Tag: The Clash

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Strummer Week: Joe Strummer, R.I.Punk

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Here we are, on the 10th anniversary of the death of Joe Strummer. I still miss Joe so much that it’s difficult to believe it’s a decade since he died… but maybe that’s because his presence is still so strong in the world. Things that Joe said and did still inform a good deal of what I do here and now, and I know it’s the same for people all over the world. He wasn’t perfect, no, but on his good days, he inspired more people than most of us will in our entire lives.

In Chris Salewicz’s biography of Joe, Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer, director Jim Jarmusch had this to say about his friend: “He talked a lot about the bad times that ended the Clash. He seemed to feel guilty. He felt really bad about Cut the Crap, said it was crap. I said, ‘You only learn from your mistakes. You can’t learn things without fucking up.’ We had a lot of discussions about mistakes and accidents, how circumstance and fate affects our lives, how if you want to find your dream lover, you’ll never find it, but as soon as you dismiss the possibility, then it arises again. I was trying to relate that philosophy to him when he was down. I was throwing back his own attitude, because he was very good when people were down – just give them a few little words. He was very good at picking you up again.”

Joe went out just when his star was ascending again, getting better and better with the Mescaleros, and its heartbreaking to think of all that he had left to give that he didn’t have the chance to share with us. But he left a lot with us already, including a huge spirit that we can carry on in our own lives and share with others.

 

“In fact, punk rock means EXEMPLARY MANNERS TO YOUR FELLOW HUMAN BEING.”
-Joe Strummer1

 

Below, I’ve collected some of my favorite songs from Joe. I encourage you to share your own favorite Joe songs and memories in the comments.

“Clampdown” – The Clash

 

“Know Your Rights” – The Clash

 

“This Is Radio Clash” – The Clash

 

“Brooding Six” – Joe Strummer, Walker soundtrack

 

“Shaktar Donetsk” – Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros

 

“Cool ‘n’ Out” – Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros

 

“Get Down Moses” – Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros

 

1Perfect Sound Forever, Interview by Jason Gross, January 2003

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Friday Link Session

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  • Viva Joe Strummer: The Clash and Beyond turned up for free viewing on Hulu recently. I haven’t watched it yet, but a glance around the web shows fair-to-middling reviews. (But I’m a completist, so you know it’s going into my eyeholes.)

     

  • Through some happenstance of internet serendipity, I learned of Cleveland band Harvey Pekar. As a fan of late Cleveland comics writer Harvey Pekar, I can’t imagine the jazz-loving worrywart listening to this heavy band, but I feel better about the world just knowing they exist.

     

  • A recent episode of the Nerdist podcast had me digging up this ’90s treasure:

     

    “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” – Crash Test Dummies

     

    I still like the song, but I know haters are gonna hate. I wouldn’t have brought it up here, though, if it hadn’t led me to this “Weird Al” Yankovic parody. Those of you who were cognizant in the ’90s might want to brace yourselves for the time warp.

     

    “Headline News” – “Weird Al” Yankovic

     

    Then, confluence as Al joins the Crash Test Dummies for a performance at the 1994 Canadian Music Video Awards.

     

    “Headline News” (snippet) – “Weird Al” Yankovic with Crash Test Dummies

     

    Now step outside for a moment and appreciate the fact that it is no longer the ’90s.

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Rebirth of the Cool: I Fought the Law

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I first heard “I Fought the Law” by the Crickets as I first heard many of the oldies: travelling in the car with my parents. Much of the foundation of my music education was laid while sitting in the back seat of the car as we drove to family gatherings, listening to the only radio station – WMJI Majic 105.7 – that my mother, father and I could agree on.

 

 

Sonny Curtis wrote the song and brought it with him when he joined the Crickets after Buddy Holly’s death, releasing it in 1965. The song was covered in 1966 by the Bobby Fuller Four and did well for them (though Fuller’s tremolo warble makes me want to punch him), but I’m going to take a wild guess that the majority of people reading this are most familiar with the Clash’s 1979 cover.

 

 

You’ll notice a couple of small lyrical changes from the Crickets’ original. For instance, the narrator of the original is robbing people with a zip gun, while, starting with the Bobby Fuller Four cover, he began robbing people with a six-gun. Though, of course, the biggest change implemented by the Clash took the narrator from merely missing his baby (or, as Fuller had it, leaving his baby) to killing her, making him much more of an outlaw than he started out. But, you know, at least he feels bad about it.

The lyrics of “I Fought the Law” seem to invite people to mess with them, and nobody messed with them more than Jello Biafra as he rewrote them to comment on the murders of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk for the Dead Kennedys’ 1980s re-working of the song.

 

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…And Wants to Be Free

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People often get the name of this blog wrong, especially on Twitter where I use the handle nowthissound. It makes me sad. Not because I feel it means the blog is not well-received but because it means people don’t know the source material. One of the reasons I call Joe Strummer the patron saint of this blog is because I took the name from the Clash. “This is Radio Clash” to be exact.

 

 

Though the biggest reason Joe is the patron saint is his life-long belief in the power of music and his joy in finding new and weird music and sharing it around. From his BBC radio series to his encouragement to “Go out and buy something weird today!” Joe kept an ear out for new sounds. The results could be heard from his early days with the 101ers, through the Clash and right on into the last Mescaleros album.

It’s that musical ideal, that desire to go out and find something great, no matter where it comes from, that I hope comes through on Now This Sound Is Brave. As the man sang, the stars go in, the stars go out, and punk rock’s what it’s all about.

 

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Joe Strummer: Love Kills

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Today marks the eighth anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death, and the impulse is usually to be solemn and possibly even maudlin in our remembrances and tributes on this day. Yes, Joe was a seriously thoughtful guy and inspired many people to do great things, but he also had a sense of humor and wonder and joy which shouldn’t be forgotten. It bubbled out of him until the day he died.

So, in that spirit, I post the video for one of Joe’s contributions to the Sid & Nancy soundtrack, “Love Kills”. Joe, Dick Rude and someone who looks a lot like Jane Wiedlin as a group of inept federales, Gary Oldman turning into superhero Sid Vicious and (I think) a rockin’ song – what more do you need from a music video?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeeZRw52FxE?fs=1]

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Joe Strummer: It’s Time to Be Doing Something Good

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It should be clear from the name of this blog that Joe Strummer is important here. A man born with fire inside, he influenced a range of people from musicians to activists. He would have been 58 years old today.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj50hRgLkRw?fs=1]

Photo credit: Bob Gruen