Twenty five years exactly since god save the queen, but the year 2002 and two will not be remembered as the aftermath of september 11th, or when you know your right was finally released, or the queens golden jubilee. Two thousand and two will be remembered as the year Joe Strummer died.
Yesterday, the twenty second of december, Joe Strummer, singer, guitarist and lyricist of the Clash, died of a heart attack.
The second of the great trinity to die, and be written in the history books for eternity. First came sid, from the sex pistols, then joe from the clash, but for the damned it will only be a matter of time.
Strummer was older then most of the punks of his time, 26, which gave him a different outlook on life, he was also educated which showed in his songs. He sang about life from his perspective, in the time he lived in, in the place he lived in. The clash's songs took on political issues of racism, police brutality and globalisation. They were the english dead kennedys, they were the only band that mattered.
The clash were formed in 76 after Joe saw the sex pistols in teh 100 club. He had been a member of a pub band called the 101ers, but he broke them up and formed the clash. The clashes first single, white riot, is a punk masterpeice. A classic example of what punk should be: vicious, offensive, fast and different. They didn't rip off the sex pistols, they invented their own sound. They were true punk. After the release of white riot strummer and another band member took spray cans and sprayed "white riot" all over london, until it was played on the radio.
Strummer was the son of a diplomat, but he understood what most of the middle-upper classes did not about the world. He described his school as a place where rich parents sent their dumb rich kids. He didn't make the world seems pretty when it wasn't, unlike the popular music of the time.
Alot can be learned from a band by looking at the first song they write: The pistols had anarchy in the Uk, the dead kennedys had California uber alles, the clash had white riot.
White riot talks about how a world where the racial minorities are continually battling for their rights, while the working classes of white people lived in the same kind of squallor, and were expected to shut up and keep going. It talks about how the youth were educated into being stupid, into rejecting new ideas, into fucking up. He describes the world of the punks: "everybodies doing what they want to, and nobody wants to go to jail!". The last verse includes the line "are you taking over, or are you taking orders?", obviously aimed at the rich kids inheriting their political empire, "pioneering" into business, just like their mothers wanted them top.
The clash were influenced by the sex pistols, but where ever the clash played a new band was born. The buzzcocks and the Stiff little fingers each credit the clash as their main influence, the stiff little fingers often being referred to as the irish clash. Even today bands in my town start their gigs with the words "This is by the Clash!".
But the clash were more then just lyrics. Musically they were light years ahead of the other punk bands. They single handedly invented ska punk, and covered some country and r&b songs, turning them into punk classics (eg. I fought the law). They experimented with every musical genre, and invented many themselves. Their debut album "londons calling" was voted the best album of the 80's.
This is a tribute the great mind that was Joe Strummer, a celebration of his life, of his achievements. I would like to say he is reading this up there in heaven, but there is no heaven, Strummer is dead. Gone. He has simply ceased to be. They say punk died with Sid Vicious, if they were wrong it has died with Strummer.
Spitter/Matt2jones/PhrenzyBlade/Minority Mike/Michael Sherry
FUCk yOU