Joe Strummer – Joe Strummer 001
The late, great hero's post-The Clash ephemera is collected and compiled on a frustrating but ultimately rewarding box set
Firstly, what Joe Strummer 001 is, is a double album chronicling the best of the late, great Joe Strummer's work outside of The Clash. So, you get recordings from his pre-Clash pub rockers The 101ers, songs from obscure soundtracks to films from the 80s and early 90s, rough sketches and demos for solo projects that never saw the light of day and tracks cut with his last band, The Mescaleros. What Joe Strummer 001 isn't, is a brand new Joe Strummer record of lost classics... there's no Blind Willie McTell here, unfortunately.
There's lots of good stuff, though. The Mescaleros recordings are the best thing on offer and it's about time the three records Strummer released with that band between 1999 and 2003 were back in the spotlight. Yalla Yalla, Johnny Appleseed and Coma Girl are right up there with your favourite Clash classics and 001 is at its best when collecting material made just before Strummer's death, including a duet with Johnny Cash on Bob Marley's Redemption Song and the heartbreaking folk rag of Silver & Gold.
Tunes from Earthquake Weather – Strummer's 1989 solo album – are curiously absent (apart from a reggae take on Ride Your Donkey), but overlooked gems such as the cool-as-ice Afro-Cuban Be Bop (the B-side to a song from the soundtrack to 1990s turkey I Hired a Contract Killer), the E Street Band-esque Pouring Rain (a lost Clash classic recorded in 1984) and the cracking When Pigs Fly (from a forgotten 90s film of the same name) are must-haves for any Strummer disciple.
It's the acolytes who will find much to love on 001, but there are many glimpses of greatness throughout this compilation: Rose of Erin, London is Burning and the Paul Simonon-assisted Before We Go Forward are all belters and there's even a ten minute glimpse behind the curtain of Strummer's recording relationship with Mick Jones after The Clash split (US North finds our Clash heroes riffing over a drum machine, synth and power chords on an electric guitar).
The collection ends with a 'basement demo' of Strummer alone with an acoustic guitar and a tape machine. The song he's singing is called Full Moon and that's where we leave Joe, alone with his music, howling along.
Listen to: Afro-Cuban Be Bop, Pouring Rain (1984), Coma Girl