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| Sir Stonesalot |
This is supposed to be a really joyous season. A time for gathering with family and friends. A time of expectancy with a new year fast approaching. A time of giving and warm smiles and happy children's faces.
But I'm sad.
One year ago, we lost Joe Strummer.
I still can't quite get my head wrapped around it.
Since the release last month of Joe's excellent last album, I've been thinking of him, and what he meant to me. I've been thinking about it a lot.
Long before I became Sir Stonesalot, I probably would have been called Clash City Rocker, or Bankrobber.
Joe Strummer and the Clash saved me from a lifetime of Rock n Roll oblivion. It was a very formative time for me. I was a young teen searching for my direction. I could have been a long haired stoner wearing a Led Zep shirt and dirty jeans. Or I could have been a long haired speed freak wearing a Kiss shirt and spandex. Rock n Roll oblivion.
But then I heard "Clash City Rockers" at a local skating rink. I thought I'd lost my mind. I ran over to the DJ booth and screamed "What IS this?". I made him play it two more times that night. My friends thought I was insane. The next day, I made my mom drive me to Harrisburg so I could buy this album by "The Clash". I ended up buying The Clash, and Give 'Em Enough Rope. Just as I had started to digest these things, they released London Calling. From the first strains of the album, I knew that this was IT. I had no idea what it was, but it was definately IT.
The Clash made me realize that I didn't have to pick a path...I could take them all. I didn't have to pick anything because I could pick EVERYTHING. If you look at my music collection today you will see what most people would say is a very Schizo collection. It's a jumble. It's that way because of Joe Strummer and The Clash.
Punk was a big thing for me. But the Clash were different from all the other bands. While the Sex Pistols and the Ramones were stripping rock and roll down to it's barest bones(and that was a very good thing), The Clash decided that they were going to put the meat back on. They absorbed and added things to their songs like reggae, dub, and ska. American boogie and soul. Hell, they even dropped some rap on us. Joe would be shouting at me from the speakers of my stereo and I was shouting right back at him. If it hadn't been for Joe, I would have missed a lot. I live in white, rural, middle-class America. It would have been very easy to miss all that great music that the Clash welded into their own kind of rock. Revolution Rock. The Clash were known as "The Only Band That Matters". And at the time, it was true.
Today, I miss a guy that I never met, but who was my best friend. I miss the man that taught me that I can like everything, that there is no point in choosing. Today I miss the man that told me it was OK if I didn't have the prettiest voice. Just let it out and MEAN it. Today I miss the man that saved me from Rock n Roll oblivion.
Today I miss Joe Strummer, and I am very sad. |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Yes Sir, we're sad,... and you know just a few deserve a header here, he's one of them |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
BTW, what a touching words |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I just saw the header.
Voodoo, I love you. Thanks. |
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| Phog |
Very sad. I can't believe that it's been a year since we lost him.
RIP Joe. Truly one of the greats. |
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| glencar |
A year already? Wow. At one point I loved the Clash almost as much as the Stones. They had great rockers but they could also write nice slower songs. RIP Joe. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Really Gleny?
I'd have thought their politics would be off putting to a guy like you.
I mean, you don't get much more leftist than The Clash. The red stars and all that.
The Clash were much more than a punk band. They were a great band in any and every genre. |
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| glencar |
I was more leftish back then. I wasn't working... |
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| LadyJane |
Very touching tribute SS!
So many of the "greats" are leaving us! 
LJ.
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| glencar |
And the "greats" coming up don't seem to have career longevity... |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I think that has more to do with the way the industry works now, more than lack of talent on the artists part.
Today it's all about what is hot in the present.
Big record companies are not willing to invest in a band that isn't going to generate "Jagged Little Pill" type albums. If you don't debut with a multi-platinum that makes gazillions, your second album gets no promo money, no support, and you get dropped.
It doesn't matter if the music is good or not. It's all about money. |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
quote:
Sir Stonesalot wrote:
It's all about money.
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Are you willing to spend a dime with us?
 |
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| parmeda |
SS...back in August I had the pleasure to FINALLY visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Already knowing that The Clash were inducted in 2003, they had a SPLENDID tribute to Joe...
Don't know if you've had the chance to make it back to Cleveland lately, but I know you'd be proud if you saw what they had done...
go take a peek---> http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=2023 |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
quote:
Sir Stonesalot wrote:
They were a great band in any and every genre.
Yes... all mixed up |
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| FPM C10 |
AMEN my brother. You KNOW how I feel about Joe.
