Joe Strummer set mines the archives

Ignition Records has announced Joe Strummer 001 for 28th September, the first compilation to span Strummer’s career outside of his recordings with The Clash.

Tracks include ‘It’s A Rockin’ World’, produced by Rick Rubin and taken from the South Park soundtrack and ‘London Is Burning’ (an alternative / early version of ‘Burnin’ Street’ from Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros final album Streetcore). All of the formats include tracks that have never appeared anywhere before as well as new remasters.

Exclusive to all formats is an album of unreleased material including an early demo of ‘This Is England’ entitled ‘Czechoslovak Song / Where Is England’, a solo demo of ‘Letsagetabitarockin’ recorded in Elgin Avenue in 1975, outtakes from Sid and Nancy featuring Mick Jones and unreleased songs ‘Rose Of Erin’ and ‘The Cool Impossible’.

From the press release:

“After Joe’s untimely death in December 2002 it was discovered that Joe had been quite an archivist of his own work, having barns full of writings and tapes stored in his back garden. There are now over 20,000 items in the Joe Strummer Archive. The archiving of this material and compiling of Joe Strummer 001 was overseen by Joe’s widow Luce and Robert Gordon McHarg III.

All tracks were restored and mastered by Grammy Award winner Peter J. Moore at the E. Room in Toronto Canada. On-going through cassettes and recording tapes it was discovered that Joe was rather frugal and keen on hiding tracks. On cassettes he would leave 20 minutes between songs. On the 1” 8 track recordings it was discovered there were hidden tracks superimposed onto each other. For example tracks 1-4 were taken by one song and tracks 5-8 by two other songs which were thought when played back to be caused by tape denigration until the tapes went to Peter J Moore who was able to separate one song from another.”

Formats:

4LP+ – Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set: quadruple heavyweight vinyl, 7” vinyl single, cassette (exclusive tracks on 7” and cassette single), A4 book, enamel badge, envelope containing a screen print, a high quality image of Joe, two original art prints, and a sticker sheet. The book features rarely seen and previously unpublished memorabilia from Joe’s personal collection as well as historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums. Limited to 3000 Copies.

2CD+ – Limited Edition Deluxe Double CD in A4 Book. Limited to 5000 Copies.

2CD – Double CD in Slipcase.

4LP – Quadruple Heavyweight Vinyl in Slipcase. Limited to 3000 Copies.

About Douglas Baptie (208 Articles)
Editor at Words & Guitars. Lives in Carlisle, far away from 'that London'.
Contact: Twitter