Joe Strummer (1952-2002)

I am really sick and tired of writing obituaries for all of my rock & roll heroes.  I want to celebrate music and life and instead here I go again.  Not too long ago we bid farewell to Joey Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone and now the same has befallen Joe Strummer of the Clash.  Locally we saw the passing of Steve Sortor and all of these people were taken away from us much too early.  I suppose that I shouldn’t be bitter, since nothing in this world should be taken for granted, but it seems that the punk rock scene is quickly losing all of its founding fathers.

It’s Christmas now and it should rightly be a time for celebration, for spending time together with friends and family.  I’m doing all of these things, but I just can’t get the Clash CDs out of my stereo and I’m just thinking how damn important that band was.  The Clash used to have a slogan – “the only band that matters” and that was perhaps the best description I ever heard about any band.  The Clash weren’t the first punk band, but they were always the leaders and never followed any other trends.  They were the smartest and most committed band in the world, even though I and whole slew of other Americans could never quite understand where they were coming from and where they were going to.  They sang about events and life in the UK that were a mystery to most of us and managed to grow tremendously and mature so fast that none of us ever knew what they had become.  Their first album was not even released in the USA till much later and I was forced to buy the import and all of those great singles.

I was thrilled when the Clash finally made their way to Detroit and I even drove down to the old WWWW studios on Jefferson to catch a glimpse of the band as they came in for an interview.  They seemed to be just as confused with the city of Detroit as we were in seeing those legendary punk rockers from the UK.  I saw the Clash play at Masonic where they were already exhibiting that streak of independence and defiance that would so infuriate many American punk crowds.  In 1978 or so, American punk audiences were not particularly receptive to reggae and the Clash were already expanding their horizons beyond the standard punk fare.  The first show wasn’t an overwhelming success, but the band soon returned to the Motor City Roller Rink and put on a show that stands as one of the greatest I had ever seen.  They seemingly played for hours, they played some songs more than once and they did not leave that stage until everybody in the crowd was convinced that they had seen the best band in the world – and they were right.

The Clash continued blazing their own path from the narrow domains of early punk through reggae into politics and beyond.  A few years later they opened up for the Who at the Pontiac Silverdome.  I couldn’t accept the fact the Clash were always moving forward while I still wanted things to stay the same.  I felt betrayed and blew the show off as I felt that the Clash had broken the cardinal rule of punk and had “sold out”.  I never saw the Clash again and was way too dumb to realize that a band like this would never come around again.

Last year when the Clash was elected for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame I felt that maybe Joe Strummer and Mick Jones would patch up their differences and play at the ceremony.  Unfortunately, that is not going to happen.  Joe Strummer is gone now and the Clash will never play again.  All that’s left is their music and a few memories from a long time ago when we still believed that rock & roll could change the world.  (I still believe that and it’s because of bands like the Clash).

We’ll miss you – Joe……