Top 10: Songs about sex workers

Who doesn’t love a bit of filth with their harmonies? How can anyone resist the temptations of sexual suggestion and lurid details of carnal activities? Well, Craig Stephen loves a bit of how’s your father, especially if it involves a strumpet or a gigolo. He’s back with another top 10, specifically looking at songs about sex workers. And just to prove he’s still alive, the site’s lazy-arse editor can’t resist adding an 11th in the form of a genuine red light Kiwi ska-punk classic:

Tubeway Army - Are ‘Friends’ Electric? (1979)

Number one in the UK for weeks, and yet few people would have sussed out what it was actually about, so here’s Gary Numan, the Tory-loving pilot, telling all to a journalist … “the lyrics came from short stories I'd written about what London would be like in 30 years. These machines - "friends" - come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they look human. The one in the song is a prostitute, hence the inverted commas. It was released in May 1979 and sold a million copies. I had a No 1 single with a song about a robot prostitute and no one knew.”

Cole Porter - Love For Sale (1930)

In the very conservative context of 1930s America, a white singer singing about her life as a prostitute was too much for many. After all, 1930 was the year Hollywood introduced the Hays Code which forbade the use of profanity and obscenity. ‘Love For Sale’ was labelled as "in bad taste" by one newspaper and radio stations kept a wide berth. So, to try to defuse the moral outrage, singer Kathryn Crawford was replaced by Elizabeth Welch, an African-American singer. It was later covered by Shirley Bassey, Boney M, Elvis Costello, and Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett for a duet.

Blondie - Call Me (1980)

The theme song from the film American Gigolo starring Richard Gere is presented from the point of view of a male escort, despite being sung by Debbie Harry. The Blondie star suggestively purrs for the listener to call her anytime and issues an invitation to call "day or night" because "I'll never get enough". ‘Call Me’ was composed by Italian disco producer Giorgio Moroder and contained more than a tinge of electronica. Given Blondie’s huge popularity at the time as they successfully bridged punk, new wave and pop, it was inevitably a worldwide hit and was named in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

 Ramones - 53rd & 3rd (1977)

A gay hustler stands alone on a street corner in New York unsuccessfully trying to earn some cash by turning tricks. When a macho man Vietnam Green Beret challenges him, the hustler slips out his weapon and does the dirty deed. “Then I took out my razor blade/Then I did what God forbade/Now the cops are after me/But I proved that I'm no sissy.” The song references what was once a popular hangout for male prostitution, and where Dee Dee Ramone tried to do business before joining the band. It appears on their much-hailed debut album Ramones.

Queen - Killer Queen (1974)

Queen’s first worldwide hit was about a woman who we learn in the first verse likes the luxuries of life: “She keeps Moët et Chandon/In her pretty cabinet/ ‘Let them eat cake’, she says/Just like Marie Antoinette.” Listening further, you can deduce that the lady in question serves pleasure to the men in high places. “Drop of a hat, she's as willing as/Playful as a pussycat.” 

Sharon O’Neill - Maxine (1983)

It probably said something of New Zealand of the time that there were two versions of the video: one for Kiwi eyes, one for Australians. The New Zealand video is tame and lame, focusing on O’Neill with her Bonnie Tyler-style hair singing along to the song. The one for the Aussie audiences is far more gritty, beginning with ‘Maxine’ out on the streets looking for business. We then see O’Neill pleading with her friend to give it all up, but it’s all in vain. Yes, MOR pop can sometimes tell a good story.

Morrissey - Piccadilly Palare (1990)

He’d later turn to boxing and other working class pursuits but in 1990 Morrissey was singing about male prostitution. “On the rack I was/Easy meat, and a reasonably good buy.” The title is a play on the slang term polari which was first used by male prostitutes in the 19th century and then taken up in the 1960s to disguise activities which were illegal in the UK until 1967. Apparently, Morrissey didn’t particularly like the song and reviewers weren’t entirely sure either. It was the fifth of five singles that were released outside of a studio album, and with ‘November Spawned a Monster’, also issued in 1990, it seemed that a studio album then would’ve been a cruel trick played on his fans.

 The Clash - Janie Jones (1977)

Despite the title, this track from The Clash’s incendiary eponymous debut album is more about an office worker who, having had a gutsful of his tedious job, jumps in his car and heads off to a brothel. Which is where Ms Jones comes in. Janie Jones was a one-time singer, who in the 60s had a minor hit with 'Witches Brew', became infamous for hosting sex parties at her home during the 1970s, and was jailed for ‘controlling prostitutes’.

Goodbye Mr MacKenzie - The Rattler (1989)

I don’t regret giving away records that I felt I didn’t need any more except for one - Good Deeds And Dirty Rags, the debut album by this Edinburgh band. Admittedly it was a mixed bag but it is still worth having for the likes of ‘The Rattler’ and ‘Goodwill City’. The former was released as a single in 1986. It didn’t go anywhere and was reissued three years later. However, it was rarely played on radio then due to it being about a male prostitute and description of what is euphemistically dubbed a sex act.

The Police - Roxanne (1978)

Sting was inspired to write this after seeing working girls operate outside of his hotel room in Paris while on tour. It revolves around a man who falls in love with the eponymous street worker. The narrator attempts to persuade her to give up her work, hence the lyrics: “Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light/Those days are over/You don't have to sell your body to the night.”

