Word: strummers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...long enough to get ripped off by him. Then Julius meets Dr. John, who plays Elmore's sleazy brother-in-law, for another five minutes and is again ripped off. Leon Redbone gets about six minutes as a silent Canadian deputy who--guess what?--rips Julius off. Poor Joe Strummer doesn't even get the opportunity; he plays a security guard with no particular significance plot-wise and is on screen for maybe three minutes...
...doesn't take a genius to figure out that something is wrong here. Come on, who casts Buster Poindexter, Tom Waits, Leon Redbone, Dr. John and Joe Strummer in a movie and then doesn't let them play? (I mean, besides Alex Cox, who did the same thing in the even more pernicious Straight to Hell...
...save our ears from being deafened by the noise, we sensibly turned the Clash up to full volume. The metallic choking of the tailpipe mixed and smashed against Joe Strummer's anarchic screams, producing shock waves that sent chunks of ice splintering off our frost-crusted windows...
Things don't get any better on the last three tracks on side one. "Are You Red...Y" completely drowns out Strummer's vocal in New Order-ripoff rhythm tracks. "Cool Under Heat" opens with a Husker Du guitar lead, and combines inappropriate acoustic guitar with more electronic abuse. "Movers and Shakers" wraps up the side with an interminably long lesson about how to succeed by "working coins from the cold concrete" (just like Strummer is doing), complete with synthesized Mariachi horns...
JUDGING FROM THE CONTENT of this record, it may be time that Strummer and the boys follow they own advice. "The only band that matters" has managed to become almost totally irrelevant. The boys have completely ceased to do what they once did so well, possible because of Mick Jones's absence, and possibly because of Joe Strummer's stepped-up presence. With this record, the band has sunk even deeper into the muck out of which Combat Rock crawled--and The Clash will be inextricably stuck in the muck unless they manage to cut the crap...