In August 2023, Tiny Global record label re-released Tymon’s 1982 album ‘Battle of Wills’ on CD and vinyl. The new double album includes a whole extra record with additional material from various sources including live performances at the Hurrah Club in NYC.
Here’s what Tiny Global said in their press release:
| We’re delighted to announce this long-awaited and expanded reissue. Some of you may not know Tymon Dogg, but his is one of the oddest stories in music – starting out a potential star with at least three genuine shots at fame only to walk away from each (in generally glorious fashion) before emerging in unexplored musical hinterlands and making a string of stellar records . . . most of which are unreleased.Tymon began his musical career in his teens, signing with and splitting from Pye, Apple Records and The Moody Blues‘ Threshold labels so quickly he only recorded two released 7″s between all of them. It’s a story told elsewhere in depth, but it’s after that time that Tymon’s story is really relevant.After abandoning the music business, Tymon street tube station performances let to a friendship with a young guy called Woody, who’d pass around the hat around while Tymon busked and, in exchange, was taught a few chords. Tymon and Woody busking around Europe and the UK, surviving on nothing and ending up in an Elgin Avenue squat with an odd array of social castaways in that bleak period between hippiedom and punk.Woody, of course, reinvented himself as Joe Strummer as he and Tymon started The 101’ers, with Tymon providing the songs in their original (unrecorded) set. Their fellow squatmates included future members of several iconic bands – The Passions, The Slits, and Raincoats.It’s rarely noted that Tymon was Joe’s longest musical partner – making music together, off and on, in The 101ers, The Clash and in The Mescaleros. Tymon wrote the original unrecorded 101’ers set, his own Lose This Skin was the first song recorded for Sandinista!, it was he who came up with the concept for Rock The Casbah, and the last ‘real’ Clash song ever recorded, Death Is A Star, is essentially a Tymon / Joe duo performance, and the music for The Mescaleros‘ best-known songs – Johnny Appleseed, Mondo Bongo and their version of Minstrel Boy – all came from Tymon.Which brings us to Battle Of Wills, recorded in London in the time between Sandinista! and Combat Rock. It was the final release from Dick O’Dell‘s brilliant Y label, which brought forth marvels from Maximum Joy, Sun Ra, Shriekback, The Pop Group, The Slits, Glaxo Babies, Pulsallama and others.Since its release, Battle Of Wills has been near-impossible to find. Until now, it’s never been reissued in any medium. We’re rectifying that and doubling the album’s length with thirteen additional songs, including what may be Tymon’s most perfect piece of music, Indestructible, from the b-side of The Clash‘s Lose The Skin 7″ (released under Tymon’s name), and five other studio tracks songs never-before available on vinyl and seven songs from a 1980 live performance at NYC‘s Danceteria, which includes a Joe Strummer-related oddity, the only recorded version of Dog Dirt On Your Shoe, the first song ever performed by The 101’ers, written in 1974 thought lost until now, which features the pre-punk-prescient line, “There’s David Bowie and his best friend Lou, and they look so pretty with the dog dirt on their shoes!”Both the double CD and double LP versions include the full roster of 25 songs, plus amazing liner notes from Folk Roots / fRoots editor Ian A Anderson, a long-time proponent of Tymon’s unique brilliance. There’s little point in us trying to describe the sound of the original album – it’s not punk or folk or Celtic music or avant-garde or Indian, though all those influences are evident. Mishra, one of the album’s two percussionists, played with Ravi Shankar, Dawson Miller went on to play on many records, include those by Tymon’s current labelmates, Alison Statton and Spike, in Weekend, percussionist Chick McLaughlin was recommended by, of all people, Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. Tymon’s voice is the album’s most notable aspect of the music, seemingly having taken on the characteristics of his violin playing.There is nothing remotely like Tymon Dogg as an original artist. As Joe Strummer once told us himself, “There’s Nina Simone and Tymon Dogg and that’s about it.” Or words to that effect! We strongly urge you to head over to Bandcamp and check out a few of Tymon’s recordings.Future releases from Tymon include an unreleased 1983 album with Joe Strummer and (The Who / Beatles / Rolling Stones / Led Zeppelin / The Clash producer) Glyn Johns, unheard early ’80s sessions with Ian Dury‘s Blockheads, and other oddities. Despite all those big names, Tymon has always been an utterly incomparable writer / performer, and we aim to bring his complete recorded works to you in due time. Listen and / or buy Tymon Dogg’s expanded Battle Of Wills here. |
Tymon Dogg 