Editor’s Choice: Instigators - Hope She’s Alright (1982)

Not to be confused with the 1980s English anarcho-punk band of the same name, these Instigators won Auckland’s ‘battle of the bands’ title in 1981 before hitting the road and going on to enthrall local pub audiences for the best part of the next two years. Along the way, amongst other great tunes, they released a fine ska cover of ‘The Israelites’, followed by this brilliant slice of urgent punk rock. Released on Ripper Records, ‘Hope She’s Alright’ tells the story of a missing prostitute … check it out here:

Please Release Me … Top 10 potentially great unheard albums

Nostalgia is a niche sales opportunity in the music industry and labels have become adept at tapping into fans’ desire to have as much music as they can by the artists they adore. I’m thinking of David Bowie’s Toys or Neil Young’s Homegrown which were released about 20 and 40 years after being recorded.

Critical acclaim was unlikely to be foisted upon either album if they were released in 2001 or 1975 respectively, but the focus now is giving the punters what they want.
In the blog’s latest line of compilation lists, Craig Stephen lists a mere 10 albums that never saw the light of day at the time – and probably should have. These include completed albums, works in progress and even just album ideas.

 The Who: Lifehouse (recorded 1971/1972)

After Tommy, The Who intended on doing a science fiction proto-environmental catastrophe rock opera. Sadly, as exciting as this idea sounded, the project was abandoned in favour of the traditional rock delight Who’s Next. Very little of it has not been released (elsewhere) with half a dozen tracks, including ‘Bargain’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’, appearing on Who’s Next and others popping up on Odds and Sods or other albums. But fans still want the album as it was supposed to be recorded and released.

House of Love: Untitled (recorded 1989)

After the burning success of their phenomenal self-titled debut and following their signing to Fontana, the House of Love hit the studio to record what was due to be their second masterpiece. It didn’t quite work out, however. The band was disintegrating and the recording sessions are said to be below par. What is certain is that two singles, ‘Never’ and ‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’, would have been at the forefront of the album. As would ‘Soft as Fire’ and ‘Safe’, both B-sides but certainly album material. In 1990, after the official second album, Fontana or the Butterfly Album as it is sometimes dubbed, the label issued a collection of B-sides and outtakes called Spy In The House of Love. Among these were four tracks that would have been on that now mythical album. The standout was ‘Marble’, but the other three do hint at the issues the band were experiencing.

The The: Pornography of Despair (recorded 1982)

This would have been Matt Johnson’s debut album under the moniker of The The but was considered too oblique. Several tracks were released as B-sides and some of the album landed on the cassette of Soul Mining, the incredible album that was released in 1983 to massive acclaim and chart success. It is logical to see the merits of this decision as tracks such as ‘This Is The Day’ and ‘Uncertain Smile’ are among the best tracks The The have ever recorded.

 Clare Grogan: Trash Mad (recorded 1987)

When Altered Images broke up in the mid-80s it was only natural that lead singer Clare Grogan be set free on a solo career that capitalised on her beautiful voice and photogenic appearance. Trash Mad was written and recorded and all set to sail in 1987. But … the opening single ‘Love Bomb’, ahem, bombed despite a number of TV appearances. It certainly wasn’t a stinker, in fact it’s a near perfect pop song. Its follow-up ‘Strawberry’ was subsequently shelved and London Records also pulled the album, causing distress to millions of schoolboys. Surely Cherry Red will have eyes on issuing Trash Mad for the first time ever, ending nearly 40 years of hurt.

The Clash: Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg (recorded 1981/1982)

There was the double album (London Calling) and the triple album (Sandinista). How could the Clash possibly follow these lengthy meisterwerks? The original idea was for another double. This was Mick Jones’ baby, but sadly he was outnumbered and outgunned. Fort Bragg was shelved, and instead CBS issued Combat Rock, which is not a bad album to have in your cannon. Jones distilled various elements and influences that The Clash had used previously into a 75-minute, 18-track beast. Fort Bragg would’ve included all of the tracks that made up Combat Rock, and plenty more besides. But ‘Rock the Casbah’ et al would’ve sounded so very different. Various bootlegs have appeared over the years, but the full, unedited and mastered version NEEDS to be given a proper release.

The Bodysnatchers: Untitled (some tracks recorded 1980)

The Bodysnatchers only issued two singles, ‘Easy Life’ and ‘Let’s Do Rock Steady’, eager takes on the ska revival sound that 2-Tone mastered so well. As well as their B-sides, there’s a track that was recorded for John Peel and a version of ‘The Boiler’ which was later covered by singer Rhoda Daker and the Special AKA. In 2014 Dakar recorded an album entitled Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers. You can imagine that the 10 tracks were set to form The Bodysnatchers’ debut album, but it is still a solo effort.

Space: Love You More Than Football (recorded 2000)

Space were everywhere in the 1990s with supernova global hits like ‘Female of the Species’ and ‘The Ballad of Tom Jones’. After the latter, a top five hit in the UK no less, the public’s interest waned and when a single, ‘Diary of a Wimp’, flopped like an octogenarian in a brothel, the Edwyn Collins-produced Love You More Than Football (an impossible construct, of course) was scrapped. Promo copies popped up at the time and the odd track subsequently came out on compilations. It wasn’t till 2019 that a remixed version of the album was included on a boxset of all the band’s material. Is that a proper release for an unissued album? Don’t be so daft, lad.

