Back before there was a Clash, before there was even a Joe Strummer, there was a guy named John Mellor, who was calling himself Woody and playing music with a bunch of guys called the 101ers. By the time their first single, Keys to Your Heart, was released, the band was no more, and Woody Mellor had taken on the mantle of Saint Joe.
“I called myself Joe Strummer because I can only play all six strings at once, or none at all.”
The 101ers could easily have been lost in the reverb noise of so many other great but forgotten bands, if it weren’t for the efforts of Joe’s widow, Lucinda Tait. Luckily for us, she has preserved some of these potentially lost gems on the full length album, Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited.
If you have ever wished the Clash had recorded just one more album, one more really good
album, then you need to seek this disc out and give it a listen. From the raucous Letsagetabitarockin’ and 5 Star R’nR to the more melodious Sweet Revenge and Surf City, you can literally drop a needle anywhere on this album and come up a winner. Keep Taking the Tablets and Rabies (From the Dogs of Love), an ode to the perils of venereal disease, shows hints of the sly lyric writing genius that Joe would soon come to be known for.
Junco Partner alone is worth the price of admission.
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