a picture. It turns out, in real life he looks and sounds just like Paul Simonon. And in an instant you realise you're standing next to the man who is on the cover of London Calling smashing his bass, the man who wrote Guns of Brixton, the man who named the band and who is in all those photos. It was quite a moment. 

Not long after Paul and Dan appeared downstairs, playing all kinds of songs to a packed and enthusiastic audience of punks and rockers young and old, any of whom were amazed that an actual member of The Clash was DJing in a pub in Todmorden. The set was wide ranging, reggae and 60s pop, garage and blues and ended up quite thumpy, in some ways not what everyone expected. It was a very good night. 

In 2006 a various artists compilation called Revolution Rock: A Clash Jukebox came out on Trojan- twenty one songs that inspired The Clash, that were on the jukebox in Rehearsals Rehearsals and that led to some famous Clash cover versions. The Clash were a great gateway band, introducing scores of fans to the source material, the songs of Vince Taylor, Willie Williams, Junior Murvin, Bobby Fuller, Lloyd Price, Danny Ray, The Maytals, The Rulers, and James Booker. The album was compiled by Paul and he provides extensive sleeve notes about each song and who brought it to the table. It opens with Jonathan Rchman's Roadrunner and clatters through The Troggs, Desmond Dekker, Bo Diddley, The Kinks, Roger Miller, The Ramones and Booker T And The MGs, Clash inspirations and sources. These three were all covered by the band...

Brand New Cadillac

Vince Taylor and The Playboys released Brand New Cadillac as a B-side in 1959 Bowie said that Taylor was part of the inspiration for Ziggy Stardust. In the sleevenotes to Revolution Rock Paul says the song dates back to 'that period when Mick and me were living in this squat in Davis Road in Shepherds Bush... when Joe met us there we used to play it a lot'. The Clash covered it for London Calling, the second song after the opening title track.

Pressure Drop

Pressure Drop was a 1969 single by Toots And The Maytals and was on the 1972 soundtrack to The Harder They Come, a Clash favourite, as noted by Paul in the sleevenotes. The Clash covered it on the B-side of 1978 single English Civil War in fine Clash- reggae style. 

Armagideon Time

Armagideon Time was a 1979 single by Willie Williams, a song built on Coxsone Dodds' Real Rock riddim. The Cash covered it the same year, their long, heavier extended groove making it to the B-side of the London Calling single. 'A lot of people won't get no justice tonight'.

The Lion, The Sloth, The Sons Of Slough And Hardway Meets Monkton

I've spent the last two Friday nights getting the train from Manchester Victoria up to Todmorden, a twenty five minute train journey that drops me off a two minute walk from The Golden Lion, a pub (run by the most brilliant and generous hosts Waka and Gig) in a small town in West Yorkshire variously described as a portal, the vortex and the best pub in the world. 

On Friday 12th August Paul Simonon and Dan Donovan were due to play a DJ set. I bought a ticket back in March, the prospect of being in a pub with the bass player from The Clash too tantalising to miss out on. The Lion was busy from late afternoon, the crowd eagerly anticipating an evening with former members of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite. News came through from London that Paul was unable to travel due a back injury. Dan Donovan stepped up solo and played a blinder, spinning reggae, dub and dancehall to the packed pub and later on some Clash songs. One of the many highlights of Dan's set was this 1985 Barrington Levy song...

Here I Come

I missed the last hour due to the train times back to Manchester- last train out of Tod is at 12.06am- and the need to connect with the last tram out of the city centre but it was a very good night. Hopefully Paul can make the trek north at some point to play at The Lion. One of the sights of the evening was the appearance of a giant sloth working its way through the pub just before Dan took to the decks. It seemed perfectly natural and exactly as things should be. 

Last Friday, 19th August, was a long planned tenth birthday party for Duncan Gray's Tici Taci label, a night with the mighty Sons Of Slough (Duncan and Andrew Weatherall's brother Ian) playing a live set upstairs with a Hardway Bros/ Monkton DJ set afterwards downstairs (Hardway Bros being Sean Johnston and Monkton being Duncan). Chris Rotter and Rusty provided warm up DJ duties, chilled tunes for those in the back room and beer garden. 