 Department S: Sub-stance (recorded 1981)

Named after a 70s television series, this English outfit had a surprise UK hit at the end of 1980 with the rather eerie but beguiling ‘Is Vic There?’. Subsequent singles, ‘Going Left Right’ and ‘I Want’, both excellent ditties, flopped and the band have now become known as one-hit wonders rather than the indie stars some liken them to. The album recording sessions were iffy and with poor sales from the two follow-up singles, Stiff Records dropped them. A version of the album has since been released, albeit a very low-key release. Somebody do the proper thing eh!

David Bowie: The Gouster (recorded 1974)

Sometimes there’s a thin line between an unreleased album and the one that came after. The Gouster is one such item. The question is whether it was a bona fide album, or an early version of Young Americans. By 1974 Bowie had become infatuated with American soul and funk. His 1972 single ‘John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)’ was updated with the sound of Detroit and New York for The Gouster. The opening three tracks clocked in at 20 minutes, so only seven tracks would fit onto the vinyl. Four of them, ‘Young Americans’, ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’, ‘Can You Hear Me’, and ‘Right’ were re-recorded for Young Americans which came out in 1975.  That leaves the abovementioned ‘John, I’m Only Dancing (Again)’, ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ and ‘Who Can I Be Now?’ as discarded waste. The Gouster appeared as part of the Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) boxset. 

The Clash: Cut The Crap (1984-ish)

Yes, Cut The Crap was released and I retro-reviewed it [here]. But the version that appeared in 1985 was a travesty, a record that only really involved Joe Strummer and band manager/wannabe producer Bernie Rhodes. Paul Simonon was sidelined, and guitarists Nick Sheppard and Vince White and drummer Pete Howard weren’t even playing. Rhodes used an electronic drum machine instead of Howard. Nevertheless, when the new songs were played live in 1984 they sounded fresh and the demo versions made that year were the sound of a proper band. Rhodes takes all the blame for the dismal final effort and that is fully justified. But there is an album in there, it just needs someone to take the original demo tapes and rework them.

Top 10 of ... Punk Dub

That punk rock, it was all shouty noise and noisy shouting wasn’t it?

Ah, now you see one of the great stereotypes of our times; that punk was just about making a racket. Well, it wasn’t jazz but there was far more to the genre than a lot of people think.

Back in 1976, punk and reggae seemed intertwined; at the punk clubs, reggae was played by Don Letts and other DJs as there were so few punk records to actually play. Bob Marley & The Wailers got in on the act with 1977’s ‘Punky Reggae Party’ … “The Wailers will be there/ The Damned, The Jam, The Clash/ Maytals will be there/ Dr Feelgood too.”

And punk bands found dub reggae to their liking.

That produced the cracking records from punk and post-punk outfits. Like these …..

The Ruts: Jah War (1979)

Hit singles such as ‘Staring at the Rude Boys’ and ‘Babylon’s Burning’ tick all the requisite punk purity boxes. But The Ruts were far more diverse than many of their peers, which can partly be attributed to being late starters and hearing more than the early punk rockers. ‘Jah War’ appeared on the classic 1979 debut The Crack. It has a heavy roots-reggae feel and is also political, tackling the violence perpetrated by the London Police’s controversial SPG (Special Patrol Group) during trouble in the ethnically-diverse suburb of Southall in 1979.

Released as the third single from The Crack, the BBC banned it for its message.

The Clash: One More Dub (1980)

The Clash laid their love of reggae and dub to the mast early on: a cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and Thieves’ was released as a single in 1977. A year later they released ‘White Man (In Hammersmith Palais)’ which namechecked a litany of reggae stars to a Jamaican vibe backdrop.

‘One More Dub’ followed on from ‘One More Time’ at the end of side two of the triple album meisterwerk Sandinista. The standard track is about poverty and its effects in so-called ghetto towns; ‘One More Dub’ strips the lyrics down, more or less to the chorus: “One more time in the ghetto/ One more time if you please/ One more time for the dying man/ One more time if you please.”

 Generation X: Wild Dub (1978)

Generation X’s second 45, glam-punk stomper ‘Wild Youth’ was paired with ‘Wild Dub’ which revealed the band’s reggae influences with singer Billy Idol toasting at the end, “Heavy, heavy dub/Punk rockers!”. The single was produced by Phil Wainman in late 1977, and while neither track were included on the self-titled debut album, they were both part of the much-changed US version.

Stiff Little Fingers: Johnny Was (1979)

A cover of a Bob Marley & The Wailers song, the Irishmen’s version revamped the lyrics to reflect the violence of the time in Northern Ireland. While both songs convey the horror of a mother who’s son has been killed by a stray bullet, the Wailers made it non-geographical while SLF’s take added the following line to make clear where the incident occurred: “A single shot rings out in a Belfast night and I said oh Johnny was a good man.”

Steel An' Skin ‎- Afro Punk Reggae (Dub) (1979)

Steel An' Skin were a British-based group who came from West Africa, the Caribbean and the UK. Reggae, post-punk and Caribbean steel drums are all prevalent on this 12-inch record. Perhaps the punk link in the title was somewhat tenuous but there’s no doubting that some of the influences could have been from Bristol’s The Pop Group or London all-girl four-piece The Slits.

Alternative TV: Life After Dub (1978)

A-side ‘Life After Life’, B-side ‘Life After Dub’. The A-side was a clear nod to Jamaica, with vocals from Sniffin’ Glue editor Mark Perry, sounding positively positive. The B-side was a straight-through dub version with echoes and clipped lyrics. One of the band’s finest moments.

