Joe Strummer “Forbidden City (Demo)”

sfilzen — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 20:12:59 +0000

Joe Strummer “Forbidden City (Demo)” 2019 Record Store Day release. Originally recorded in 1993 at Rockfield Studios in Wales (the site of some seriously big releases like Queen’s A Night at the Opera), “Forbidden City” eventually appeared on Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros 1999 LP Rock Art and the X-Ray Style. The Mescaleros version is a lot more Latin-meets-the-blues-flavored (plus organ) than the original demo, which has a kinda weird, kinda cool tension between “Love Kills” era Strummer (a bit darkly punk) and psychedelia (plus organ AND saxophone). Not surprisingly the later LP version is much more cleanly produced, especially the vocals, but I like the demo better. The B-side to this 12″ is “Cool Impossible,” a swinging number with brushy drums. Its only other appearance on vinyl (or any other format) is part of the 2018 Strummer retrospective Joe Strummer 001, a collection Allmusic calls “a testament to his restless muse and the depth of his work as a tunesmith,” and includes tracks from the pre-Clash group the 101′ers, his solo work in the 80′s and 90′s plus his work with the Mescaleros.

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Joe Strummer “Forbidden City (Demo)”