As I held Joe Strummer’s CD – his latest CD – his last CD – in my hands, I thought I could feel the energy it possessed, right through the cardboard sleeve. Maybe it was Joe’s energy, or more likely it was my trembling apprehensiveness at hearing Joe’s last words, his last musical creation, his last masterpiece.
There was also some trepidation that it might not live up to its underground hype, or that it might fail to reach my own peaked expectations. I found myself more interested in staring at the sleeve and insert artwork, complete with scrawling from Joe – lyrics, notes, comments – then actually listening to it. I wanted the “possibilities” to linger a bit longer, before the reality of what was actually on the disc reached my ears.
I still had on my coat and still had my briefcase slung over my shoulder as I stood in my kitchen, just home from work, flipping through the mail. My wife was cooking dinner, and the kids were running laps through the living room as I discovered the package. The disc has arrived sooner then I had expected, and I wasn’t sure whether I should wait for the aesthetics to be perfect or to play it immediately, so I hovered over it for a few minutes.
I realized I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else until I listened to it. So I climbed over the rough-housing kids on the living room carpet and inserted the disc into the family stereo.
After hearing the first five notes – a sharp tingle ran up my spine, stopped at the base of my neck and sparked a wide smile across my face. My wife asked, “who’s this?” and the kids stopped wrestling for a moment – then began to dance.
In the hit-or-miss world of posthumous releases, other people’s fingerprints are obvious and usually result in a miss. In the case of Streetcore, the Mescaleros had a huge hand in the final post-production of this CD and may be responsible for Joe Strummer’s greatest effort since London Calling.
Those first five notes that sent a chill up my spine and sent my kids dancing belong to “Coma Girl.” And if there are any concerns that Joe had abandoned his Clash roots for the obscure and sometimes alienating World music genre – this song kills the notion. As he sings, “The rain came in from the wide blue yonder...” the crunchy guitar switches to that familiar ska rhythm and we’re off and running with a wildly additive ska-rock song.
But Joe still loves his Jamaican reggae, and with “Get Down Moses” calls up the ghosts of Tosh and Marley, breaks out the steel drums, timbales, organs, and jazz guitars, and begins to point out the wrongs in the world.
In the acoustic “Long Shadow,” Joe sings “you don’t face your demons down, you grab ‘em by the collar and you wrestle ‘em to the ground”. A song Joe originally wrote for Johnny Cash, it shows how far vocally he’s come since his days of screaming punk tunes.
“Arms Aloft” is perhaps the most reminiscent of the rebellious Clash sound, but behind it is a new, cleaner, more polished approach to social rebellion. And even though you can understand the lyrics better (versus the days of “The Clampdown” or “Death or Glory”), you still won’t know why you’re yelling “arms aloft in Aberdeen!”
One gem on this CD is “Ramshackle Day Parade,” a slow-burner, with Joe singing over some plunking keys, lyrics that probably mean more than a simpleton like me will ever understand. But it builds to an anthem-like climax, making you wonder what a “ramshackle” is.
Because Strummer died prior to the final production of these recordings, the Mescaleros and Joe’s wife, Luce, produced and arranged the finished product. Ironically, if Joe had been involved in final release, we might not be listening to the same CD, as there seems to be a raw, simpler feel to much of the music. The inclusion of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” may not have been included, which would have been a loss. The simple, acoustic, and slightly haunting rendition is a bit out of left field, but stands as a halfway marker for the album. If this were an LP, it would fit perfectly as the last song on side A.
Side B would be perfectly kicked off by “All in a Day”, which if you think Joe wasn’t influenced by his ex-partner Mick Jones, this song would change your mind. A funky, Big Audio Dynamite-like tune, you would swear Mick is singing the chorus, “don’t worry baby, your credit is good, everybody’s clapping ‘round the ‘hood.”
One of the most moving tunes is “Burnin’ Streets.” Beautifully arranged and most produced, it starts off relatively low-keyed, Joe’s vocals reverberating, backing vocals whispering “London’s burning”, as strings and organs fill and build the entire song to a bold finish. My favorite song on the album.
A Joe Strummer effort wouldn’t be complete without an instrumental, and “Midnight Jam” is perfectly named. A dub-style jam, with samples of Joe’s BBC radio DJ voice floating in, teasing us with “This is London calling!”
This album ends on “Silver and Gold,” a cover of Bobby Charles’ “Before I Grow Old,” – another song that might not have been on the album, had Joe a say in it. But, it comes off as the only obvious message of tribute to Joe from the rest of the band. An Irish folk-style song, that can bring some tears to your eyes, as Joe sings, “...I’ll do everything, silver and gold, and I’ve got to hurry up, before I grow too old.” The song ends and Joe’s last words are, “Okay, that’s a take.”
It’s sad, in a way, as you listen to this album, because it’s so good, and songs like “Burnin’ Streets” and “Arms Aloft” show you what the future of Joe Strummer’s music would have been like. A mature, intelligent rocker, with nothing to prove and all the freedom in the world to be experimental and creative. A strange thing to say about a guy that’s been making experimental and creative music, and influencing others, for over 30 years. All we can do is recognize and appreciate what Joe Strummer has done for music and be thankful. Thank you, Joe. Thanks for everything.
Check out this album: https://music.apple.com/us/album/streetcore/1493856407
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