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Made in Shoreditch

I also contribute a weekly column to Made in Shoreditch magazine called 'Old East End/New East End', where I look at the relationship between the East End of old and new, looking at the changes and the stalwarts in landscape, residents and culture, focussing on one street or district each week. You can find it here.

Cowboy Mouth - Joe Strummer

Friday 4 June 2010

3/5 - Based on the fact that the tune is a 1 and lyrics/theme are a 5.

Right let's get this straight. If somebody were to dump their girlfriend for a menial reason such as "she didn't like Man Utd." or "She had a weird big toe", I would think that rather pathetic. Cowboy Mouth however are just merely arguing that "she had to go because she didn't know who Joe Strummer was". Fair enough I say.

Cowboy Mouth

This track was released in 2006, but I myself didn't stumble across it until 2008 sometime when I typed "Joe Strummer" into Spotify, trying to listen to some Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros tunes. I've got to say, the tune itself is pretty poor. Well, no, lyrically it's hilarious. The chunky, yet well produced guitar chords are reminiscent of early Green Day (or middle or late Green Day now I think about it, they don't change all that much do they?) and the vocals are very Billie Joe Armstrong.

Don't be put off by that though. Lines such as "she looked like she slept with Guns'n'Roses / but I busted her singing all the boyband songs" give this track a humorous edge. Not to mention the very theme of the song. Imagine sitting their thinking "what's the worst thing your missus could do? Answer: Not know who Joe Strummer was!"
Joe Strummer

All in all, this track with any other theme or lyrics = dire. The humour of the track however makes it great!

Listen to the track!

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