Some Songs Considered

“Wrong ‘em Boyo” – The Clash 
(Words/music: Clive Alphonso, available on London Calling, Epic 1979) 

Days like today remind me that, given the scope of the entire world, I know very little.  I sat down to write about my pet peeve of limiting London Calling to the narrow confines of the “punk album” label and planned on using “Wrong ‘em Boyo” as a talking point.  I wanted to touch on how the song pulled in these different elements – specifically incorporating the twelve bar blues form and the Stagger Lee / Stack-o-Lee legend.  In the car on the way home from work this afternoon I ran through the song in my head and started fleshing out how I’d pull these things together in a way to celebrate the depth and breadth of the Clash’s repertoire. 

And then I called up the Allmusic page for London Calling to grab the writer’s credits (since both physical copies of the album are boxed away somewhere) and fell down the rabbit hole.  I knew that part of the song came from somewhere else, but I assumed it was the bluesy introduction and that the horn-driven romp was a Strummer/Jones composition.  It turns out that the entire version comes from an early ska/rocksteady band called The Rulers.  Their version, archived on a couple of Trojan Records’ ska collections, includes the restart and the groove-shift in the second section as well.  The Clash beefed theirs up with horns and a tempo change, but it stays pretty faithful to The Rulers’ version otherwise.  I knew The Clash’s reggae roots – I just didn’t know this specific example!

So what started as a rant ends as a reminder.  Part of what makes London Calling so great was the way it grabbed from all of the different musical worlds its creators delved in, be it musical forms, prior source material, or even just the cover’s design.  It’s impressive enough to pull off so many different musical feats – doing them all this well is what makes this band legendary.  

More on The Clash: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Redemption Song” – Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer
(Words/music: Bob Marley, available on Cash Unearthed, American / Universal 2003)

I spent four years in college yet never went through a Bob Marley phase.  My instinct is to say that I got enough of it second hand, but after thinking about it for a minute I’d say that it was repeated plays of the same Marley tunes that burned me out on his music.  I could only hear “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff” so many times before a quick upward strum on a guitar would cause me to retreat.  The positive side effect to this combination of burnout and stubbornness means that occasionally I get to make small discoveries in Marley’s cannon.  The first one, the one that made me rethink my distaste, was “Redemption Song.”  Sure, it partially has to do with the different instrumentation, but it was Marley’s careful weaving of his personal spirituality and politics of liberation that made the song speak to me.  At other moments, Marley leans heavily on one (or both) of these polarizing ideas, but on “Redemption Song” he strikes a balance where it’s easier to see the beauty of his convictions without getting caught up in the polarizing details. 

The first version of “Redemption Song” I truly loved was on Joe Strummer’s posthumous Streetcore album.  In particular, I loved all of the extra touches – the guitar flourishes, the organ chords – that accompanied Strummer’s voice.  Later on, I heard this duet version – the same instrumental track only with Strummer and Johnny Cash trading verses.  Neither man saw the release of this track (Cash Unearthed came out shortly after his death), and I’m not even sure if Cash and Strummer recorded the song together or whether Cash added his vocals afterward (if you know, I’d love to know).  All of this leads me to the most interesting bit of trivia (remember, I’m a Marley lightweight, so this didn’t seem obvious to me) that Marley wrote and recorded “Redemption Song” after his cancer diagnosis.  All three of these men sang this song near the end of their lives (granted, for three different reasons – Marley’s illness, Strummer’s sudden heart attack, and Cash’s slowly declining health), and I’d like to think that this song brought them all peace as they neared the end of their time on Earth.  If nothing else, all three – Marley’s original, Strummer’s version, and the version Cash augments – left beautiful interpretations for us to remember them fondly. 

More on Johnny Cash: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Johnny Appleseed” - Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
(Words/music: Pablo Cook, Tymon Dogg, Scott Shields, Martin Stattery, and Joe Strummer, available on Global a Go-Go, Epitaph 2001)

In many ways, it makes sense for Joe Strummer to reference Johnny Appleseed in a song.  Like Appleseed, Strummer is a sort of folk hero whose legend expanded over time.  With the Clash, Strummer started with punk rock and wandered through different musical styles, including reggae, soul, and arguably hip hop (specifically with the vocal inflection on “The Magnificent Seven.”  Even if the Clash didn’t originate any of these styles, they served as master curators who excelled at all of these different styles.  Even though his bandmates deserve more credit than they might normally garner (Mick Jones specifically), Strummer seemed like the one with musical wanderlust.  I’m too young to have experienced the Clash during their time and I never got the chance to see Strummer perform during his lifetime, and in a way this makes him a little more mythical.  As Appleseed’s reputation grew with stories told, Strummer’s part of our own aural tradition – one that Strummer and his band helped to spurn along.

“Johnny Appleseed” continues Strummer’s musical wandering, blurring the lines between a number of different genres.  It alternates between a quietly plucked verse and a rollicking chorus section.  Strummer tells his story in a delivery that seems somewhere between a rant and a folk singer’s story.  A simple melody runs through his words and gives them an almost chant-like quality; the melody remains consistent even when Strummer’s focused on describing something else.  However, like the melody, theme remains the same – one that champions those who speak for and represent the common man.  Strummer doesn’t place himself along side these men (and both Appleseed and Martin Luther King dwarf him in any comparison), but in the musical world, Strummer served the same purpose.  He always struck me as one who made music for the bees rather than for the honey, and someone who worked hard not to lose sight of the big picture.

More on Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm