On Joe Strummer and the Clash

December 22,  was the anniversary of Joe Strummer's death. I know because I saw all sorts of Clash videos all over the internet. I still can't believe that he was only 50 years old. In my mind he was ageless, and timeless. He still is.  


I can't really even begin to tell how the music of the Clash shaped and formed my life because it is so ingrained that it can't really be drawn apart. I had the opportunity to see Strummer play just a handful of times (1979, 1980, 2002, 2003) and each time it was a special night. Strummer was that kind of performer- the kind that played a show that touched you, and made you feel like you mattered. I miss him, and every time I hear his voice- with the Clash especially, it takes me back to that special place. 


I first saw the Clash in 1979, and I wrote about it for my school newspaper. It was a gushy two paragraph blurb, not too far removed from this gushy blurb here, and when it finally ran in the Magnolia Sentinel, I was promptly called a Devo fag, and then beat up. So much for the seventies. I saw the Clash the next year..... it could have been 1982, actually, and then I never saw the Clash again.  It is OK, they later came and did festivals (like the Us Festival) and a tour opening for The Who- and my disdain for huge concerts being what it is (I dislike attending them) helped keep me at bay. I was also piss poor, and going to festivals was pretty expensive for a guy with no job and no future. 

What glorious shows I saw, however. The band played music from their first three albums- The Clash,  Give 'em Enough Rope, and London Calling- as well as a handful of singles- many of which showed up on Black Market Clash collections here in the US.  I recall Joe Ely playing support for them, and not being embraced well by the audience that night. Strummer came out and scolded the instigators at the Hollywood Palladium, calling Ely "legendary" and berating the spitters. What he failed to recognize is that to us  The Clash were legendary- many of us had been fans for two or three years, and this was a milestone for us, and that he, Joe Strummer, was a legend. What a set list. http://homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/recordings/1979/79-10-11%20Hollywood/79-10-11%20Hollywood.html



I recalled seeing the movie "Rude Boy" around this time- English punk rock movies were making a splash here- and being more than a little envious that I couldn't be a Clash roadie like Ray was. I remember Ray being at a party at Malissa's house, and that he and Eugene were listening to AC/DC records. When I took the record off and tried to put on a Clash record, Ray picked me up an tossed me out the window. Fortunately it was on the first floor. My ego was bruised more than my body, and I secretly plotted the rest of the night to cause some sort of destruction to him when he went to sleep, but the guy never went to sleep. For twenty odd years, this would be the closest I would get to meeting anyone even remotely associated with the Clash. They played about seven shows in a row, again at the Hollywood Palladium, and that was the last time I recall they played mid-sized shows in Los Angeles.


As I had shared, I didn't see the Clash again, but that's not to say I stopped listening to the Clash. I stayed a loyal fan until Sandinista! came out. It was too disjointed and long for me, and probably for lots of people, and the steep price tag made it a 'duplicate onto cassette only' album. Without the dust jacket and lyric sheet the record was impossible for me to decipher. The next two albums were also lost on me,  Combat Rock was inconsistent, but shot the band into huge with the advent of MTV videos, and Cut the Crap was unlistenable at the time.

In any event, it would be forever before I would see Joe Strummer play live again, and even when I did, it was accidental. I don't mean to insinuate that I was avoiding seeing Strummer- to the contrary- there just weren't opportunities to. It would be due to the folly of Shane MacGowan who failed to show up to the Wiltern to do a Pogues set that led to my seeing Strummer again- and this time he was fronting the Pogues. It was a good night, Mary and I had a good time. Most of the set was Pogues material, but there were a couple of Clash songs in the mix, most notably "London Calling." It was the closest I could have gotten to hearing the soundtrack to Walker or Straight to Hell that we could get.


Which brings me to the last time I had the pleasure of seeing Joe Strummer. My friend Steve Martinez had a pair of tickets for the Mescaleros at the Troubador. He couldn't attend the show, so he gave the tickets to Mary Jo and I. We went down to the Troub ridiculously early due to my typical paranoia about traffic, so we ducked into Starbucks to kill time. As we sat sipping down overpriced coffee, Joe Strummer walked in. He put in an order, then turned and began conversing with us. We talked about the usual- weather, coffee vs. tea, and music. I offered him a seat, but he needed to bring one of the drinks back to a friend. After he left, Mary said to me, "I didn't know you knew Joe Strummer." I smiled and said, "I don't, but I do." 


Still thinking about you Joe, you were one of the good ones.