Tony Adams

Song: Tony Adams
Artist: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
Album: Rock Art and the X-Ray Style




While I have always been a fan of The Clash I hadn’t really followed Joe Strummer’s solo work. I have listened to Big Audio Dynamite (Mick Jones post-Clash band) a bit… but didn’t know what Strummer was up to. An ex co-worker of mine about six months ago asked me if I knew the song “Tony Adams” as he had heard it out at a bar in Long Island and he really dug it. I hadn’t, but thanks to Google found out that it was the lead track off of Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’ debut 1999 album “Rock Art and the X-Ray Style,” which turned out to be a return to music for Strummer whom hadn’t released any material since 1989’s “Earthquake Weather.”

I got the album, and while “Tony Adams” has been a favorite, the whole album is really great, a mix of reggae-tinged guitar, electronic drums, and a lazy, easy-going vibe. It’s a great mood record, and “Tony Adams” is a really fun song, despite being about some sort of catastrophe hitting New York City. Actually… while I’m on the subject, why on earth does New York always seem to be hit with this stuff? From The Day After Tomorrow to Cloverfield, it’s always good old New York. Why? (But I digress)

Strummer unfortunately passed away in 2002 due to an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. A third Mescaleros album was released posthumously in 2003 which I haven’t heard, nor have I heard the second album, “Global A Go-Go” which apparently made a bigger dent than “Rock Art” did. I’m going to have to look for that one… the lead track off that album, “Johnny Appleseed” was the theme to the HBO series “John from Cincinnati.” But I haven’t watched that either…

Why do you even listen to me?

Enjoy.

Tony Adams live


Global a Go-Go