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Joe Strummer - the guy had a great name for a guitar player!
Clash star Joe Strummer dies
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 Posted: 11:06 AM EST (1606 GMT)
(CNN) -- Joe Strummer, the lead
singer for the landmark British punk
band The Clash, has died at the age
of 50.
Strummer, who was the band's guitarist,
vocalist, songwriter and sometime
frontman alongside Mick Jones, died on
Sunday at his farmhouse in Somerset,
southwestern England.
A statement released by his record label
said Strummer "died peacefully at his
home." It added that his wife Lucy, two
daughters and stepdaughter "request
privacy at this harrowing time."
The British Broadcasting Corp. quoted
Clash video director Don Letts has saying
Strummer died of a heart attack.
He had been touring with his most recent
band The Mescaleros until last month,
rounding off a tour in Liverpool.
Hein van der Rey, managing director of
Epitaph Records -- The Mescaleros'
record label -- said he learned of the
death on Monday morning.
"We do not know the circumstances. It is
pretty devastating news," he told The
Associated Press, adding that Strummer
had been working on a third album with
The Mescaleros.
Police said his death was not believed to
be suspicious and a post-mortem
examination will take place on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset
Police told the Press Association: "We
believe police did attend as the death at
the farmhouse in Broomfield near
Bridgwater was sudden."
'The only band that matters'
Strummer had a rather privileged
background at odds with the DIY ethos of
punk. He was born John Graham Mellor in
Ankara, Turkey, on August 21, 1952, the son of British Foreign Office clerk, and
attended London boarding schools. It was there he became exposed to a variety of
musical styles, and soon began performing on street corners. He also formed a
pub-rock band, the 101'ers.
In 1976, Strummer saw the pioneer British punkers the Sex Pistols in concert. He
abruptly dropped pub rock and formed The Clash with Mick Jones, a working-class
rocker from Brixton in south London; Jones' friend Paul Simonon, who replaced Tony
James as bassist; and Terry "Tory Crimes" Chimes as drummer, who took over for
Topper Headon. (Headon later rejoined the group after it recorded its first album,
"The Clash.")
The Clash quickly became one of the top
attractions in Britain, the Web site
allmusic.com notes. The band opened for
the Pistols during the summer of '76 and
landed a record deal with CBS. Its first
single, "White Riot," became a hit in early
1977, and the band embarked on a tour
with the Jam and the Buzzcocks. An
appearance at London's Rainbow Theatre
led to a minor riot.
The Clash's outlaw image occasionally
led to controversy. CBS' American parent,
Columbia Records, refused to release "The Clash" in the United States; the album
became an import best-seller. Each band member got into minor scrapes with the
law.
But The Clash was never that easy to pigeonhole. It wore its political beliefs on its
sleeve, but tempered its hard-driving punk with reggae, rockabilly and -- above all --
wit. In December 1979, the band finally broke through to the American market with
"London Calling," which Rolling Stone magazine ranked the top album of the '80s.
The double-LP contains some of the band's best work, including the title song, a
blistering cover of "Brand New Cadillac," "Lost in the Supermarket," "Spanish
Bombs," and the song that became its first American hit single, "Train in Vain."
It was around this time the band picked up its nickname -- "The Only Band that
Matters." It may have been a record company marketing tool, but few were willing to
argue the point.
Going solo
"London Calling" was followed by the three-LP set "Sandinista!", which cemented
the band's following in America. In 1982, the group released "Combat Rock," which
contained a Top 10 single, "Rock the Casbah," and another hit, "Should I Stay or
Should I Go," a rousing rewrite of "Little Latin Lupe Lu."
But just as the band was reaching its
commercial zenith, internal pressures
forced it apart. Strummer and Simonon
fired Jones, who went on to form Big
Audio Dynamite. The Clash put out one
more record, "Cut the Crap," before
splitting for good in 1986.
After the group's breakup, Strummer
alternated between music and movies, appearing in Alex Cox's "Straight to Hell"
(1987), a film more highly thought of for its cast -- including a young Courtney Love,
the Pogues' Shane MacGowan, and Elvis Costello -- than its internal logic. He also
appeared in Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train" (1989).
The Clash are scheduled to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland, Ohio, on March 10, along with AC/DC, the Police, Elvis Costello and the
Attractions and the Righteous Brothers.
Contemporaries were caught off guard by Strummer's death.
"The thing about Strummer was he walked it like he talked it," Billy Bragg told the AP.
"He didn't cop out. He didn't show one face to the public and have a different face in
himself."
