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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Johnny Appleseed |
| 2. Cool 'N' Out |
| 3. Global A Go Go |
| 4. Bhindi Bhagee |
| 5. Gamma Ray |
| 6. Mega Bottle ride |
| 7. Shaktar Donetsk |
| 8. Mondo Bongo |
| 9. Bummed Out City |
| 10. At The Border, Guy |
| 11. Minstrel Boy |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Global A Go-Go, Joe Strummer's second album with the The Mescaleros following 1999's Rock Art and The X-Ray Style mines the same concerns that have always inspired his music. "Johnny Appleseed" and "Cool 'n' Out" centre on Joe's brash eruptive guitar but hark back to his pre-punk folk busking roots, with lyrics anchored by a strong sense of indignation and social commitment. Strummer may pride himself as an original punk warlord, but he realises punk can only thrive by rejoicing in Britain's ever-vibrant multicultural melting pot as he does on "Bhindi Bagee" and the Arabic inflected refugee requiem "Shaktar Donetsk". His longstanding fascination with dub reggae fuels "At the Border, Guy", while the Marconi saluting title track celebrates the power of radio to present new worlds and unite communities. On "Mondo Bongo" he dispenses with his trademark bark for a lovely ballad laced with pre-Clash accomplice Tymon Dogg's lonesome violin. This is real anger with a big warm heart; maturity suits Strummer just fine. --Gavin Martin
fRoots, October 2001
The Strummer crew's previous one, Rock Art & The X-Ray Style, was a motoring favourite and this one has been the non-stop soundtrack of summer 2001. I even went out and bought a six-pack more just to give to deserving pals. There's clearly some convergence going on here. Wiseheads of the Clash era always pointed to the affinity between the politics and DIY ethic of the punk scene and the folk movement. Strummer's music today is more relevant to these pages than ever: not only reflecting current English urban culture and global concerns, but evolving a band sound that has world-augmented its conventional rock instruments with fiddles, hammer dulcimer, accordeon, all sorts of percussion, horns and much more. In among them is our old friend Tymon Dogg, once having guested on a Clash album, now a full paid up Mescalero. It's a new English sound of the 21st century, and there are obvious parallels with the way that Billy Bragg's Blokes also use a swathe of "unconventional" instruments, whatever's right and available from the world's cultures to add interesting textures. Pointed songs in English that work in the new multicultural realities. Like their previous album, this one has a thick and imaginative construction (if Phil Spector had done studio training with the Mustaphas...) that still somehow manages to sound uncontrived, revealing constant new pleasures at each play. The words are devised in the same way: first impressions might indicate a good deal of stream-of-consciousness but (as with early electric Dylan) they're much cleverer than that. Just as a little burst of bikutsi-like guitar might suddenly catch your attention, so do smart little lyrical twists (like the Who reference to Armenia in the title track--it's only later in the small print that you notice Roger Daltrey has slipped in on backing vocals on that one). It's pretty much all extremely good--even a very long meandering instrumental "Minstrel Boy" has its jammed charm in a two-fingers-to-"Fisherman's Blues" way--but the one that probably sums it up is "Bhindi Bhagee". In it, our hero meets a visitor from abroad seeking the culinary delight of mushy peas. Not around here, he's told, but "We got balti, bhindi... dall, halal... rocksoul, okra, Bombay duck... shrimp, beansprout, bagels...avocado, akee, lassi, Somali waccy baccy... pastrami, salami, lasagne." Makes Robin Cook's menu choice sound positively restrictive. And then Strummer goes on to describe the global influences on the band's music in the same off-the-cuff, haphazard way, while all round the music rampages gloriously. As somebody else's song title said, this is the UK talking. Major milestone album: influence will be felt, mark my words. --Ian Anderson
© fRoots Magazine all rights reserved
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Awaiting the release of Streetcore and as a regular listener to Rock Art etc, I thought that I should investigate Global a Go Go....Amazing, exciting, provocative and downright melodic this will prove to be one of my Playlist favourites. There's still plenty of north London wit on display as well as the global eclecticism that was setting Joe up as a valuable contributor to all that is accessible in new World Music.....the balance of street hardened sneer in Joe's voice offset by the pleading yell for a better world makes this package an inspirational sound collage. So cruel that Streetcore will be an epitaph to a voice that has been dimmed by the Creator......the musical legacy will surely attract, entertain and inspire for decades to come. A must for anybody who appreciates intelligent, beautifully crafted music.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I came to this with more than a grain of salt but... it's brilliant! Wonderfully performed and beautifully produced - musically uplifting and lyrically positive - it's the perfect antidote to all the cultural paranoia that is being washed over us during these dark days.
It's ambitious, playful, mature, and amazingly successful, blending different musical styles cleverly, and there's not a punk cliche in sight, either. The best album I've bought this year, by a street. Be careful if you get trashed listening to it though, cos that last track ... you might get lost in it forever: it's loooong, maaan.
It's ambitious, playful, mature, and amazingly successful, blending different musical styles cleverly, and there's not a punk cliche in sight, either. The best album I've bought this year, by a street. Be careful if you get trashed listening to it though, cos that last track ... you might get lost in it forever: it's loooong, maaan.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
After the brilliant ,if not cautious, 1999 outing "Rock Art & the X Ray Style", Joe has finally produced the ultimate CD to reflect the melting pot of musical styles close to his heart. This outing includes everything from, dub reggae ,hip hop jazz to Folk, techno, and eastern vibes. All these sounds giving a multi-cultural, multi-coloured musical background to the words of the greatest lyricist of his generation. Its taken along time to get to this place...but its been worth the wait. Thanks Joe .
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
better than the clash
"Johny Appleseed" is the stunningly catchy opening track. The rest are not quite as good but still outstanding. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Captain Kirk
Stunning.
This is probably the best album Joe Strummer ever made - and I am a lifetime Clash fan, love that band. Got 'Streetcore', loved it, but when this album arrived, it blew me away. Read more
Published 13 months ago by i-MC
Global Vision, World Music
After the return to form of `Rock Art and the X-Ray Style' great things were expected of the second Mescaleros album and they didn't disappoint. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2008 by Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers'
Top stuff
I always loved The Clash but had never really listened to Strummer.I was on holiday last year when someone played me this cd, I was blown away, the music is really upbeat and the... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2006 by Alastair Hart-johnson
...Then you don't go killing all the bees
This is a complex-sounding but charming album that has multiple influences.
World music, punk, reggae, folk, country..... and so on and so forth. Read more
World music, punk, reggae, folk, country..... and so on and so forth. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2006 by Merry Terry
Joe Strummer at his absolute best
"welcome to Britan in the 3rd millennium". It's the words that do it for me. Strummer just had a knack of phrasing that makes me beam like a Cheshire cat. Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2006 by F.E.Blue
A side of Joe No one knew about
This is not what Clash fans will want to hear, but to those into experimental, rock, world, house music and those who love Joe's voice on anything will want to pick this up. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2006
The Best Work from One of the Great Ones
My father, a poet and an artist on his own right, used to say that there was a "first row "and a "second row" for artists of any discipline. Read more
Published on 15 May 2004 by Juan Mobili
How Sandinista should have sounded :-)
I must confess to being a fan of the early Clash material, and I used to cringe whenever listening to Sandinista or side 2 of Combat Rock. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2002
Can't Wait For The Next Album!
A lot of really great stuff here - Shaktar Donetsk particularly is superb. Don't expect the Clash mark 2 - that's not what its about. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2002 by Rob Lightbody
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