Watch Eddie Vedder cover Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros song ‘Long Shadow’
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has delivered a stellar cover of Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros’ 2003 cut ‘Long Shadow’. The performance was captured and produced by the acclaimed Lance Bangs, helping top augment Vedder’s candid cover even more as he sits by a campfire, singing one of Strummer’s best post-Clash tracks aided by just an acoustic guitar.
“I just think that what Joe did with the Mescaleros and those records, and those songs, and those words, it was a very communal sound,” Vedder explained. “I think when you have a communal sound, the listener feels like they can be part of that community.”
Famously, ‘Long Shadow’ appeared on Streetcore, the band’s third and final album that was released almost a year after Strummer’s death in December 2022. Strummer originally recorded the song in the 1990s and handed it to Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash in the hope that rebel country legend would re-record it for his acclaimed American Recordings album. However, this wish was never fulfilled.
It’s been a busy year for Eddie Vedder. Reviewing his latest solo album Earthling back in February, Far Out‘s Tyler Golsen said: “Vedder has been one of the most progressive rock and rollers of the past three decades, fighting against monopolies and for causes like environmentalism, gun control, and a women’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Earthling is the textbook example of preaching to the choir: if some of these messages surprise you, you clearly haven’t listened to any of his words in the last 30 years.”
Adding: “All of this is to say that there’s nothing inherently wrong with Earthling. Vedder is ageing gracefully and his music is doing the same. There’s still something undeniably charming about the music he’s making, and for the audience who adores him, a new record doesn’t have to be world-changing to be good. For grunge’s last true survivor, it’s a small miracle that he’s still up there doing anything at all. But the truth is that you won’t find anything in Earthling if you’re not brand loyal.”
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