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‘Strummer of Love’ Continues With Joe Strummer Comp

Yesterday would have been the Clash legend Joe Strummer’s 60th birthday (as some pun-loving U.K. festival organizers reminded us). To celebrate his life, the label that released his final recordings has put out a digital compilation of his work with his group the Mescaleros. Titled Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, the Hellcat Years, it contains a whopping 57 tracks recorded between 1999 and Strummers death in 2002. The label also intends to reissue Strummer’s three Mescaleros albums, 1999’s Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, 2001’s Global A Go-Go and 2003’s Streetcore on September 25.

The compilation includes hard-to-find B-sides and previously unreleased live performances, including three Clash tunes featuring a guest appearance by that band’s guitarist (and apparently archivist) Mick Jones. That concert took place on November 15, 2002, according to Rolling Stone (which is streaming a non-Jones live track here); Strummer passed away a little over a month later on December 22 of a heart defect. The release is available for purchase on iTunes.