Eddie Vedder is celebrating the birthday of his late friend Joe Strummer with a cover of “Long Shadow.” The song originally appeared on 2003’s Streetcore, a posthumous album the Clash singer recorded with his band The Mescaleros.
Vedder can be heard singing “Long Shadow” in a video produced and directed by Lance Bangs. It feels like an especially appropriate setup for honoring a friend who’s passed away, as the Pearl Jam frontman plays his acoustic guitar by a crackling firepit — perhaps a nod to Strummer’s Fender Campfire? It’s also certainly not a coincidence that the cover has arrived just in time for what would be Strummer’s 70th birthday, which is August 21st.
“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 remarks at the end of the clip. “I think when you have a communal sound, the listener feels like they can be part of that community. I can only imagine that he facilitated thousands and thousands of connections.” Watch him play “Long Shadow” below.
This September marks the release of the box set Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years, which follows 2018’s Joe Strummer 001 and last year’s solo work compilation ASSEMBLY. Earlier this month, Vedder jumped onstage with The Strokes to help them out with one of his favorite songs, “Juicebox.”