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Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Global a Go-Go (Epitaph)
Joe Strummer, the gravelly voiced front bloke of English punk rock pioneers the Clash, is back on the aural attack with a new album of dance-hall rebel rousers. The new CD, Global a Go-Go, is thoughtfully penned, pleasantly performed, and produced with panache. It may not have the raw energy of the Clash – whose songs were admittedly much more fun to pogo to – but this is understandable since the music is now from an older, more mature artist.
"Sandanista Revisited" is what Strummer could have easily titled Global a Go-Go for its dizzying display of polyrhythmic influences, exotic instrumentation and pleas for worldwide unity. Rather than be a master of one genre, Joe's chosen to be a journeyman of many. Some may find his new career as musical anthropologist to be groundbreaking and courageous, on a par with David Bryne's experiments with African percussion and Paul Simon's world-music influenced Graceland. This may be true, as evidenced on the plaintive fiddles of "Minstrel Boy" or the samba swing of "Mondo Bongo," however, I should issue a word of warning: Those looking for a punk-rock riot of their own won't find it here. Global a Go-Go is a whole new experience.
Joe Strummer Tour Dates
Various Artists, Sweet Emotion: Songs of Aerosmith (Heavy Hip Mama)
Old-school Aerosmith aficionados at last have reason to rejoice. The once mighty toxic team from Beantown is finally "back in the saddle." Well, at least their rhythm-and-blues inspired tunes are. The tribute compilation CD, Sweet Emotion, presents a tasty and talented collection of blues artists of real (Pinetop Perkins) and imagined (Marshall Crenshaw) repute reprising the raunchiest riffs and greasiest hits of Aerosmith's quarter-century catalogue. The collection, like Aerosmith themselves, is at its best with older numbers like "Big Ten Inch" and "One Way Street," while the dullest cut comes courtesy of Otis Clay's take on "Cryin'". But don't blame Clay, 'cause not even Otis Redding could redeem the worst of Aerosmith's biggest hits.
Since the "tribute" genre erupted in the early '90s, honoring everyone from Kiss to the Carpenters, few compilations have been worthy of more than novelty value. Really, how many times can you listen to Pat Boone singing Alice Cooper before the joke gets a little long in the fang? But if audio-homage things are here to stay, at least Sweet Emotion is one of the best. It offers some smoky, sultry musical suggestions to all-time Aero favorites like "Walk This Way," "Dream On" and the sticky-fingered title track, "Sweet Emotion," that do more than remind the listener how much better the original versions were. And since the tempos tend to be a step slower than the first versions, you can finally decipher the words to "Draw the Line" and many of Tyler's other long lost and lusty lyrics.
Sweet Emotion also works because it strips away the overproduction, outside songwriters and superstar-daughter-studded videos that have bogged down Aerosmith lately – well, the last ten years, actually. It swings lowdown and dirty with double entendres aplenty, the way real rock 'n' roll is supposed to. Steven Tyler and company could learn a lesson or three from the lesser-known players on Sweet Emotion. True, Sugar Blue and Kim McFarland won't be playing the Super Bowl halftime show, or see the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame as anything but paying visitors, but their work on Sweet Emotion is much tastier than anything on Aerosmith's latest product, Just Push Play. And not only is that a sweet emotion, it's a spoonful of sweet revenge on behalf of Aero fans everywhere, who remember when the music, not the marketing, did the talking.
July 2001
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