''Rock Art and the X-Ray Style'' is the debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, released on 18 October 1999. This album featured the band in its first incarnation:

Joe Strummer John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British singer, musician and songwriter. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, ...

and

Antony Genn Antony Genn (born 1971 in Sheffield, England) is a British musician and composer. Genn got his start as a 16-year-old playing bass for Pulp for seven months in 1988. He toured with Elastica in 1995-96, playing keyboards. He was one of the orig ...

on guitar and vocals, Martin Slattery playing keyboards and guitar, Steve "Smiley" Barnard on drums, Pablo Cook on other percussion instruments, and Scott Shields on bass. Richard Flack also did engineering on the album. The record marked Strummer's re-emergence from a long absence in the music scene, his last record being 1989's '' Earthquake Weather'', a decade earlier. The album begins with "Tony Adams," a track which sounds not unlike Strummer's previous work with

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...

. Saxophone riffs are juxtaposed with reggae inspired guitar, as Strummer recites lyrics detailing a catastrophe hitting New York City. The rest of the record takes a winding journey, with songs that capture Strummer's genre mixing. "Sandpaper Blues" features hand drums and African chanting, "Techno D-Day" dabbles in electronic instruments, while "Road to Rock and Roll," another song written by Strummer for

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

combines acoustic guitar with turntables and electronic drums. "Yalla Yalla" Strummer himself once described as "an ancient British folk song....written in the year 1999." The song is rich in layers, which includes keyboards, synths, bass, drums, and a guitar with endless sustain (likely provided via an

e-bow The EBow, short for electronic bow or energy bow, is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It is manufactured by Heet Sound Products, of Los Angeles, California. It was invented by Greg Heet i ...

). The song "Tony Adams" was named after the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...

player of the same name. "Yalla Yalla" and "Tony Adams" were both released as singles with music videos shot for each. The video for "Tony Adams" features Strummer walking down the street of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

carrying a

ghetto blaster A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape recorder/players and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid 1980s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered through ...

. Rancid's Lars Fredriksen makes a brief appearance in the video. To promote the album, Strummer embarked on his first tour in ten years which included his first

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

tour since 1989. A remastered version of the album along with Strummer's other two Hellcat released albums was released as a special 57 song digital download titled '' Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros: The Hellcat Years'' on 21 August 2012 to celebrate what would have been Strummer's 60th birthday. Hellcat also released each remastered album individually on CD and vinyl on 25 September 2012.

Track listing

Personnel

* Joe Strummer - vocals (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), guitar (1,2,4,5,7,8), acoustic guitar (3) *

- guitar (1,3,4,6,7,8,10), bass (1,3,6), backing vocals (1,4,6,7,8,10), fresh drum re-wire (1), orphan choir (3), acoustic guitar (5), piano (6,10), extra re-wire beats (8), synthesizer (10), strings (10), programming (10) * Richard Norris - keyboards (2,7,9), drum programming (2,9), E-bow guitar (9) * Martin Slattery - saxophone (1), Spanish guitar (3), Wurlitzer (6), Hammond organ (8), melodica (9) * Scott Shields - bass (4,5,6,7,8), backing vocals (7,9), acoustic guitar (8), guitar (8) * Pablo Cook - percussion (1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9), urdhu (3), backing vocals (4), drums (6) * Steve "Smiley" Barnard - drums (8) * Dave Stewart - acoustic guitar (2) * Ged Lynch - drums (4,7) * Gary Dyson - backing vocals (2), African chant (2) * B. J. Cole - pedal steel guitar (1,5) * D.J. Pete B. - scratches (5) ;Technical * Joe Strummer - mixing * Antony Genn - mixing, producer * Richard Norris - producer * Richard Flack - engineer, mixing * Ian Tregoning - engineer *

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

- cover art * Streaky Gee - mastering

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rock Art And The X-Ray Style 1999 debut albums Joe Strummer albums Epitaph Records albums