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  1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 369 - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros “Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years”

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    An absolutely superb box set containing 7 LP’s that cover Joe and the Mescalero’s 3 studio albums and a double LP of demo’s, outtakes and rarities. There’s also a book explaining everything which includes unseen lyrics and art from Joe’s archive. It’s a beautiful and lavish collection.

    I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing and how hard it hit me on 22nd December 2002 when I found out Joe had left us. The holy trinity in 1977 was the Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash. The Pistols were gone in the blink of an eye, my route led me to follow The Jam but of course The Clash were important, some said the only band that mattered. I never got to see The Clash but I did see Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, at The Fleadh in Finsbury Park in the summer of 2002. They were fantastic, they played “London’s Burning” and after the gig had finished my brother dragged me across the backstage area, shoved me into another dressing room and into the presence of Joe Strummer. After a brief exchange with him both our souls were filled with what I can only describe as joy. Miles and me were seen later that night skipping down the street to the off-license shouting “We met Joe Strummer”.

    Miles was also responsible for my first hearing Joe & The Mescalero’s 2nd album “Global A Go-Go”. I was staying at his flat in Stoke Newington and he put a CD on and left the room. I was only halfway through what I now know is “Johnny Appleseed” before I was shouting “What the hell is this ? It’s fantastic!”. It’s my favourite of Joe’s three albums with the Mescalero’s and includes the stunning “Bhindi Bhajee” wherein Joe explains to a freshly arrived in London New Zealander, out looking for mushy peas, about all the fantastic culinary options available on the High Road (“Balti, bhindi, strictly Hindi, Dall, halal and I'm walking down the road, We got rock sole, okra, Bombay duck ra, Shrimp beansprout, comes with it or without…”) and then about his band and all the different musical styles they incorporate into their playing (“Ragga, bhangra, two step tanga, Mini-cab radio, music on the go…We got, Brit pop, hip-hop, rockabilly, lindy hop, Gaelic heavy metal fans, fighting in the road”). And that’s how the brilliant Joe Strummer tells us about the joys of the diverse communities and cultures we have on our little island and the great things they’ve bought to us, an anti racist song about food and music…it’s also a killer dance tune.

    The Mescaleros first record “Rock, Art & The X-Ray Style” is quite dense, with influences from all the music from around the world Joe had introduced us to in his World Service radio show “London Calling”, something I still listen to every few months…and some snippets of which are woven into the groove laden “Midnight Jam” on his final album “Streetcore”. “…X-Ray Style” weaves dance music, reggae, Bhangra, cumbia, rock and roll and a myriad other styles into a coherent whole.

    Joe’s final album “Streetcore” was unfinished when Joe passed away but the Mescalero’s completed it and we got to hear great songs like the beautiful “Ramshackle Day Parade”, “Arms Aloft”, “Burning Streets” and the Punk as hell “Coma Girl” (with which Bruce Springsteen opened his 2009 Glastonbury set as a tribute to Joe but the BBC have never shown).

    The final 2 records make up “Vibes Compass (B-sides & Rarities)” mostly demo’s of tracks we’ve heard on the albums. I don’t really like collections like this as a rule. Demo’s rarely reach the heights that the final recorded versions do (that’s what demo’s are for after all) and unreleased songs are usually unreleased for a reason. The most interesting thing within is a cover of Johnny Rivers “Secret Agent Man” recorded for a film score in 2002 but never used.

    We lost one of the true greats when we lost Joe Strummer, I still feel blessed to have had my very short time talking to him. This is a lavishly constructed, beautiful box set containing some incredible music and is a pleasure to own (I have one for sale in the shop if anyone is in need BTW).