Bad Brains: Bad Brains LP (1982) 

American band Bad Brains were out on their own, with many of their songs actively fusing hardcore punk and roots reggae. They were that rarity of being a black punk band. They were also followers of the Rastafari movement, so the reggae/dub side came easily to them. The first five tracks of this debut LP are pure hardcore (with noticeable nods to reggae) then track six, ‘Jah Calling’, is akin to a dub interlude. ‘Leaving Babylon’ is another track that is 100 percent reggae and the shift in moods works perfectly, though it does seem at times that there are two bands at play on the same record.

Public Image Ltd: Metal Box (1979)

After the punk wave disintegrated by the beginning of 1978, post-punk came into play. The Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name John Lydon and formed PiL which threw out the three cord thrash and explored a buffet of divergent genres.  Jah Wobble’s booming bassline sounded like it was torn directly from dub plates. Same for the band’s production, especially on the second LP, the much-lauded and pioneering Metal Box.

Gang of Four: I Love A Man In Uniform (Dub version) (1982)

Way before the Gang’s finest hour, the Leeds disruptors were well versed in the art of reggae and dub with the band’s discordant basslines clearly being influenced by Kingston producers. This version of the group’s biggest hit single only initially appeared on US and Canadian 12-inch releases. It helped the single become a big hit in American clubs and on the dance charts.

Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead (1979)

Bauhaus are often unfairly labelled as a Goth band, so many people will be surprised to learn that they highly influenced by dub, with bass player, David J saying that their signature song "was our interpretation of dub". Several singles contained dub-tinged versions.

Classic Album Revisited: The Clash - The People’s Hall (1982/2022)

Craig Stephen on the bonus album released when Combat Rock gained its obligatory 40^th anniversary deluxe spurs in 2022:

Here at everythingsgonegreen we really need no excuse to review a Clash album … even when we’ve done it before. So, yes, I have reviewed Combat Rock, the last great Clash album, and you can read that here.

But the album’s re-release comes with an additional collection, The People’s Hall, recorded around the same time, but has been kept under wraps until now.

People’s Hall has been dubbed a cash-in and a luxury item for collectors. I’d say otherwise. Having played this several times I’d say it is a collection that stands on its own. Yes, it is a mixed bag and the snapshots of chitter chatter from the crowd outside a gig (‘Outside Bonds’) could really have been ditched, but that’s the exception to the rule. This is well worth buying even if you have Combat Rock already. 

Here's the condensed backstory: in December 1980 The Clash released the beguiling and beautiful triple album Sandinista! and in May and June of the following year played what would become a 17-show residency at New York’s Bond’s Casino to promote it. Those shows have gone down in musical history.

Before a tour of Asia, the band rehearsed and recorded at The People’s Hall in London, from where 11 of the tracks were recorded (the exception being ‘Outside Bonds’, obviously). It’s the bridging period between Sandinista! and Combat Rock, and you can discern the development going on. Some of the tracks were re-recorded for Combat Rock or ended up on B-sides; some were taken no further.

‘This Is Radio Clash’ was released as a single at the end of 1981. This version, which effectively opens People’s Hall, contains slightly different lyrics. Apart from that it doesn’t differ greatly from the single version. But the original version of ‘Know Your Rights’ veers greatly from the Combat Rock take. While all the crucial elements are there Strummer sings the lyrics straight, but on the finished version he sounds more mocking, and the guitars are edgier. I’d say they tidied it up pretty neatly for the version that the world knows now and gave it a new interpretation.

 Among the highlights is an extended and looser version of ‘Sean Flynn’ (Errol Flynn’s son who disappeared in south-east Asia while working as a photojournalist). As I listen to this particular track I feel I am being transported to the rail tracks and fields in rural Thailand where the photo session for the Combat Rock cover was taken. It’s magnificent, it feels as if The Doors are in Saigon having a jam session and letting it all out. 

‘Futura 2000’ draws from sessions with New York’s graffiti artist of the same name, revealing some raw and ready proto hip hop and contains one straight bassline played endlessly to great effect. ‘Radio One’ allows reggae great Mikey Dread to do his own, inimitable thing, ‘Midnight To Stevens’ is a tribute to bonkers producer Guy Stevens, and there’s tracks like ‘Long Time Jerk’ and ‘First Night Back In London’ that were relegated to B-sides when they deserved much better. Add in the instrumental ‘He Who Dares or Is Tired’ and you have something of a party punch. That was never served up to revellers.

At the same time The Clash worked with The Beat’s resident toaster Ranking Roger for versions of ‘Rock the Casbah’ and ‘Red Angel Dragnet’, both of which were omitted from People’s Hall and issued as a stand-alone single to fleece more money out of Clash fans.

People’s Hall was a working project for a new album but Combat Rock was the second life of a rolling project, with Mick Jones’ intention to have the band’s fifth album stretch to over an hour and be called Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg. The Clash were always drawn to different sounds and their love of reggae is renowned but this album would have been expanded to soak in Jones’ love for New York funk and hip-hop, and dub. 

The band and its mercurial/autocratic manager Bernie Rhodes instantly dismissed it. Jones was gutted and barely attended the remix sessions, which is understandable as he would be witnessing another producer, Glyn Johns, slash and burn his cherished work to create what we have now as Combat Rock. Rat Patrol has since been bootlegged to hell and back but it still needs to be given a full and official release. Why it hasn’t is a mystery given so much unreleased Clash material has already been resurrected.

