You don't face your demons down
You gotta grapple 'em, Jack
And pin 'em to the ground
The devil may care
Maybe God he won't
Ya better you make sure
You check on the do's and the don'ts
Crawl up the mountain
To reach where the eagles fly
Sure you can glimpse from the mountain top
Where the soul of the muse might rise
And if you put it all together
You won't have to look around
You know you cast
A long shadow on the ground
Then one day I could tell my tracks
By the holes in the soles of my shoes
And that's the day I said
I'm gonna make the news
And falling back in the garden
Of days so long ago
Somewhere in the memory
The sun shines on you, boy
Playing in the Arroyos
Where the American rivers flow
From the Appalachians
Down to the Delta roads
A man can think so long
His brain could well explode
There's trains runnin' through the junctions
And King Cotton's down the road
And if you put it all together
You won't have to look around
You know you cast
A long shadow on the ground
Listen to the country
The night jar and the bell
Listen to the the night stream-liner
Sounding like the wolves of hell
Head for the water
The waters of the cleansing spell
It was always our destination
On the express of the ne'er-do-wells
And we rock through Madison City
Man, we didn't even know she was there
And when we hit the baffles in Memphis
Beale Street didn't have no prayer
And I hear punks talk of anarchy
I hear hobos on the railroads
I hear mutterings on the chain gangs
It's those men who build the roads
And if you put it all together
You didn't even once relent
You cast a long shadow
And that is your testament
Somewhere in my soul
There's always rock an' roll
Yeah
The Mescaleros were the British backing band for British singer, musician and songwriter Joe Strummer, formed in 1999, which issued three albums prior to Strummer's death in 2002.
Many of the band members were multi-instrumentalists. The original line up consisted of Strummer on vocals and guitar; Antony Genn on guitar; Scott Shields on bass, guitar and drums; Martin Slattery on keyboards, guitar, occasional flute and saxophone; Pablo Cook on percussion; Steve "Smiley" Barnard on drums; and Richard Flack on various instruments.
The Mescaleros arose from Strummer's work with Pablo Cook and Richard Norris. The three of them originally came together to write the soundtracks for two short films, Tunnel of Love, and Question of Honour. The song "Yalla Yalla" was originally written by this trio, and mixed by Antony Genn. Once Genn was brought on board, a new song "Techno D-Day" was recorded, at which point Strummer, at the behest of Genn, began recording a new record.
The original drummer, Ged Lynch, left the band before recording on Rock Art & the X-Ray Style was complete and Steve Barnard, previously with (Robbie Williams), was brought in to finish recording. Shields and Slattery were recruited through a number of contacts with the band. Slattery had also appeared on Robbie Williams' Life Thru a Lens album, and Scott Shields was a friend of Slattery's. Oddly enough, in the initial lineup, only Smiley was playing the instrument which he knew best.
Genn reportedly did not have the ability to play sufficient lead guitar, so multi-instrumentalist Slattery, originally trained on horns and keyboards, was brought in. Strummer once joked that Slattery could play a hole in the windshield of the tour bus. Shields had previously been a drummer but was recruited to play bass, and later played guitar.