"The Clash was the greatest rock band. They wrote the rule book for U2," U2
frontman Bono, who was working on a Nelson Mandela tribute song with Strummer
and Eurhythmics' Dave Stewart, told the British Press Association. "Though I was
always too much of a fan to get to know him well, we were due to meet in January to
finish our Mandela song with Dave Stewart. It's such a shock."
Joe Strummer Of The Clash Dead At 50
Officers on the scene believed Strummer died from heart failure.
Joe Strummer
Anton Corbijn
Joe Strummer, vocalist and guitarist of the pioneering punk band the Clash, was found dead in his
home in southwest England Sunday, according to a police spokesperson. The cause of death is
unknown, though authorities do not believe the circumstances to be suspicious. An autopsy has been
scheduled for Tuesday. Strummer
was 50.
Strummer's body was discovered
Sunday afternoon in his Somerset
home by his wife Lucy, who phoned
police. They arrived around 4:45
p.m. and pronounced him dead at
the scene. Officers believed
Strummer died from heart failure.
Along with the Sex Pistols and the
Ramones, the Clash ushered in
punk's first wave, giving voice to a
generation of restless youth that
was too nihilistic for disco's
feel-good vibe and the bloated
corporate rock of the day. Unlike the
Pistols, though, who reveled in the
anarchy of their loutish behavior as
much as the chaos of their music,
Strummer and the Clash
harnessed their rage and ferocity into reggae and dub-influenced political anthems about class and
economic struggle such as "Death or Glory," "London Calling" and "The Guns of Brixton." The results
were albums such as 1979's London's Calling, considered by many critics to be one of the greatest
rock albums of all time.
Born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey, in 1952, the son of British diplomat Ronald Mellor,
Strummer attended London's Freeman boarding school in Surrey as a child, visiting his parents in
Teheran and in sub-Sahara Africa during school holidays.
He began his rise to musical prominence busking in the London subway and in the cover band the
101ers in the early '70s. After seeing a performance by the Sex Pistols in 1976, Strummer broke up the
101ers and set out in search of a more intense muse.
Joining forces with co-singer/guitarist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper
Headon in West London in the mid-'70s, Strummer was instrumental in bringing his political, worldly
view to one of the most influential and principled bands in the history of rock. The group performed its
first concert in the summer of '76, opening for their idols, the Sex Pistols, in London. A slot on the
Pistols' hectic Anarchy in the U.K. Tour that fall helped land the Clash a recording contract.
Though they trailed the Pistols in arriving at the punk party, the Clash far outstripped the sideshow
antics of Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten with fiery, passionate songs of righteous protest such as "I'm
So Bored With the U.S.A.," "London's Burning" and "White Riot," from their self-titled 1977 debut, which
was not released in the U.S. because the band's American label did not think the songs were fit for
radio. The album was released Stateside in an altered form two years later.
In part because of Strummer's peripatetic childhood and his embrace of global music, the Clash
augmented the usual three-chord punk blitz with reggae, dub, rockabilly, folk and a swaggering, Wild
West style and bearing. His middle-class background mixed with Jones' working-class Brixton
upbringing made for a volatile combination, which the band played to the hilt in its image, songs and
interviews. For a time, the group's fearless embrace of political ideology and cultural diversity earned
the Clash the distinction as "the only band that mattered."
That status was reinforced with the release of the band's third record, London Calling. The
double-album is rife with searing, rocking, working-class politico-punk anthems such as the title track,
but it also features a startling array of musical styles: loungey jazz ("Jimmy Jazz"), rockabilly ("Brand
New Cadillac"), ska ("Rudie Can't Fail"), pop ("Lost in the Supermarket"), boozy R&B ("The Right
Profile") and even some Stonesy blues rock ("Lover's Rock").
It's a staggering artistic statement from a group that had only been together for three years, but had
already surpassed its peers in terms of growth and stylistic range.
Through it all, Strummer was the angry young man at the center of the storm. With a cigarette-scarred,
throaty rasp, Strummer stumbled through the Clash's reggae cover of the traditional blues number
"Junco Partner," croaking like a drunken street-fighter hitting daylight. The song sits alongside many of
the classics written by Strummer and Jones on the band's 1980 magnum opus, the three-album set
Sandanista!. Tracks such as "Somebody Got Murdered" and "Career Opportunities" decry the plight of
England's youth with a passion and vigor, as well as a desperate hopelessness, that made Jones and
Strummer the poet laureates of punk. Like London's Calling, the album, though packed with songs,
was released at a fan-friendly discounted price.