Nevertheless, while you wait, indulge in this intriguing bonus album which, despite what some critics might say, offers another side of The Clash and takes the listener to another time and world, to the emerging hip-hop scene, to post-war Vietnam, and to … well, wherever you want to be.

(This is not a) Classic Album Review: The Clash - Cut The Crap (1985)

Craig Stephen continues his extensive overview of The Clash and its wider musical legacy (see multiple posts about “solo” Joe Strummer and The Clash elsewhere on the blog):

And this is not a typical album review. You kind of can’t with something so universally despised by critics, dismissed by Clash fans, and even rejected by its creator. Cut the Crap truly was a disaster of epic proportions, a stinker extraordinaire that as a Clash fan myself I’ve only ever given one or two spins as the headaches proved too much.

Instead, this is the story behind the making of the worst punk record. The personality clashes, the sackings, the accelerated decline of the world’s best rock band of the time and the incredible mistakes propelled by egos and insecurity.

The decline of the Clash began, perhaps, in late 1982 when drummer Topper Headon, by then a caricature of a human being due to his Colombian-scale consumption of heroin, was sacked. A year later the band’s main songwriter Mick Jones was gone too. The two musicians in the band had left. And manager Bernie Rhodes, who could be credited with the band’s early success but also with sowing division, was now back at the helm. Joe Strummer turned to Rhodes’ ruthless situationist streak to cut out all the superfluous, superficial, middle class BS.

Pete Howard was first in, replacing Headon’s replacement Terry Chimes, while Jones was still in the band. Howard would soon take a call from a wired Strummer telling him he’d “sacked the stoned cunt” and demanding to know if he was on Jones’ or Strummer’s side. Howard, clearly knowing where the power lay, affirmed he was pro-Joe. Nick Sheppard, once the guitarist with pseudo punk band The Cortinas, was roped in first, followed by Gregory White whose name wasn’t rock’n’roll enough for the band so became Vince – after Vince Taylor. They were both replacements for Mick Jones.

The trigger for the album which was initially called Out of Control was the 1984 tour that featured several new tracks. These gigs signalled a return to punk rock, or Rebel Rock as it would be dubbed by the band. There would be no dub tracks, no soul-fun workouts, no kids singing … it would be all about the music, and they’d only play with Les Pauls.

The Clash were now a band but not a unit. Strummer and Paul Simonon the only other surviving member, were the new Clash; Howard, Sheppard and White were self-professed guns for hire, taking a weekly wage. And in time even Strummer and Simonon would become secondary to Rhodes’ inflated sense of worth.

A mini tour of California in January 1984 played to smaller venues than the stadiums that they had the year before, and was generally regarded as successful. While the classic Clash songbook prevailed, there was space for new songs like ‘Sex Mad War’, ‘Three Card Trick’ and ‘This is England’. A particularly impressive track, ‘In The Pouring Rain’ (it’s on the Future is Unwritten soundtrack), was aired at some gigs during 1984 but wasn’t included on the eventual album, presumably because it just didn’t fit.

With the return of a punk sound came the unwanted return of gobbing. Which at a Brixton Academy gig in March 1984 so incensed Strummer he threatened to kill someone. And wasn’t joking about it.

Strummer was sporting a Mohican – not quite à la The Exploited - and there was a militaristic ambience about this new act, including calling the new members recruits who were part of a platoon, rather than a band. There were dictums left, right, and centre and Howard equated it to being in a religious cult like the Moonies.

On a 10-day tour of Italy in the autumn of 1984 in aid of the Italian Communist Party, Strummer was absent from rehearsals and there was a single soundcheck, in which they hashed through ‘Be Bop A Lula’ before heading to the pub. Strummer was reportedly drinking two or three bottles of brandy a day.

It was a difficult time for Strummer after hearing that his mother and been diagnosed with terminal cancer, on top of his father dying at the beginning of the year. This led to the postponement of the recording of the appropriately titled Out of Control. With Strummer looking after his ailing mother, Rhodes took “complete control” and that was where it all began to go wrong. The recording of the album involved session musicians with actual members sidelined. Rhodes tinkered with it to his delight … to inevitable results.

Meantime, the band did a busking tour of the north of England in May 1985, stalking Welsh rockers The Alarm from gig to gig just to wind them up. The end came at a festival in Athens, Greece, sharing a bill with The Cure, The Stranglers, Depeche Mode and Culture Club, in July 1985.

 There was still a single and album to release, and due to a legal agreement the record label couldn’t avoid its duties even though they probably would have been keen to just ditch it and hope it went away. Which is what Strummer felt as he had left for Spain before ‘This Is England’ had been released as a single in September 1985. In Granada, Strummer produced an album for punk band 091 and worked with Spanish popstars Radio Futura. He even bought a Dodge car to drive around and eventually dump, and film-maker Nick Hall was so intrigued as to what happened with it he made an entire documentary around it, called I Need A Dodge. The film was of course a bit more about a mere car owned by a rock star: it told the tale of why Strummer went to Spain and what he did there.

Cut the Crap was released in November 1985 and as predicted by everyone was without exception derided. It was a messy, punk’n’hip hop ramble with incoherent, childlike lyrics and inane chants like We Are The Clash. None of it was coherent, none of it was pleasant listening, and the electronic drums were unbearable… And it really wasn’t punk rock. Only ‘This is England’, which was a brutal take-down of Thatcherism, greed and war, and ‘North and South’ escaped some of the savaging.

