Global A Go-Gone.

I don’t know if you’ve listened to Global A Go-Go by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros recently — I hadn’t heard it for about five years before popping it into my car’s CD player this morning. I recommend returning to it, unless you’re fortunate enough to have it left to discover for the first time.

The third track, conveniently enough the title track, is a whimsical jaunt through the global musical landscape, inspired by Strummer’s own stint as a DJ for the international version of the BBC. He namechecks about twenty artists or songs, and another twenty or so locations, and I decided that I would try to make a playlist based on the song. I began with the last decent Clash song as a nod to Strummer’s past, and then just went straight through the song lyrics, trusting my own taste to wring some cohesion out of it. I ended up with a 2xCD mix, which I hereby share:

GLOBAL A GO-GONE

DISC ONE:
1. The Clash “This Is England” [London]
2. U-Roy “Chalice In The Palace” [Jamaica]
3. The Stray Cats “Built For Speed” [Massagua, NY]
4. Thomas Mapfuno & The Acid Band “Hokoyo” [Zimbabwe]
5. The Buddy Rich Orchestra “The Beat Goes On” [Brooklyn, NY]
6. The Sacred Drums of Burundi “Promenade” [Burundi]
7. Suzan Yakar Rutkay “Sevda Zincri” [Armenia]
8. The Who “Armenia, City In The Sky” [London]
9. Big Youth “Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” [Jamaica]
10. Detty Kurnia “Dar Der Dor” [Indonesia]
11. Nina Simone “Buck” [Tryon, NC]
12. S. E. Rogie “Nor Weigh Me Like That (Woman To Woman” [Sierra Leone]
13. Abdulah Ziat “Joujouka Black Eyes” [Morocco]
14. Louis Prima & Keely Smith “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” [Las Vegas, NV]
15. Bob Dylan “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” [Hibbing, MN]
16. Big Joe Turner & Pete Johnson “Roll ’Em, Pete” [Kansas City, MO]
17. Rajkumar “Yaare Koogadali” [India]
18. The Easybeats “Pretty Girl” [Australia]
19. Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet “Our Weapons Are Useless” [Canada]
20. Alton Ellis “Girl, I’ve Got A Date” [Jamaica]
21. Zhou Xuan “Night Life in Shanghai” [China]
22. Bo Diddley “Roadrunner” [Chicago, IL]

DISC TWO:
1. Juha Vainio “Kaksi Vanhaa Hinttaria” [Finland]
2. Sun Ra “Rocket Number Nine” [Birmingham, AL]
3. George Miller & Joseph Merrick “Funeral Song” [Omaha, NE]
4. The Skatalites “Black Sunday” [Jamaica]
5. Willie Colón “Che Che Cole” [Bronx, NY]
6. The Stooges “T. V. Eye” [Detroit, MI]
7. Arsenio Ródriguez “La Vida Es Un Sueño” [Cuba]
8. The Bhundu Boys “Pombi” [Zimbabwe]
9. Lola Beltrán “Cucurrucucú Paloma” [Mexico]
10. Grandmaster Flash “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” [Bronx, NY]
11. Daljit Mattu “Taweet” [Pakistan]
12. Ali Farka Touré “Timbarma” [Mali]
13. Susana Harp “Pinotepa” [Mexico]
14. Baaba Maal “Salminanam” [Senegal]
15. Vladimir Vysotsky “Troie” [Russia]
16. Kim Kwang Suk “Nuh Moo Ah Peun Sarang Eun Sarang” [North Korea]
17. Pierre Akendegué “Chant Du Coupeur D’Oukoume” [Gabon]
18. The Crystals “Do Ron Ron” [Brooklyn, NY]
19. Ráfaga “La Negra” [Argentina]
20. Yat-Kha “The Steppe, The City, The Sea” [Tuva]
21. The Meters “Live Wire” [New Orleans, LA]
22. Jaco Pastorius “Donna Lee” [Fort Lauderdale, FL]

Aside from the Clash piece, every one of those songs has some referent in “Global A Go-Go,” the third track on Global A Go-Go, the 2001 record by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, released in a pre-9/11 world, and from where I sit in 2007, a hopelessly idealistic record.

Not, perhaps, the best use of my time. But it’s surprising how listenable this mix is.

(Forgot to mention: of course I didn’t have all these songs, or artists, at my fingertips when I started. Wikipedia did most of the heavy lifting, research-wise.)