Sons Of Slough played to a packed room, heat dripping off the walls and ceiling by the end. They kicked off proceedings with their cover of New Order's In A Lonely Place, a song they released as a tribute to Andrew back in 2021 as IWDG, Ian dedicating the song to his brother and then taking up melodica. 

In A Lonely Place is a moody song, New Order finding their way out after the death of Ian Curtis. Andrew was a huge fan of Factory and early New Order. Ian and Duncan's cover adds some hefty 21st century bottom end to the song and a slo mo acid house rhythm. The only line from Bernard's original lyrics that made it into the final IWDG version is 'how I wish you were here with me', a poignant one for obvious reasons. 

This footage shows Ian and Duncan playing In A Lonely Place a few weeks ago in Windsor, a live set in front of an invited audience. There are clips of the set on various people's Facebook pages but none on Youtube to link to yet. 

After In A Lonely Place Sons Of Slough played a seamless, non-stop set of acid house, electro, oompty boompty music, songs from their 2021 Bring Me Sunshine album, synths, keyboards, vocoder, melodica, guitar and laptop put through the Lion's top class sound system. 

Downstairs Sean Johnston had made a start playing songs, waiting for Duncan to join him. The whole pub becomes a club once night falls, the mirrorball bouncing beams around the stone walls and floor. The crowd at The Golden Lion are, without fail, friendly and lovely people, everyone up for a good time, a cross generational smiley crew who want to dance. 

Sean played Jah Wobble and Sinead O'Connor's Visions Of You early on and some slow paced stuff before Duncan joined him and they started to ramp it up a bit, playing back to back, thumpy, wiggy acid house/ dub disco tracks spanning the last four decades including Secret Circuit's Jungle Dogs (Tiago Remix), Liaisons Dangerueses, the new Rich Lane one, Mandrake, Rule Six's The Ride (a summer 2023 Tici Taci release) and Peza's edit of Mystic Thug and Rock The Casbah. And loads more that I can't remember or didn't know or was too lost dancing to to want to know.  

Jungle Dogs (Tiago Remix)

T.R.A.C.

I've put up quite a few Big Audio Dynamite posts recently but thought I'd share this with you, having just stumbled across it- blogger's stats tend to suggest there are a fair few BAD fans who come here. After getting fired from The Clash in 1983 Mick went to work pretty quickly, possibly just to prove Joe and Paul wrong. In a Clash old boys solidarity moment he hooked up with also recently fired Topper Headon, plus Leo Williams and Dan Donovan (a future Mr Patsy Kensit) and formed T.R.A.C. (Top Risk Action Company). This band transformed into BAD, gaining Don Letts and losing Topper (who was deep into heroin addiction by this point). T.R.A.C. recorded a series of demos, an albums worth. The Bottom Line, very much a demo and really quite different to the BAD version is here...



The Bottom Line was a potential Clash song, one of the most recently written before Mick's ejection- I believe they had a go at rehearsing it. In this T.R.A.C. version the riff is there (or thereabouts) and some of the lyrics but it's much less bass and drum machine led one that is on BAD's first lp. Some jazzy sax parping away at the end.

The rest of the demos are on Youtube and probably hidden somewhere in the deepest recesses of the internet. This one is Ducane Road...



The rest (you go look for them yourselves I think if you're interested) are Interaction, Nation, Apprentice, Fare Dodgers, Euroshima and The Prolific. It's interesting, if you're a geeky obsessive like me, to speculate on what might have's and what if's...

At The Top Of The Dial

Poking around the internet I found this, the lead track from a tribute to Joe Strummer album called Shatter The Hotel, all the tracks being reggae and dub versions of Clash songs. It's actually pretty good with several standout versions and worth tracking down if Clash covers are your thing. You can get it at emusic and on Amazon. The album's proceeds go to Strummerville which supprts several worthwhile Strummeresque causes. If you like the Easy Allstars cover albums of Pink Floyd and Radiohead chances are you'll like this too and many of The Clash's songs take easily to dub and reggae-isation. This one is London Calling, covered by Dubtronix ('Dubstep, future garage and beyond' his website says, and hopefully 'weddings, parties, anything, and bongo jazz a speciality' as well), with the great Don Letts and Dan Donovan (currently playing keyboards in reformed Big Audio Dynamite) guesting. Skanking.

London Calling [feat. Don Letts & Dan Donovan].mp3 - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download