Dark Horse Records is celebrating what would have been Joe Strummer’s 70th birthday on Sunday, August 21 with the release of “Fantastic“. The track was one of Strummer’s final recordings, with vocals recorded in December 2002 at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales, a few weeks after Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros played their last live show at Liverpool University.
Continuing the celebrations around Joe’s 70th birthday longtime Strummer fan Eddie Vedder has covered “Long Shadow” from the posthumous Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros album, Streecore. The track is accompanied by a video directed by Lance Bangs.
Vedder explains:
I just think that what Joe did with the Mescaleros and those records, and those songs, and those words, it was a very communal sound. I think when you have a communal sound, the listener feels like they can be part of that community.
“Fantastic” heralds Dark Horse Records’ upcoming release of Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years, a comprehensive collection highlighting Strummer’s work with his post-Clash band. It will arrive on Friday, September 16th, 2022, on 4 CD w/72-page book and 7 LP w/32-page book, special edition packaging, and exclusive 12”x12” art print.
Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years includes remastered editions of all three of The Mescaleros’ studio albums, plus 15 rare and unreleased tracks spanning the first demos Strummer wrote for the band to outtakes from their final recordings together.
Executive produced by Strummer’s widow, Lucinda Tait, and produced by David Zonshine, the boxset also includes exclusive new interviews with friends, collaborators, and Mescaleros band mates, and handwritten notes, lyrics, and drawings by Strummer taken from the Joe Strummer Archive.