Strummer told his bandmates he was going to pen a hand-written admission of guilt in 1930s Soviet-style lettering saying he made the wrong decision. It was intended to go in all the still influential music weeklies such as NME, Sounds and Melody Maker, as well as The Guardian and wherever else. It never did appear.

It is easy to consider that this was a disastrous period for Strummer, Simonon and The Clash legacy, which was certainly tarnished by the misadventure but initially the band seemed to be doing something right. They were playing some good gigs and festivals, and the new songs didn’t sound like the lumpy, degenerate, half-baked monstrosities that they would become in Rhodes’ hands. The return to basics project after stadium tours and hob-nobbing with Michael Jackson’s manager and film stars was the right decision to make at the time. It was the execution that failed. It was tainted by Rhodes’ control freakery, the impact of family issues and bad decisions. Dealt with professionally, Cut the Crap or Out of Control as it more likely would have been called if Rhodes hadn’t had so much power, could well have been a decent album, made by people that actually wanted to make it work. One day someone will release the original demos.

'This Is England' ... 

The Strummer Files: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Live at Acton Town Hall (2002/2012) & Assembly (2021)

Craig Stephen digs deep to come up with yet another addition to The Strummer Files, the blog’s extensive overview of Joe Strummer’s post-Clash musical legacy …

Live At Acton Town Hall (2012) would turn out to be the last-ever gig for Joe Strummer and his band. And suitably it was recorded for posterity.

Strummer and the Mescaleros played the inconspicuous Acton Town Hall in west London on 15 November 2002. But, on 22 December, Strummer was cruelly taken from this world following a massive heart attack at his Somerset home, aged just 50.

This release captures that gig beautifully and it was one that is significant in ways beyond the fact it was the former Clash frontman’s final ever gig.

Firstly, in fitting with Strummer’s solidarity with the working man, even when Clash riches took him into a different financial sphere from those he was defending, it was a benefit for firefighters who were striking for an improvement on their dismal wages (firefighters save lives FFS). The Fire Brigades Union-led industrial action was the first nationwide strike in the UK since the 1970s and didn’t officially end until June 2003 with a pay rise that was below the FBU’s demands, which would have seen firefighters paid fairly for their heroics.

On the stage too, there was a momentous moment when Strummer was joined by former Clash man Mick Jones for the encore, the first time the pair had performed live together since the last classic line-up Clash gig in 1983.

Thankfully, someone at the mixing desk had the foresight to press the record button, and initially the set was released in a limited vinyl run in 2012, and five years later it was released again on vinyl, for Record Store Day. Those responsible didn’t bother with any artwork, sticking a flyer into the transparent plastic sleeve. Regardless, what a treasure this is.

Strummer splits the material roughly half and half between Mescaleros tracks (much underrated) and Clash classics.

This allows recent Mescaleros material such as ‘Shaktar Donetsk’, ‘Tony Adams’, ‘Cool ‘N’ Out’, ‘Bhindee Bhagee’ (about a New Zealander who’s just got off the plane in west London and wants to know where he can buy mushy peas) and ‘Mega Bottle Ride’ to be performed. ‘Johnny Appleseed’ is an absolute standout and there are even a couple of works in progress played for one of the first times – ‘Get Down Moses’ and ‘Coma Girl’, both of which would appear on the posthumous Streetcore.

I got on the Mescaleros bandwagon quite early when I received and reviewed the debut album Rock Art and the X-Ray Style (1999) for a Scottish newspaper. I never felt in any way disappointed in any of the trio of Mescaleros albums. They weren’t meant to sound like The Clash. They traversed the globe for sounds and ideas; the band were worldly-wise and clearly enjoyed themselves making these records.

But in reality it is The Clash tracks that people mainly want to hear and there’s plenty of those, foremost those with a reggae tinge, such as ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’, ‘Police and Thieves’ and ‘(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais’. The band rachet up a gear for ‘Police On My Back’ (which appeared on Sandinista!) and ‘I Fought the Law’.

Then Jones appears for the encore to join in on ‘Bankrobber’, ‘White Riot’ and of course (given it’s in aid of firefighters) ‘London’s Burning’. I imagine the place was buzzing by the end, you can sense that on the record.

Thoughts thereafter naturally turned to a Clash reunion and rumours are that it was being considered with Strummer seemingly contacting Paul Simonon just before he died about reforming. Simonon, apparently, was dead against it.

Assembly (2021)

Coming three years after Joe Strummer 001, a double album of Strummer solo tracks from studio albums and obscure sources, Assembly is a compilation of, well, much of the same. The focus though is more on the three solo albums with tracks such as the Wailers’ ‘Redemption Song’, ‘Yalla Yalla’ and ‘At the Border, Guy’. Most fans will have these albums anyway.

What it does offer pre-Mescaleros is ‘Love Kills’ from the Sid and Nancy soundtrack and ‘Sleepwalk’ from 1989’s somewhat underwhelming Earthquake Weather. It would’ve been better to have included ‘Gangsterville’ from the same album or one of the tracks from the Walker soundtrack which was entirely-Strummer contributed.

There are unreleased gems in live versions of ‘I Fought the Law’ and ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ performed at Brixton Academy the year before the Acton Town Hall gig, and a home recording of ‘Junco Partner’.

It’s a sturdy compilation of the critical tracks in the Mescaleros cannon, which was shorter than it should have been. But that’s life.

What we really need now is a compilation of Strummer’s post-Clash tracks that includes film material and stuff on low-selling and now hard-to-find singles.