Though the group's influence was on the wane in England, with the release of 1982's Combat Rock
the Clash finally achieved the American success they long sought with the hits "Should I Stay or Should
I Go?" and "Rock the Casbah." The Middle Eastern-themed video for the song made the mohawked
Strummer an icon for the MTV generation. (The anti-war track was later played by the U.S. military as it
bombed Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.) The group, however, was frequently booed off the stage in the fall of
1982 as it made the rounds with the Who on the venerable English rock band's first farewell tour.
The Clash's appearance at the massive US Festival in the summer of 1983 would mark their last major
concert, as the group disintegrated following the September 1983 firing of Jones, whom the others felt
had strayed from the band's original ideals. A new lineup toured the U.S. in 1984 and released the
poorly received Cut the Crap album before disbanding in 1986.
Jones and Strummer reunited in 1986 to write a handful of songs for Jones' band, Big Audio Dynamite,
while Strummer began a second career as an actor. The singer appeared as "street scum" in "The
King of Comedy" (1983), a baddie in Alex Cox's punk rock western, "Straight to Hell" (1987) and Cox's
"Walker," (1987) and played bit parts in "Candy Mountain" (1987) and Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train"
(1989). In the latter, he played the part of "Johnny" a.k.a. Elvis, in the film about a Japanese couple's
obsession with 1950s America.
Strummer released his solo debut, Earthquake Weather, in 1989, which bore the signature Clash
mash-up of dub, reggae, folk and punk rock. After a brief 1991 stint as the touring vocalist and rhythm
guitarist for Irish rockers the Pogues, Strummer receded from the spotlight, performing on Black
Grape's 1996 hit "England's Irie" and scoring the John Cusack comedy "Grosse Pointe Blank" (1997).
Strummer lent his voice to "It's a Rockin' World" from the soundtrack to "South Park" (1998). He returned
in 1999 backed by his new band, the Mescaleros, with Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, an eclectic album
that added some dancey beats to Strummer's increasingly world music mix of exotic percussion and
African influences. A second album, Global a Go-Go, followed last year, and Strummer had been
working on a third Mescaleros LP. He had also recently completed a European tour with the band.
A punk to the end, Strummer had ignored lucrative offers for the Clash to reunite and steadfastly
followed his musical and social conscience. Along the way, he influenced everyone from former Rage
Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and U2's Bono, with whom
he collaborated on a song for an upcoming concert in South Africa to raise money to fight AIDS. Along
with the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, the pair wrote "48864" - named for former South African president
Nelson Mandela's prison number - which will be performed at the benefit show on February 2 (see
"Bono, Shaggy, Macy Gray To Play AIDS Benefit In South Africa").
Strummer recently filmed a pilot for an MTV2 show, "Global Boombox With Joe Strummer," which
features clips from a number of world, reggae, pop and punk artists, including Buccaneer, Capleton,
Angelique Kidjo, Youssou N'Dour and Rancid.
The Clash are scheduled to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10 in New York
(see "AC/DC, Clash, Police To Be Inducted Into Rock Hall Of Fame" ), and the drums had begun
beating for a long sought-after reunion. Jones and Strummer performed together for the first time in
nearly 20 years on November 16 at a charity gig at London's Acton Town Hall, playing the songs
"London's Burning," "Bankrobber" and "White Riot," which raised hopes for an onstage set at the Hall of
Fame induction.
Strummer is survived by a wife, two daughters and a stepdaughter, who are all requesting privacy at
this time
Strummer: Punk pioneer who defined
generation
Monday, December 23, 2002 Posted: 1:42 PM EST (1842 GMT)
LONDON, England -- The Clash were
for many THE punk band of the
1970s and in their lead singer and
songwriter Joe Strummer had a
voice that spoke for a generation.
Strummer, who has died aged 50, was an
intelligent, passionate musician who with
Mick Jones, the other creative force in the
band, absorbed a range of influences
from reggae to rockabilly but distilled a
uniquely British sound.
Strummer and the Clash burst onto the
British punk scene in the late 1970s on
the heels of fellow countrymen and punk
rockers The Sex Pistols.
But they transcended the three-chord
aggression to deliver messages of
anti-racism and social consciousness in
such songs as "London Calling," "Rock
the Casbah," and "Should I Stay or Should
I Go."
The Clash are scheduled to be inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland, Ohio, on March 10, along with
AC/DC, the Police, Elvis Costello and the
Attractions and the Righteous Brothers.
Strummer also enjoyed a successful solo
career after the Clash broke up in 1985,
dabbling in acting and writing music for
films.
