412) Joe Strummer - Walker

Joe Strummer had jumped into The Clash from The 101’ers and within six years was in a worldwide huge band the problem was the drummer was a heroin addict and Joe and Paul hated lead guitarist Mick Jones. Both were sacked and the problem was Topper was a powerhouse drummer and Mick wrote all the music.

Within three years The Clash released one of the most slated albums ever and split up, Joe apologised to Mick, they came friends again but Mick wouldn’t reform The Clash.

Joe released an excellent debut solo single Love Kills that did nothing but this was the title track from Alex Cox feature film Sid and Nancy. Cox followed this up by making a spaghetti western called Straight to Hell, It’s about three hitmen and Joe plays one of them, Courtney Love, Elvis Costello, and The Pogues also come along for the ride, it’s worth seeing for curiosity value and play spot the star.

After this Cox set about making Walker in Nicaragua, Joe was cast in a minor role but more importantly he was commissioned to compose the soundtrack.

I bought it the day came out because quite simply he was Joe Strummer and I had developed a Clash obsession but had been too young to see them. I knew nothing about it stuck it on and waited for those vocals and raw guitar, yes dear reader so far from the mark again.

First listen was what the hell is this with thirteen songs, ten of them instrumentals and it was filed with my other records, however I was a young man who spent his money carefully, or mean, so I persevered.

The instrumentals where we can hear violin, piano, banjo, sax trumpets and trombone all have a light salsa, Latin orchestral songs that you would enjoy playing on the background as you sat in a tapas bar enjoying your surroundings, listen to the lone trumpet of Filbustero the swept along music and catcalls of Sandstorm, the recurring piano of Machete and the beautiful picked guitar of Smash Everything.

When Joe’s vocals appears he is majestic, first up is The Unknown Immortal he leads the way his vocal just a notch above the backing singers this is a man who ten years earlier you could barely understand on White Riot but his voice is rich and suites the laidback approach, remember the beauty of Straight to Hell, plus the harmonica appears, so again I have to score high. 

Tennessee Rain is all harmonica and banjo. Surely if he had lived, we would have the Joe folk country album. Continuing to make music with the Mescaleros but breaking off to produce albums like Johnny Cash made in his later years, we were robbed there.

The album ends with Tropic of No Return set to a backbeat of crickets and a light touch of music, with a lovely acoustic solo halfway through and Joe sounds content.

He would have known this wasn’t returning him to stadiums in America but it was an important step in the rehabilitation of Joe Strummer and Joe Strummer making music made people smile and so will this record.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: The Unknown Immortal