Classic Album Review: Junior Murvin - Muggers in the Street (1984)

We welcome back the bard of Montrose, as Craig Stephen explores a lost Jamaican “gem” for our classic album files …

Seven years after The Clash picked up on Junior Murvin’s stunning ‘Police and Thieves’ for their debut album, turning it into a worldwide anthem, could Murvin now be dismissed as a one-hit wonder? Not a chance. 

While lacking the apocalyptic dread of the 1977 album, also called Police and Thieves, Murvin’s Muggers in the Street is an overlooked gem at a time when roots reggae was somewhat unfashionable in Jamaica following Bob Marley’s death and the popularity of dancehall. 

On what was only Murvin’s third album in seven years he was backed by the Roots Radics Band and produced by Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes, who was considered to be one of dancehall’s most successful producers. 

But that doesn’t mean Murvin had radically changed his style in line with the day’s fad. Muggers in the Street is ostensibly a reggae album in the mould of the great 70s Jamaican workings, including Police and Thieves.

There is a link to that particular work in the title track which is little more than a reworking of ‘Police and Thieves’ the single. It’s not clear why Murvin redid this, there was nothing wrong with the original after all, and the lyrics on the original were far more potent. So, where we once had “Police and thieves in the streets (oh yeah)/ Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition/ From genesis to revelation, yeah/ The next generation will be hear me”, we now have: “Muggers in the street/ Rob everybody that they meet/ In the street where the criminal acts/ They don’t care who they rob.”

The original is about the gang war and police brutality that was rampant in the streets of Kingston in the 70s; the remake appears to concerned only with the muggers as criminals, and not part of a rotten state that fed the criminality.

There’s no harm in it being included, in fact I would proffer that at least a couple of tracks on the second side could have been cut loose ahead of any others. 

All of the wholesome meals are on the first half, and the standout is undoubtedly ‘Strikes and Demonstrations’, a cutting diatribe on the failed economic policy of the times: “Worldwide crisis is at large/ At home and abroad.” Murvin doesn’t necessarily support such actions, he just feels it’s a consequence of a world that doesn’t care anymore.

In 1984 Murvin fretted about his personal safety, imploring the working classes to ‘Stop the Crime’ and ‘Think Twice’ about their actions. Sensible advice, perhaps, but it’s doubtful if the poor would be moved by a record when the landlord is threatening eviction. 

If it sounds like too much doom and gloom then there’s time for upbeat moments with ‘Jamaican Girls’ (“Jamaican girls are really nice/ Jamaican girls are sugar and spice”) and ‘Champagne and Wine’ (“I’ve got the money/you’ve got the time/C’mon let’s drink champagne and wine”) with the latter definitely signalling that the roots-heavy feel of a few years previous was now out the window, as the influence of Lawes began to show. 

Murvin would continue recording until about 2007 (died 2013), but that period included only four studio albums. Of those, Apartheid, released two years after Muggers in the Street, shows a devotion to exposing injustice. 

Muggers in the Street was recently given a vinyl reissue; it can only be hoped that Police and Thieves and Apartheid are given the same treatment soon. 

The Strummer Files continued: Joe Strummer - Earthquake Weather (Epic, 1989)

A belated fourth addition to the three-part Strummer Files, as Craig Stephen’s lockdown listening defaults to the tried and trusted …

It’s 1989, and, four years after the remnants of The Clash fizzled out like a dud sparkler, Joe Strummer was back in the driver’s seat for his first full solo album.

Six years previous, Strummer had lost his McCartney when Mick Jones was unceremoniously booted out of The Clash just as the movement towards a bona fide stadium band was taking place. In a year they could’ve been on a par with The Who. But, largely on his own, Strummer bundled together the hopelessly inept Cut the Crap. He really needed Jones’ spark to get it back together but Jones was firmly ensconced in Big Audio Dynamite, which reached for the sky and caught it with both hands.

Strummer’s life had been upturned after The Clash: both parents had died, and he had become a devoted father and family man. Acting, soundtracks and the what-have-you were part a way of exercising the ghost of The Clash and a way to forge a new path.

Earthquake Weather lacks a few basic things, not least a strong wingman. The line-up for the album was guitarist Zander Schloss, bassist Lonnie Marshall, and two drummers Jack Irons and Willie McNeill – this being the uncredited Latino Rockabilly War.  Other than Schloss, who Strummer knew from his soundtracks and acting, the others were located in jazz clubs and small-time clubs of LA.

There’s a lot to take in. The War immersed itself in everything it could find and Earthquake Weather straddles funk, rock, reggae and folk. The best three tracks are all at the start, leaving the album as a whole as a lopsided venture.

‘Gangsterville’, the first single, and ‘King of the Bayou’ are both rock stompers, with the former visiting a place few want to stay: “Down in Gangsterville/ Where any sane people already crawled under the house/ Yeah Gangsterville, the television is always thinking about/ Real people, especially when it's hungry.”

‘Gangsterville’ was re-released on 12” for 2016 Record Store Day with three variable B-sides; but the album itself has only ever been given a poorly designed and promoted re-release about a decade ago.

‘Slant Six’ is another three-minute rock’n’roll-fuelled fast mover, on the ways and methods of the record industry – perhaps a parable of The Clash itself. “Youth, money, success and power/ Expressing your soul to critical acclaim/ Now you're insatiable -- there's no stopping you/ If something lasts for a minute -- it's scored a hit with you/ What are you gonna do for an encore?/ C'mon baby after an act like that/ People are gonna scream for more.”