    Bhindi Bhajee - https://youtu.be/AYMPz0MEKco?si=M7iMUFNovXNOjzhH

  2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 368 - Barbra Streisand & Kris Kristofferson “A Star Is Born OST”

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    We’d had the summer of ’76 when it felt like the sun would never stop shining (down like marmalade anyone ?) and the pavements were melting. Some of our friends could sense something was stirring in London but for most of us that would have to wait until 1977. Meanwhile as my 14th birthday and Xmas approached in December 1976 a film was released that was so up our parents street it could very well have been made for them alone.

    We grew up in a house where the soundtrack swung from Classical music to Reggae but mostly it was Jazz, the great Swing bands and singers (Sinatra, Crosby) and songs from the great musicals which is probably the first time I would have heard the incredible voice of Barbra Streisand. 

    When “A Star Is Born” was released I’m sure we all trooped off as a family to see it at the cinema and I gotta admit I was quite taken with it, but most of all I was captivated by Barbra Streisand’s voice. The whole film is worth watching and the soundtrack has some great songs in it. Kris Kristofferson’s “Watch Closely Now” & “Crippled Crow” are great examples of 70’s US FM rock. 

    As it’s recently been re-made starring Lady Ga Ga it was in the news again. If Lady GaGa even gets close to Streisand’s imperious vocal on the closing medley of “With One More Look At You/Watch Closely Now” on any of the new films soundtrack then she’ll have worked miracles. This one performance can bring a lump to my throat just by thinking about it. Give it a go, it might just surprise you…

    With One More Look At You/Watch Closely Now - https://youtu.be/Inkf7WZJdjc

  3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 367 - The Stranglers “Singles: The U.A. Years”

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    It’s not that I don’t like The Stranglers, I do…sorta, it’s that they never did seem very “Punk” to me. Although Hugh Cornwell and Jean-Jacques Burnel looked the part, Dave Greenfield and Jet Black looked, well, old and like they might have played in bands that my Uncle, who is 10+ years older than me, may have enjoyedp. It seems like most of the people I know who really like The Stranglers are a few years older than me and had previous dalliances with Prog ! The Stranglers felt like they were the “punk” band it was acceptable for older people to like. 

    One thing The Stranglers did do well though was singles and therefore this collection of those small, round (mostly), black (other colours are available) objects of desire is the perfect thing for me. On the same day that I bought the Sex Pistols life changing single “God Save The Queen” my brother and I acquired between us a copy of The Stranglers “Peaches/Go Buddy Go” coupling. “Peaches” we’d heard on the radio and read in the inkies that the version on the record had a rude word on it that wasn’t included in the version Radio One were playing (not sure that clitoris is now considered a rude word but it certainly would have spontaneously combusted Mary Whitehouse’s over lacquered bouffant back then), and every schoolboy loved a rude word. I always preferred “Go Buddy Go”, a pub rocker concerned with boys chasing girls in nightclubs with a little speed reference thrown in to bolster the Punk cred. 

    Those two are preceded here by “(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)” which we’d missed as a single but caught up with when friends of ours played us The Stranglers albums…which brings me to another difficulty I have with our asphyxiating foursome, some of the lyrics on those first two albums are well dodgy and I figured that out even at 14/15 years old. Misogyny drips from the lyrics of “London Lady”, “Princess Of the Streets”, “Ugly” and of course “Peaches”, while “School Mam” on their 2nd album is plain creepy. Their record companies weren’t daft enough to think they could put out that sort of stuff as singles.

    And their singles were a different matter as they knocked out, one after another, “Something Better Change”, “No More Heroes” and the superb “5 Minutes”, which kicks off with one of the greatest intros on any single by anyone ever.  Later on they mellowed in sound with singles like “Golden Brown” (taking a song about Heroin to #2 on the hit parade !) and “Strange Little Girl”, then ultimately made a pair of singles that are amongst my very favourites in “No Mercy” and “Skin Deep” (sadly those two aren’t on this comp).

    The Stranglers are still at it, still making new music and putting on good shows I’m told. I don’t need to wade in any deeper than this.

    5 Minutes - https://youtu.be/mePXtiedEmg?si=HuBcb6Bj6KBwEan9