The first Clash album I got was "Give 'Em Enough Rope", and that was in fact the first "punk" album I bought. I still feel like that first smack of Topper's snare drum on "Safe European Home" was a shot heard 'round the world. Then I got into a cool ass band mainly because the singer and I totally bonded over the Clash. Then HE got the import of "London Calling" a few days before it was released here, and I drove through an ice storm to hear it. I taped it and went home a changed man/boy. About a month later my whole band went to see the Clash at the Tower Theater, and we came home like Moses coming down off the mountain - with our faces shining and a list of do's and don'ts to lead us through life.
That night, and every other time I saw him, Joe had the demeaner of a man who had something to tell you, and he was going to EXPLODE if he didn't get it across to you. So I'm not surprised that a heart attack took him out - he was the most intense guy I ever saw onstage, like there was 10,000 volts going through him. Face red, veins popping out of his forehead. No poses. The REAL fucking deal.
I'll never forget when you called me with the news last year. I was at a real low point of my life, more depressed than I'd ever been, a few days away from a mental meltdown. I remember you woke me up to tell me my hero was dead, and I said something like "I've got my own problems - I can't deal with this." I felt so stupid after I hung up, because it didn't come out right - I meant that I couldn't handle the reality of this blow from left field. It just wasn't supposed to happen. I was so POSITIVE that you and I were going to go see the Clash sometime soon. The only question mark was whether or not Topper would be playing the drums.
Apart from the deaths of family members and the murder of John Lennon, the death of Joe Strummer was the hardest thing for me to come to grips with. The death of a hero, a man who shaped your mind, is awful. Especially when there's still work to be done. THIS world NEEDS Joe Strummer. |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Joe would hate being in the hall of fame.
[Edited by Sir Stonesalot] |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
I got into the Clash a few months before Joe died. I remember thinking "Damnit, these guys knew what it was all about." I heard "Clash City Rockers" too, SS, and thought "This is their own little "I Can't Explain" for the seventies, a sort of "where the fuck has good music like this gone?" to the world."
I just got From Here To Eternity from a friend and keep on listening. Damnit, if the Clash had kept it up, the eighties might've wound up being very, very different. But as it is, they were kind of the last great bastion of any-genre-you-like-balls-out-r'n'r for twenty years. (I think if the Stripes keep it up they'll be the first in twenty years to come close.)
So RIP Joe, and RIP Clash, and RIP great music in general, for now at least. Let's hope the rockers finally come out to play again.
-tSYX --- Now phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust... |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
I love "Los Mezcaleros" Joe's project
Mezcal is only produced in the State of Oaxaca in Mexico
Mezcaleros rule this entire world
...eat the worm babies |
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| Gazza |
The Clash were the only truly great band to have emerged in the last three decades IMO.
Thats how great Joe Strummer was. A year on,and still a sad day for me. Been playing The Clash in work all day. |
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| Zeeta |
Ladies and gents, the Clash almost piss on the Stones. This is no mean feat obviously. The worst thing is they would have reformed this year. FUCKIN imagine!
Woulda been good!
RIP this guy was a genius. |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
Been playing The Clash in work all day.
So now is time to play some Mezcaleros |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Hey Zeeta, drink one to me, one to the board and the remaining to ya!
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
PS. get high! |
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| LadyJane |
SS...Hubby sends his best regards to you!
He was/is a HUGE Clash fan and he is literally choked up after reading your words.
You "old" Punks are very sentimental.
LJ. |
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| Mr. D |
God bless the man, Joe Strummer. If you ever wanna see Joe and the clash's genious, just check out SANDINISTA!(as well as the other classics-london calling,self titled). They try every type of music possible-sometimes it works, sometimes it dosen't, but that just goes to show you Joe's attitude-he makes music he wants to make, regardless whether it works or not for others. A great,great legend lost. |
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| stonedinaustralia |
and put me down with those above whose sentiments i can only echo |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
I don't know about the rest of you, but I really struggle getting through "Long Shadow" off of Streetcore. Joe wrote it as his tribute to Johnny Cash. It absolutely rips your heart out. When he wrote it, of course, both were still here with us....but now it has taken on entirely new and unintended significance. Because the words that were intended for Johnny Cash can now be applied to Joe himself.
"You cast a long shadow, and that is your testiment."
"Somewhere in my soul, there's always rock and roll"
Jesus, I'm tearing up just typing the words....
I hope Joe's finally getting the chance to sing it to Johnny.
How the hell are we ever going to replace guys like Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash?
Ugh. I can't think about this anymore. |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
Stoney, I'll try and find the MP3 for you of Johnny and Joe singing "Redemption Song" offa this new Cash box set. It's heartbreaking, but it's also kinda heartwarming, you know? They were both the riproaring rebels of their generations and genres until the day they died, and you get the sense that they're just gonna keep right on going afterwards.
-tSYX --- How long shall they kill our prophets? |
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| glencar |
I think he posted that he's getting the boxed set for Christmas... |
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