The magnus opus of the trio of Mescaleros records was this immense and intense collection that, as its title alone suggests, took a worldwide overview, stretching from Ukraine to New Zealand. Get ready for a trip around the world in 80 minutes (or far less).
In ‘Bhindi Bhagee’, Strummer meets a New Zealander on the high road of a diverse London community, and is asked where he can get some mushy peas. A bemused Strummer replies that they haven’t got any of that particular dish, “but we do got … Balti, bhindi, strictly hindi, dal halal/ We got rocksoul, okra, Bombay duck ra/ Shrimp beansprout, comes with it or without, with it or without.”
And he hasn’t stopped there as there’s also: “Bagels soft or simply harder/ Exotic avocado or toxic empanada/ We got akee, lassi, Somali waccy baccy” …
Strummer is making clear to this colonial with a 1970s view of Britain that the city he’s just arrived in has diverse culinary tastes reflecting the varied cultures of modern Britain. Just as he’s finished his culinary spiel, the protagonist explains that he’s in a band and reels off the different forms of music it plays, in the same manner as above: “We got Brit pop, hip-hop, rockabilly, lindy hop/ Gaelic heavy metal fans, fighting in the road.”
Meanwhile, on the title track Strummer hails the universality of music: “Buddy Rich in Burundi/ Quadrophenia in Armenia/ Big Youth booming in Djkarta/ Nina Simone over Sierra Leone.”
‘Cool ‘N’ Out’ is a road trip across the States with Strummer’s typically obtuse lyrics: “Fix that gauge or you run out of gas/ A cool operator can make it last/ Say, from here to Indiana and across Illinois/ We're rockin’ the girls and a-boppin' on the boys/ And I spot a little bitty on a little bam-bam/ That pill poppers hopping on a city bound tram.”
‘Shaktar Donetsk’ reflects on eastern European migration to the west; a man from Macedonia pays a shady character handsomely to truck him into the UK on a potentially perilous journey in search of a new life: “If you really wanna go - alive or dead my friend” … a line that seems prophetic given recent deaths in cold, airless trucks.
Like ‘Tony Adams’ on 1999’s Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, the football connection isn’t central to the tale but it does provide some background: the protagonist wears the woolly scarf of Shahktar Donetsk (the official club name), inherited from his father, one of the Ukraine-based exiles of the former Yugoslavia.
‘At The Border, Guy’ is a wonderful, seven-minute epic, that builds and builds with its reggae fusion. There’s the sound of a harmonica in the distance as percussion and bass are used to effect for a track that gains strength to the very end.
Apart from a rather pointless 18-minute ‘Minstrel Boy’ that rounds off the album this is a magnificent effort from someone still sorely missed.
But while Strummer’s name is prominent, credit needs to be given to the Mescaleros, who were far from a session band. This was a tight unit, and Global A Go-Go is much more of a cohesive group effort than the more song-based Rock Art.
Numerous instruments were used but their usage didn’t come across as forced or to be clever. These include bongos, wurlitzers, French horns, Spanish guitars, witchdoctor bells, whistles and “live echo plating and sounds destruction”. Strummer's lyrics are of the metaphorical, socially aware style that he used in the Clash.
It’s by far the finest effort of three by the Mescaleros and the best album Strummer was involved with for about 15 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment