Various Artists - A Song for Joe - Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer, 8-21-2020

The coronavirus pandemic has been with us for half a year, and yet the home concerts continue. Musicians generally are having a hard time of it, since holding a concert is one of the most difficult things to do while maintaining social distancing. So this is a benefit concert for "Save Our Stages," which is a charity trying to prevent independent concert venues from closing permanently. 

I'm posting this because I like the musical theme. The concert pays tribute to Joe Strummer, the lead singer and co-songwriter for the Clash. All the songs here were written by Strummer, some from his time in the Clash and some from his solo career after that. In particular, it was timed to take place on Strummer's birthday. (He died of a heart defect in 2002 at the age of 50.) If you want to hear Clash songs done in a different way, this is a great way to do that.

Due to the pandemic, the concert doesn't have a location per se. Every artist recorded their songs in their own homes or recordings studios, then sent them in to be played in a concert format. As a result of that and the social distancing problem, many of the songs are done in an acoustic format. But many are done with a full band too, which is fitting since Strummer's songs usually rocked.

I've cut this down a lot from the original broadcast. That is an hour and 53 minutes long, whereas this is only an hour and eight minutes long. The main reason for the difference is I cut out nearly all the verbal tributes to Stummer. There were so many that there sometimes was more than one between songs. There were a lot of famous people who recorded their thoughts on Strummer. I deleted 22 of those! The only one I kept was from Bruce Springsteen. For one thing, he's the great Bruce Springsteen, but also his comments were very short. (Note that there is NO music by Springsteen here.) If you want to hear the others, I suggest you go to YouTube and listen to the whole concert there. There are some particularly entertaining stories by Steve Buscemi and Bob Weir.

As far as the music goes, I included everything but two songs. The first one I cut was a performance by Joe Strummer of "Police on My Back" from 2001. While very nice, I thought it didn't fit the format of people giving tribute to Strummer. The other song I cut was "Raw Grace in Your Face" by Eugene Hutz. That's an original song by Hutz about Strummer. While nice, I also felt that didn't fit the format. Again, if you want to catch those, check out the YouTube video. The Strummer song is at the front and features rare video footage of him playing on stage.

Pretty much all the performances here are good. They pretty much have to be, because they're Joe Strummer songs. ;) I especially like "Death or Glory" by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and "Straight to Hell"  by Lucinda Williams. Note that a few of the songs actually weren't written by Strummer (and/or his Clash mate Mick Jones), but are covers that are closely associated with him. "I Fought the Law" and "Police and Thieves" are examples of those. All the songs are done only once, except for "Death or Glory," done once by Jeff Tweedy near the start, and then by Jesse Malin with Bob Weir (of the Grateful Dead) near the end.

01 Get Down Moses (Interrupters)
02 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
03 Death or Glory (Jeff Tweedy)
04 Bankrobber (Tom Morello)
05 Johnny Appleseed (Jesse Malin)
06 Spanish Bombs (Hinds)
07 Washington Bullets (Hold Steady)
08 Janie Jones (Jesse Dayton)
09 I Fought the Law (Joe Ely)
10 Long Shadow (Brian Fallon)
11 Charlie Don't Surf (Cherry Glazerr)
12 Tommy Gun (Dropkick Murphys)
13 Police and Thieves (Nikolai Fraiture)
14 London Calling (Butch Walker)
15 Train in Vain (Josh Homme & Troy Van Leeuwen)
16 [White Man] in Hammersmith Palais (Frank Turner)
17 Rudy Can't Fail (Josh Klinghoffer)
18 Silver and Gold (Lyza Jane & C.C. Adcock)
19 Straight to Hell (Lucinda Williams)
20 Coma Girl (Dave Hause)
21 Death or Glory (Jesse Malin with Bob Weir)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376835/VA-ASngfrJoeCelebrtingLifeJoStrmmer__8-21-2020_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I used a promotional poster for the concert. I had to redo the list of performers, because I cut out all the people (except Bruce Springsteen) who gave verbal tributes only. I also made a couple more minor changes, adding and removing some text. But it basically looks the same as the original.