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Product Description
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The Clash made their splash playing raucous punk rock earmarked by a twin chainsaw guitar attack and Joe Strummer's strained vocal barks, so it's easy to forget that they could create some lovely music. See Sandinista!'s "Rebel Waltz" and "Charlie Don't Surf," London Calling's "Death or Glory," and Combat Rock's "Straight to Hell." The boy who used to scream "White Riot!" realized there are other ways to be heard than shouting fire in a crowded theater, and there is no denying that the Clash wanted to be heard. It's a lesson Joe Strummer has carried on as he's gone from angry young man to wizened elder, and with his new album, Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, and new band, the Mescaleros, he trades in the snip and snarl of punk for a loose yet powerful amalgam of blues, country, and reggae grooves. It provides a perfect canvas for Strummer's still potent messages of social insight and political critique, painted with his warm but ravaged vocal chords. Aside from the misstep of the second track, "Sandpaper Blues," Rock Art bristles with outstanding songs. On "Tony Adams," Strummer rants atop a rocking reggae shuffle, "I am waiting for the rays of the morning sun / Somebody tell me clearly--has the New World begun?" On "Techno D-Day" (as close to a Clash City Rocker as you'll find these days) he reinvigorates rock with a revolutionary agenda. The album's best cut, however, is the lovely closer, "Willesden to Cricklewood," a wonderful, wispy tune that finds Strummer waxing poetic on an afternoon whiled away with friends and family in a small town. It's a far cry from the apocalyptic vision in the Clash's "London's Burning," but no less powerful. --Tod Nelson
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
When this cd came out in 1999, I,like most clash fans, could not wait to get it home and play it,from "Combat Rock" in 1982, it had been a long time! Sure there was "This England" the only great track on "Cut the Crap", great title, crap album......and a few tracks floating around, but this was supposed be the real deal. As soon as the first track kicked in "Tony Adams" a great groove, fantastic lyrics, full of humour and bite, I relaxed, I knew I was in for a treat.
Highlights were also "X Ray Style", a superb song, great acoustic playing, bongos with a happy positive lyric."Nitcomb", Joe singing to "all the torn betting slips", great song with the high of a Saturday night, and great lyrics of showing how you can get your life back despite anything thrown at you."Diggin' the New", acceptance of getting older and a new regime is in, with the immortal line "Just walk in like you own it........."."Forbidden City" Oh China indeed, strong imagery, the voice is seasoned and passionate, just as you would wish it to be. There are some modern sounds on the album,"Yalla Yalla" is very electronic, as are one or two tracks, but still with those fantastic lyrics "So long Liberty, lets just forget you didn't show" and then the humour of mixing fighting moves and drinking beer......It finishes with a sentimental "Willesden to Cricklewood", getting the mozzerella in.....
I was lucky enough to see the Mescarleros in Liverpool shortly after this album came out, the band were superb, Joe was pushing 50 and still giving it everything, thats why we loved him!
I saw him after "Global a Go Go" came out a couple of years later in Manchester, by that time, he'd played the Festivals all over the World, got his respect and profile back up, and yet he was chatting with the audience and was a great down to Earth guy.
To me, he was the John Lennon of our generation, always ready to take risks, and put himself on the line.
This album must have given him as much pleasure as it did all his fans, the way it was received. Go and buy it!
Highlights were also "X Ray Style", a superb song, great acoustic playing, bongos with a happy positive lyric."Nitcomb", Joe singing to "all the torn betting slips", great song with the high of a Saturday night, and great lyrics of showing how you can get your life back despite anything thrown at you."Diggin' the New", acceptance of getting older and a new regime is in, with the immortal line "Just walk in like you own it........."."Forbidden City" Oh China indeed, strong imagery, the voice is seasoned and passionate, just as you would wish it to be. There are some modern sounds on the album,"Yalla Yalla" is very electronic, as are one or two tracks, but still with those fantastic lyrics "So long Liberty, lets just forget you didn't show" and then the humour of mixing fighting moves and drinking beer......It finishes with a sentimental "Willesden to Cricklewood", getting the mozzerella in.....
I was lucky enough to see the Mescarleros in Liverpool shortly after this album came out, the band were superb, Joe was pushing 50 and still giving it everything, thats why we loved him!
I saw him after "Global a Go Go" came out a couple of years later in Manchester, by that time, he'd played the Festivals all over the World, got his respect and profile back up, and yet he was chatting with the audience and was a great down to Earth guy.
To me, he was the John Lennon of our generation, always ready to take risks, and put himself on the line.
This album must have given him as much pleasure as it did all his fans, the way it was received. Go and buy it!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is the album that re-established Joe Strummer as a musical force to be reckoned with, following a decade in self-imposed exile from the spotlight. The opening track, "Tony Adams", is a declaration of purpose, with the same sort of rock-plus-reggae formula that served Joe's former band, The Clash, so well. Elsewhere, Latin, folk, roots and punk styles collide as Joe celebrates the kind of multi-culturalism that puts the "great" back into Great Britain. All this and Joe namechecks both old school rapper Kool Moe Dee and bluesman Brownie McGee in the same line of a song!
Overall, one gets the feeling that this is a glimpse at the kind of direction The Clash might have gone in had they survived the early 1980's and made it into the 1990's intact. What more could you really want?
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Well, what can i say. I've listened on The Clash for quite a while now, and i must say that i really love them. I particulary like their more reagge and dub like productions. So, what are you going to listen to know when the Clash is no more ? Well, try on Joe Strummer, their most excellent singer. On this album he mixes everything from dub to rock into a nice mix. A must have for all music lovers !
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
strummer happily rediscovered
Much as I loved the Clash, it is no insult to say this is different. Strummer has moved on, yet retained his energy, his voice and his eclectic musical tastes. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Captain Kirk
Review
An accomplished return to form from mr strummer with an underlying reggae beat evident on the first clash album he seems comfortable in his music skin at that time it's a bit of a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Rstephep
Not clash but maybe slighty a waste of cash?(NO)
Its ok, but if you like Clash then be suprised, but shows how diverse Joe Strummer is as an artist! Who can have a go at an artist who wants to try something different, risk... Read more
Published 16 months ago by I write reviews on the toilet
Rock Art and the Return of World Service Troubadour
Ten years had passed since Joe Strummer had last recorded an LP, 1989's `Earthquake Weather' which had been a critical and commercial failure and had lost him his solo contract... Read more
Published on 21 Jun 2008 by Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers'
Joe Strummer & his super Mescaleros
Have recently purchased my second copy of this wonderful album, previous lost somewhere? As soon as I played my new copy again, for the first time in a fair while, I realised what... Read more
Published on 9 Nov 2007 by Tommy Gunn
Late news breaking this just in....
A charming effort that is slightly unsure of itself, Mr Strummer's return to the scene after some time is very likeable just not all that consistent. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2006 by Merry Terry
bloody awful
Buyer beware. As an avid clash fan this is one hell of a disappointment. There is but one musical idea in the whole record. Read more
Published on 8 May 2002 by tedprojproj@hotmail.com
No Question, this is Joe's best work since his Clash days!
Since the Clash split, Joe Strummer has done just one other solo album and various other music related projects, film soundtracks etc. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2000
The Return of The Master
This is the recording that The Clash might have made (but didn't) after Combat Rock (1982). Listening to it for the first time, it was as if the 18 years since Comabt Rock had... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2000
A must for all Clash and late 70's early 80's music fans.
Joe Strummer has with his new band of Mescaleros produced a wonderful series of tracks which will not disappoint old and new Clash fans. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2000
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