Elsewhere, it is a mixed bag. ‘Boogie With Your Children’ is reminiscent of what Prince was doing at the time, going as far as to have a backing singer with a Princely falsetto. The emotional ditty ‘Leopardskin Limousines’ is recorded at about the slowest pace that Strummer could go; ‘Highway One Zero Street’ sounds rush-recorded; ‘Ride Your Donkey’ is the obligatory reggae-infused contribution to a Strummer album, and certainly one of the highlights of an album that contains more standouts than it does lemons.

While I have come to appreciate it far more on these lockdown listens, Earthquake Weather wasn’t received well at the time. I can see how that was, it was neither commercial and has too much filler. It was followed by a fallow decade; but you can also see how it lead to a reappraisal of his career, which of course, would eventually lead to the Mescaleros.

Strummer’s other post-Clash, pre-Mescaleros LPs:

Sid and Nancy soundtrack (1986)

Strummer only contributed two tracks – the brilliant ‘Love Kills’, which was issued as a single, and ‘Dum Dum Club’, but it is said that he composed much of the other music.

Straight to Hell soundtrack (1987)

As well as starring in this spoof spaghetti western, Strummer contributed two new tracks, ‘Evil Darling’ and ‘Ambush at Mystery Rock’. The other contributors were familiar from the Sid and Nancy adventure: the Pogues and Pray for Rain while Zander Schloss, later to join Strummer’s band, provided ‘Salsa Y Ketchup’.

Walker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Alex Cox’s 1987 historical/satirical film starring Ed Harris in the eponymous role was based on the life of William Walker, the American filibuster who invaded and pronounced himself president of Nicaragua in the mid-19^th century with all the chaos and violence that is imaginable with such a scenario. Strummer, who had a cameo role in the film, composed the entire soundtrack – with 11 of the 14 tracks being instrumentals. It has a very Latin sound, as you’d expect, and is surprisingly engrossing.

Permanent Record (1987)

Joe Strummer and the Latino Rockabilly War contributed most of the soundtrack – namely ‘Trash City’ which was good enough to be a standalone single, ‘Baby the Trans’, ‘Nefertiti Rock’, ‘Nothin’ Bout Nothin’’ and (credited to Strummer alone) ‘Theme From Permanent Record’. This grim movie starred Keanu Reeves and it isn’t regarded as his finest hour and a half. The other half of the record included Lou Reed, The Stranglers, the Bodeans, The Godfathers, and J.D. Souther.

The Strummer Files: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore (Hellcat Records, 2003)

The third and final instalment of Craig Stephen’s look back at Joe Strummer’s post-Clash legacy:

Posthumous albums are tricky items to evaluate: the quality all depends on how far the artist went in recording the material, and how the people tasked with completing it “interpreted” the work in progress.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’ third and final studio album was released about a year after the former Clash man’s untimely death.

Whatever twiddling was done in the studio in that preceding 12 months, both opening tracks sound about as ripe and ready as could be. ‘Coma Girl’ is a rousing, go-get ‘em boy, out of control carousel of a song that screams “gig opener”. Coming across like a spontaneous world music festival meeting of Jimmy Cliff and the Wolfe Tones, it’s a rock’n’roller revved up to 11.

‘Arms Aloft’ is memorable for both being as energetic and as rousing as ‘Coma Girl’ and including my “home” city (as in being 45 minutes away). “May I remind you of that scene/ We were arms aloft in Aberdeen/ May I remind you of that scene/ Let a million mirror balls beam/ May I remind you of that scene.” That’s Aberdeen, north-east Scotland, and not one of the eight versions of it around the United States or those in places such as Canada and Hong Kong. 

‘All In A Day’ meanwhile travels through Montrose, but I may be stretching it a little bit to assume that’s the same Montrose that’s less than an hour away from Aberdeen. As often is the case with Strummer’s solo material, there’s some obscure references:

“The armor ten, and the I-95/ Tupuolo Joe honey and his rhumba jive/ The look came out, and life broke out/ 'It must be a hex'/ I swear the vinyl loaded right on the desk/ Hey, let's go do this.”

Most of the remainder of the album is set at a far more sedate pace: ‘Burnin' Streets’ could be a futuristic follow-up to a famous Clash song: “London is burnin'; don't tell the Queen/ Somebody tried to speak garage and they burnt down Bethnal Green/ Piccadilly's yearning, like a reggae beat/ Soon you're gonna be runnin' down”, with Strummer bemoaning that there are “Too many guns in the damn town”. 

And we’re taken back to 1979 once more on ‘Midnight Jam’ which begins with Strummer as DJ/ announcer: “All transmitters to full/ All receivers to boost/ This is London calling/ This is London calling”, before taking us on a worldwide journey that takes in the sounds of U-Roy and The Indestructible Beat of Soweto as well as a jail in Germany. 

There’s some bum notes: on ‘Long Shadow’, Strummer appears to be trying to sound like Johnny Cash. Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ apparently was added on by a family member, and it really does not fit in with the modus operandi of Streetcore. There is also a version of ‘Redemption Song’ with Strummer and Johnny Cash and you’d be advised to check that one out. 

As posthumous albums go this, I’m certain Strummer would have given Streetcore the green light for go.

The Strummer Files: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Global a Go-Go (Hellcat records, 2001)

Craig Stephen returns with another offering on Joe Strummer’s post-Clash legacy … 

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.