Born John Mellor when his diplomat father
was stationed in Ankara, Turkey, he was
sent to the City of London Freeman
School in Ashtead Park, Surrey and would
visit his parents in Tehran during school
holidays.
Back in England he went to art school but
dropped out and spent his time busking
on the Tube during the early 1970s before
forming a pub-rock band called the
101'ers.
A turning point in his life came when he
saw the Sex Pistols in 1976 and decided
the pub-rock scene was dead.
He immediately left the 101'ers and joined up with three musicians he had met
earlier, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Nicky "Topper" Headon who were in a band
called London SS.
The group changed their named to The Clash and later that year signed to CBS
Records.
The Clash's self-titled debut a year later had the seeds of the sound that would bring
them international success within a few years. Rolling Stone magazine called it "the
definitive punk album."
It included the frantic sound of "White Riot," which became a punk anthem, and a
cover of Junior Murvin's reggae classic "Police and Thieves."
The band followed the release with "Give 'Em Enough Rope" in 1978, then "London
Calling" the following year.
This double album was reckoned to be
the band's best. The next release, the
triple-album "Sandinista!," finally brought
The Clash major recognition in America,
which continued with 1982's "Combat
Rock," and the hit single "Rock the
Casbah."
But at the height of success, things
started to go wrong. Mick Jones left the
band in 1983 and "Cut the Crap," the final
album released by The Clash, was a
commercial failure. By 1986 the group
had disbanded.
Strummer reunited with Mick Jones and his new band Big Audo Dynamite (B.A.D.)
for songwriting before taking film roles with Alex Cox in "Straight To Hell" (1986), Jim
Jarmusch in "Mystery Train" (1989) and Aki Kaurismaki in "I Hired A Contract Killer"
(1990).
He also worked on soundtracks for the films "Permanent Record" (1988) and
"Grosse Point Blank" (1997).
In 1989 Strummer released his first solo album, called "Earthquake Weather," and
spent a long time on tour with The Pogues, playing with the Levellers and the Brian
Setzer Orchestra.
He also recorded the single "England's Irie" with Shaun Ryder's group Black Grape
and worked on South Park's "Chef Aid" album and Keith Allen's Fat Les project.
After a decade without a release under his own name, Strummer brought out the
album "Rock Art" and the "X-Ray Style" which he recorded with his band The
Mescaleros.
The second album of Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros, "Global A Go-Go" followed
in 2001 and was described as probably his most eclectic effort. Strummer is
survived by wife Lucinda and three daughters
Music world remembers Strummer
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 Posted: 5:59 AM EST (1059 GMT)
LONDON, England -- Tributes have
been pouring in from across the
music industry for Joe Strummer,
frontman with the Clash, who has
died at the age of 50.
"He was one of the most important figures
in modern British music, a powerful
performer and a wordsmith on the same
level as Bob Dylan," said Pat Gilbert,
editor of British music magazine Mojo
"His music had compassion and vision,
backed with an agenda to change the
world for the better... I was shocked to
hear of his death," he told Reuters.
"Joe Strummer was one of the greatest
stars of the last 30 years," said Anthony
Thornton, editor of the Internet site of the
British rock weekly New Musical Express.
"Rock is a smaller, less interesting place
today".
U2 frontman Bono said: "The Clash was
the greatest rock band. They wrote the
rule book for U2.
"Though I was always too much of a fan to
get to know him well, we were due to
meet in January to finish our Mandela
song with Dave Stewart. It's such a
shock," he told the Press Association.
Left-wing singer-songwriter Bill Bragg
said Strummer had inspired him
politically and musically.
"Joe to me was a great political
inspiration. The first political thing I ever
did was to to a Rock Against Racism
concert in Victoria Park, Hackney, in
1977," he said.
"I really went to see the Clash and it
politicised me. I have a great admiration
for the man. His most recent records are
as political and edgy as anything he did
with the Clash. His take on multi-cultural
Britain in the 21st century is far ahead of
anybody else.
"This is a terrible tragedy, particularly for his family.
"If you look at the first rank of British punk bands, they weren't really that political.
"Their relationship to politics was rather ambivalent -- The Sex Pistols, the Damned
and The Stranglers -- and the American punk bands had politics at all -- The
Ramones, Blondie and Television.
"It was The Clash that struck the strong political stance that really inspired a lot of
people, and within The Clash he was the political engine of the band.
"Without Joe there's no political Clash and without the Clash the whole political edge
of punk would have been severely |
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