Joe Strummer - Walker

Genre soundtrack Publisher Astralwerks External Links Official Website Astralwerks

The soundtrack to Walker offers a few interesting stories, one of which is why it's being released again, 18 years after originally hitting the shelves. This isn't easily answered, but one can point to it being out of production long enough to disappear and time forgetting the first post-Clash work of Joe Strummer.

Strummer, who died in late 2002, was in a rut after the disintegration of the Clash after the sacking of Mick Jones and the horribly misguided Cut the Crap. He didn't know exactly what to do next and feeling as though he had blown his chance to change the world. After director Alex Cox coaxed him to write some songs for the film Sid and Nancy, he convinced Strummer to play a role in and create a score for his new film Walker. The film, a biography about a US appointed mercenary charged to lead a revolution in 1850's Guatamala, only to become drunk with power and have the rebels he lead to turn against him.

After immersing himself in the role, occasionally sleeping on set for inspiration, Strummer found the passion again to write, and doing so in a straight acoustic matter that, of course, was prominent in the 1850's. Because of contract issues, Strummer was held to singing only three songs on the Walker soundtrack, "The Unknown Immortal," "Tennessee Rain," and "Tropic of Pico," but he offered up a host of instrumental tracks ranging in variety from Latin, Caribbean, and Flamenco flair. It was as if the Sandinista! creativity well sprung up once again, and Strummer didn't lose a beat.

The soundtrack may very well been a genre exercise, but Strummer never came close to duplicating this kind of work, incorporating it later into his hit-and-miss solo work. Ever varied, Strummer chose what he thought would work best in the film, even if the results weren't authentic to that region or time period.

Clash fans will undoubtedly recognize some strains of "Career Opportunities" in the sung "Tennessee Rain," if only as a passing resemblance. The excellent "Brooding Six" is a monotonous beat that one could get lost in (the final three tracks were not on the original release, which brings up the question if no one got this soundtrack in the first place, how can they be bonus tracks?).

The Walker soundtrack is an important part in Strummer's history, and it's a shame that few people actually know about the stellar Latin touches and grasp of fine musicianship that Joe had after the Clash broke up. This is one of the few reissues that actually works for both fans and the artists alike.