The recent release in England of "Elgin Avenue Breakdown," an album
featuring Clash lead singer Joe Strummer, makes you wonder how much great rock
'n' roll is still locked away in company vaults.
This collection, whcih was recorded in the mid-1970s but unavailable until now, is one of the year's most spirited rock packages--the latest example of classic "lost" albums.
These are albums that are released to widespread acclaim after years of being on the shelf or allowed to slip out of print because they might not have been in vogue commercially at the time.
Other examples include Bob Dylan and the Band's "The Basement Tapes," which was delcared the album of the year in 1975 by the nation's leading rock critics in a Village Voice poll. The LP had been recorded nearly a decade earlier during Dylan's hiatus following a near fatal motorcylcle accident, but was available before 1975 only in bootleg form.
Similarly, there wasn't a more exciting collection released in 1976 than RCA's "Sun Sessions," which brought together for the first time in an album the tracks that Elvis Presley recorded for Sam Phillips' Sun Records before "Heartbreak Hotel" made him a star in 1956.
More recently, such reissues or previously unavailable LPs are James Brown's "Live and Lowdown at the Apollo" (from 1963), Johnny Burnetter and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio's "Tear It Up" (from the mid-50s) and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" (1970) found their way onto some critics' year end Top 10 Lists.
"Elgin Avenue Breakdown" has been released after all this time by England's Andalucia Records in response to the popularity of the Clash. It's our gain.
Available here in import copies, "Breakdown" is by the 101ers, the band that Joe Strummer was in before the Clash. Several of the tracks were recorded on a cassette maching during a 101ers' concert in 1976 so beware. The sound quality on these tracks is woeful. But the intensity of Strummer's vocals is captivating.
The 101ers, a band that was part of the British pubrock movement that immediately preceded the punk/new-wave uprising of the late 1970s and which also included such groups as Brinsley Schwarz and Ducks Deluxe, don't deal in the political emphasis of the Crash and there's litlle hint int he album of Strummer's fondness for reggae.
But the LP's general tone reflects much of the early rock abandon of tunes like "Brand New Cadillac" from the Clash's "London Calling" album. The emphasis with the 101ers, however, is more on R&B than rockabilly. Besides original tunes, the 12-song package features remakes of tines like Chuck Berry's "Monkey Business," Van Morrison's "Gloria" and Bo Diddley's "Don't Let Go.":
The opening "Letsagetabitarockin" is in the same delirously energetic style as much of the Clash's best music and serves as an intersting glimpse at the evolution of Strummer, one of rock's most valuable figures.
Bonus news: The Clash may hit the road for a few additional U.S. dates after its engagement at Bond's in New York City ends next Saturday. Stay tuned.
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