John Mellor Goes Over the Border with Jimmy Cliff

 

After gifting Joe Strummer's London Calling BBC radio shows, I couldn't stop listening to more of Joe's own music. I revisited The Clash, The Mescaleros, The 101'ers, & everything else. I decided heading into the new year I would post some that I though you all might like to hear.

First is Joe giving us that good old Eathquake Weather, then a few bootleg releases: When Pigs Fly (a previously unreleased soundtrack LP); Outtakes & Rarities; & the fantastic Collaborations.

Spend some time with Joe, it will be well worth the while & I'll hit you all again next year. 

 

Joe Strummer - Earthquake Weather, Epic EK 45372, 1989.
all decryption codes in comments

Gangsterville    
King of the Bayou    
Island Hopping    
Slant Six    
Dizzy's Goatee    
Shouting Street    
Boogie with Your Children
Leopardskin Limousines    
Sikorsky Parts    
Jewellers & Bums    
Highway One Zero Street    
Ride Your Donkey
Passport to Detroit    
Sleepwalk

bonus tracks -
Punk Rock Blues
15th Brigade
Cholo Vest
Baby O'Boogie
Mango Street 

 

 

Joe Strummer - When Pigs Fly bootleg, 1992.

Side One -
When Pigs Fly    
Pouring Rain    
Rose of Erin    
Ellis Island Line    
Phantom Country Fair    

Side Two -
Storm in a D-Cup    
Free at Last    
When Pigs Fly (instrumental)
Burning Lights (from I Hired a Contract Killer)    
Afro Cuban Be-Bop (from I Hired a Contract Killer)    
Victory Lane (from Dr Chance)    
Junco Partner (acoustic) 

 

Joe Strummer - Outakes & Rarities bootleg, 2002.

War Cry
Yalla Yalla
15th Brigade - these come from the mid-nineties period prior to the creation of The Mescaleros.  

Louisiana Turnpike
Search Party
Plymouth Roadrunner
Outta Space
Detour
Japanese Cars
Nameless
Cholo Vest - these are the songs deleted from the Permanent Record OST as Joe had intended it.

Brand New Cadillac - encore from the Hollywood Palladium Pretenders show on Nov. 11,1994.

 

 

 

Joe Strummer - Collaborations bootleg, 2004.

Generations (with Electric Dog House)
Salsa y Ketchup (with Zander Schloss)
Yalla Yalla (Norro's King Dub)
Return of the Blues Cowboy (with Jools Holland)
Straight Shooter (with Latino Rockabilly War)
Over the Border (with Jimmy Cliff)
Redemption Song (with Jimmy Cliff)
Living in the Flood (with Horace Andy)
The Harder They Come (with The Long Beach All Stars)
Just the One (with The Levellers)
Time & a Tide (with the Mescaleros)
Turkish Song of the Damned (with the Pogues)
Ocean of Dreams (with Steve Jones)
Let’s Get a Bit of Rockin' (with the 101'ers)
Ride Your Donkey (with Latino Rockabilly War)
Guitar Slinger (with Brian Setzer)
MacDougall Street Blues (with Jack Kerouac)
Junco Partner (with Billy Bragg)
Rockets Galore (with Mikey Dread)
Ghetto Defendant (with Allen Ginsberg)

Enjoy,
NØ

Let's Rock Again!

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Get Down Moses

(from Streetcore 2003)

I just got finished watching the movie Let’s Rock Again which follows the newly revitalized Joe Strummer & his fantastic new band The Mescaleros on tour across the world in 2000 & 2001, not long before his untimely death. This film, as is said, touched my heart. M. Strummer was such a humble musickian, beautiful soul, & selfless human. & if there are any doubts about the quality of his new musickal path, it is set aside graphically by the great live performances captured in this warm, loving picture.

John Graham Mellor, better known as Joe Strummer.

He says his musickal heroes are Captain Beefheart & King Tubby. Mine, too (& Joe).

He was without a doubt one of the most powerful vocalists & greatest lyricists of our generation.

Though a majority of critics fail to see the absolute genius in his work with his new band, The Mescaleros, their musick would prove to be some of Joe’s most stunning work ever. Joe never abandoned his fierce, yet friendly demeanor. Strummer & Co. play everything from acoustic numbers to some of the finest straightforward rock & roll tunes that he has ever written. Somehow it is this later work of Strummer’s that truly show his talents, allowing us to see the entire discography of The Clash in a different light.

The Mescaleros stand today as one of the finest backing bands in history. Though much of the musick is more mellow & relaxed than his work with The Clash, Joe Strummer sounds as good & powerful as ever. Showcasing his trademark raspy, growling voice, Strummer re-stakes his claim as one of the greatest, most captivating vocalists in history. Joe gave the world musickal gifts unlike any other performer. Shaping & influencing countless musickians who followed, Strummer's name continues to demand the utmost respect to this day. After disappearing from the musick scene for eleven years, Strummer surrounded himself with some of the finest musickians & began to explore new musickal territory, creating some of the finest songs of his career.

Cementing his name as a legend, as well as proving that regardless of the style of musick one played, it was the soul behind the songs that mattered most, Joe Strummer was clearly on the verge once again when he was taken from this world far too soon. There are probably few moments in musick that are as heart-wrenching as the one found at the end of the album Streetcore. After playing the clean & stripped down, grab-life-by-the-balls song, "Silver & Gold," Strummer mutters his final ever recorded words, as he simply states, "OK, that's a take..." Such final words, eerily predicting his passing (which would occur less than a week later), along with the overall sentiment of the song which stands as his last, are in many ways a fitting end for a man who truly lived through his music.

But having said all that, at the end of the movie, Joe’s words seem even more apt & less prophetic, but more true to the spirit of Joe ‘Woody’ Strummer...Let’s Rock Again!

Let's Rock Again!

Thank you for the musick, Joe. I’ll never forget you.

Enjoy,
NØ