Joe Strummer - When Pigs Fly (1993)

In 1992 Joe Strummer was asked to provide the soundtrack to Sara Driver's forthcoming film 'When Pigs Fly'. Driver was the long-time partner of film director Jim Jarmusch, who Strummer had previously worked with, acting in his 1989 film 'Mystery Train', and so he accepted the commission and spent the next eight months composing songs and instrumental music for the film. It starred Marianne Faithfull as a ghost and Alfred Molina as a jazzer, but despite this promising cast Driver had trouble gaining a distribution deal, and so although it was shown at a few festivals, nothing really happened off the back of them. Strummer's soundtrack consisted of eight pieces, four songs and four instrumentals, taking in the Pogues-ey Celtic-rock of 'Rose Of Erin', the Bernard Herrmann-meets-Link Wray noir of instrumental 'Storm In A D-Cup', and the breezy pop of the rattling title track. Strummer has said that he seemed to be a jinx around projects like this, and was often involved in things that never saw the light of day, but this collection is a worthy addition to his solo canon, so here it is, together with alternate takes of 'Pouring Rain' and 'Rose Of Erin'.  

Track listing

01 When Pigs Fly (vocal)

02 Ellis Island Line (instrumental)
03 Pouring Rain (vocal)

04 Rose Of Erin (vocal)
05 Storm In A D-Cup (instrumental)
06 Free At Last (vocal)
07 Pouring Rain (alt. version)

08 Phantom County Fair (instrumental)
09 Rose Of Erin (alt. version)
10 When Pigs Fly (instrumental)

The 101ers - A Bit A Rockin' (1976)

A recent comment on a Clash post prompted me to investigate Joe Strummer's first band The 101ers, as even thought I'm a massive fan of The Clash, I'd never gone further back to see how Strummer started out, as I'm not really that keen on pub-rock, which I always thought was the 101ers forte. The group was named after the squat where they lived together at 101 Walterton Road, Maida Vale, and consisted of John 'Woody' Mellor (aka Joe Strummer) on guitar/vocals, Clive Timperley on guitar/vocals, Dan Kelleher on bass, guitar, and lead vocal on 'Surf City', and Richard Dudanski on drums. Their early gigs included several at the Windsor Castle pub, and a residency at the Elgin, which is why they were bundled together with other pub-rock bands of the period, but by the time their debut single 'Keys To Your Heart' was released in 1976, Strummer had joined The Clash and the 101ers were no more. During their short career they'd recorded a number of demos in 1975 and 1976, all of which were original songs, and these were collected together on the 'Elgin Avenue Breakdown' compilation in 1981, along with a number of live recordings of rock 'n' roll covers. By extracting just the demos and adding in a couple of live originals which didn't make the first issue of the compilation, plus an alternate, rawer take of 'Keys To Your Heart', we can approximate what an album could have sounded like had one been issued in 1976.   

 

Track listing

01 Letsagetabitarockin'  
02 Silent Telephone  
03 Steamgauge 99  
04 Rabies (From The Dogs Of Love)  
05 Keys To Your Heart   
06 Lonely Mother's Son  
07 Sweet Revenge  
08 Motor Boys Motor  
09 5 Star R 'n' R Petrol  
10 Keep Taking The Tablets  
11 Surf City 
12 Hideaway  
13 Sweety Of The St. Moritz  

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