NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Legacy Recordings) - Legacy Recordings will release Joe Strummer: The
Future Is Unwritten - an album of music from the soundtrack of director Julien Temple's new film, a celebration of the life and times of the punk rock pioneer Joe Strummer, before, during and after the
Clash - on Tuesday, April 3.
News of the soundtrack album comes hot on the heels of the film's highly successful premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it received unanimous praise from the foreign and domestic press including The Hollywood Reporter who summed it up as: "Bottom line: A rock documentary that's as good as it gets ... . You don't have to be a fan of the British punk-rock sensation the Clash to enjoy Julien Temple's 'Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten,' a visually exciting, high-octane, rock history of the band and its charismatic frontman and songwriter, Joe Strummer. Simply said: It's terrific."
According to Daily Variety, "Pic is the creative equal to Strummer's aggressive signature, ensuring 'Strummer' will be in demand among both longtime Clash fans and pop culture mavens for theatrical and beyond."
The film follows Strummer's legendary musical career - from his early days with London pub-rockers the 101'ers, through the glory years of the Clash, to the Mescaleros, the band Strummer fronted until his untimely death in 2002. "The Future Is Unwritten" incorporates rare archival materials, including incendiary unreleased live footage of the Clash, as well as vintage and newly-filmed interviews Strummer's friends and collaborators including Mick Jones, Nick "Topper" Headon, Terry Chimes, Iain Gillies, Alasdair Gillies, Gaby Holford, Luce Mellor, Bono, Damien Hirst, Joe Ely, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon, Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Sara Driver, Flea, Courtney Love Cobain, Steve Buscemi, and Zander Schloss.
The film's soundtrack chronicles all phases of the music made by Joe Strummer, both inside and outside The Clash, as well as a revealing assemblage of the sounds and musicians which inspired him including Elvis Presley, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, the MC5 and more. Weaving together music and dialog from the film, including audio clips from Strummer's BBC radio program, the soundtrack album makes available many rare and previously unreleased tracks.
"The Future Is Unwritten" is directed by the groundbreaking Julien Temple. An early champion of punk rock who shot the first films of both the Clash and the Sex Pistols, Temple profoundly influenced the look, history and direction of narrative and documentary music films and videos with an unparalleled body of work which includes his Sex Pistols diptych: "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" (1980) and "The Filth and the Fury" (2000), his musical adaptation of Colin MacInnnes' landmark 1959 novel "Absolute Beginners" in 1986, and his 2006 documentary of enduring rock tribalism, "Glastonbury." In addition to directing a string of innovative music videos for Duran Duran, Sade, Depeche Mode, Culture Club, Janet Jackson, Tom Petty, Whitney Houston, and many others, Temple has made non-musical films including the 1988 comedy "Earth Girls Are Easy," the 1996 crime drama "Bullet," and the 1998 biopic "Vigo."
"Strummer's honesty is what makes him a great film subject," said Julien Temple. "He believed that music could change people's lives."
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten includes:
The Clash - White Riot
Rachid Taha - Rock The Casbah
Elvis Presley - Crawfish
Tim Hardin - Black Sheep Boy
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
101'ers - Keys To Your Heart
The Clash - I'm So Bored With The USA (previously unreleased)
U-Roy - Natty Rebel (2006 mix)
The Clash - Armagideon Time
Eddie Cochran - Nervous Breakdown
Clash II - (In The) Pouring Rain
Joe Strummer - Filibustero (from the "Walker" soundtrack)
Andres Landeros - Martha Cecilia
Ernest Ranglin - Minuet
Latino Rockabilly War - Trash City
Woody Guthrie - Rangers Command
Bob Dylan - Corrina, Corrina ("Biograph" version)
Joe Strummer - Johnny Appleseed
Nina Simone - To Love Somebody
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Willesden To Cricklewood
Film4, Sony BMG Film, Parallel Films and HanWay Films present A Nitrate Film and Parallel Films production of A Julien Temple Film: "The Future Is Unwritten - Joe Strummer."
https://www.legacyrecordings.com
