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Joe Strummer When Malcolm McLaren brought it over from New York in the mid-70s, punk was a fashion, not a true cultural movement - the Sex Pistols were simply the Spice Girls of their generation. Until, that is, the frontman of London pub-rock band the 101ers Joe Strummer accepted an offer from Mick Jones to join the Heartdrops in 1976. Swiftly renamed the Clash, the band found that Jones and Strummer worked well as a songwriting pair, Jones's relatively level head providing the perfect foil for Strummer's angry, activist approach to music. Within a year, the band's self-titled album was released, a rumbling punk monster that set the bar for the rest of the movement. The widely forgotten Give 'Em Enough Rope followed, but it was London Calling that was to ensure the Clash's - and Joe Strummer's - place in history. Taking influences from world music, and reggae in particular, lyrics had never been so central to music and have perhaps never been since. A few albums followed, including the visionary Sandinista, but by the time the tepid Combat Rock was released, the time seemed right to pull the plug on the Clash. |
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Strummer died in December 2002 of a heart attack, aged 50. The following year saw the release of his final album, Streetcore, and it was to be a fitting epitaph. A mix of songs that would have fitted on London Calling - Arms Aloft, Coma Girl - and gentler material, including a cover of Bob Marley's Redemption Song, Streetcore was a microcosm of Strummer's career, and had barely a weak moment on it. That the final song on his final album should be a cover of Bobby Charles' 'Before I Grow Too Old' is too poignant for words. The music world is a much poorer place for his death. Audio Joe Strummer live, Edinburgh, 1988
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