Joe Strummer August 21, 1952-December 22, 2002

I know it’s been a few weeks, but it’s never too late for a good tribute. Hopefully it’s not too late for me to write a tribute. On Dec. 22nd, Joe Strummer (born John Graham Mellor in Turkey), leader of “the only band that matters,” died of a heart attack at his home in Somerset, England.

Why, you may ask, was The Clash the only band that mattered? Between Strummer and Mick Jones, the band had two voices that became the voice of rocks angriest young band. It was a rage of political passion. The Ramones started punk (sort of…it actually goes back to the 60s, but I won’t go into that) and wrote songs about teen angst and glue sniffing. The Sex Pistols were all rage and sexual frustration. But The Clash wrote about things that people cared about. (Although a lot of people cared and still care about sniffing glue. Hell, I picked the wrong week to stop.) They wrote about the strife of the working man and racial inequalities.

In 1976, after breaking up his first band, The 101′ers, Joe joined Mick Jones and Paul Simonon in their band, The London SS. Luckily, they changed their name to The Clash soon after drummer Nicky “Topper” Headon was replaced by Tory Crimes (Terry Chimes).

The Clash supported The Pistols on their 1976 tour of England and cemented a reputation as a great live act. They recorded their debut record over three weekends in 1977 and released their first single, “White Riot” soon after. With tracks like “Career Opportunities,” “Hate And War” and a cover of Junior Murvin and Lee “Scratch” Perry’s “Police And Thieves,” The Clash set the stage for everything to come. There’s pop, dub, political activism, rage, straight ahead punk…everything a music lover could want. Everybody in the UK loved it, but, for some reason, CBS didn’t think it was right for American audiences, so they didn’t release it over here.

Idiots.

It has since become a classic of punk and the American version (minus 4 songs and plus 5 more from singles) was finally released in 1979. That version is pretty much reviled by fans. (Although I really like their version of “I Fought The Law.” And what better way to introduce them then with “Clash City Rockers”?) The addition of the five newer tracks makes the album have a strange feeling. While the tracks are strong, they just don’t quite fit in with the primal sound of the original lineup.

During the short hiatus between the first two albums, Terry Chimes left the band and Topper Headon came back. Oh, and the band gained a little more polish.

Their next album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, was just as successful in the UK. (I haven’t heard it, but I hear it’s not as good as the debut.) It was a little more slick (they dropped producer Micky Foote and picked up the Blue Oyster Cult’s producer, Sandy Pearlman–something that many punks thought meant that they had sold out) and CBS finally thought that they had a hit for the US. Oh well. Not yet.

Then all hell broke loose. Strummer decided that The Clash needed some changing. They were pretty straight forward punk (with the occasional reggae influence), but they needed a more interesting way to say what they had to say.

Strummer and Jones were both very political and made sure that their songs told everybody exactly how they felt. Their third album, 1980′s double LP London Calling, is one of the greatest political statements ever put on vinyl. Between the title track, “The Guns Of Brixton” and “Spanish Bombs” (a song half in Spanish) among many others, they spoke out on racial indifference, political beliefs and even some suburban angst (“Lost In A Supermarket”). And they managed it all with so many different styles (punk, reggae, lounge, dub, rockabilly…you name it, it’s there) that a lot of punks weren’t sure what to think, but they knew that they loved it. And it was all enclosed in the mythos of rock all the way down to the aping of Elvis Presley’s first album on the cover.

And finally America caught on. It was their first hit on this side of the Pond.

Their next album, the sprawling three LP Sandanista!, was even more diverse and pretty unfocused. (Another one that I haven’t heard, but I always read that there’s one great record in there and two weird ass experimental albums.)

A single from this album, “The Call Up,” would feature “Stop The World” as its B-side, a track supporting nuclear disarmament , a pet cause for Strummer throughout his life.

Sandanista! being kind of a failure (although it sold better over here than in the UK…a first, but not a last) they had to redirect their sound. So they decided on the next album being only a single LP (good for them) and, to some, they sold out.

Sure, Combat Rock (1982) has their two biggest hits that don’t sound too much like Clash songs (“Should I Stay Or Should I Go” and “Rock The Casbah”–video shot in Austin!), but they’re also about the only two songs that most people can identify as Clash songs. (Sad.) There’s also a lot to like about the album. Both hits are pretty good if more poppy than they typically put out, but the pop veneer hides a political statement that only The Clash could conjure. “Should I Stay…” is not a song about a boy talking to his girl. It’s a song about rebels giving up the ghost. They’ve been working hard on what they care about, but things haven’t gotten any better. And “Rock The Casbah” is a statement about new ideas being squashed by the leaders of the world. And of course there’s “Know Your Rights” (“All three of ‘em!”) and the classic “Straight To Hell.” Not their best album by any means, but it has some great stuff on it. And some really weird shit that certainly isn’t a sell out (“Red Angel Dragnet,” “Ghetto Defendant”).

After Combat Rock, Strummer and Simonon kicked Jones out of the band. Officially it was because he was taking the band in a direction that they didn’t like. (No more hard core punk and less political rants.) The reality was the his drug habits were taking their toll on the band.

Just after the album came out, Headon left the band again only to be replaced, once again, by Terry Crimes. But he wouldn’t last until the next album.

In 1985, Joe and Paul set out with another version of The Clash with three people replacing their two lost members. Unfortunately, they released Cut The Crap, one of the worst swan songs ever released by any band. It met with uniformly bad reviews and sales and the two of them soon tried to deny its existence. In 1986, The Clash was no more.

Throughout the rest of the 80s, Strummer would turn up in different areas of the business. He would show up at benefits and would help old bandmate Mick Jones out with some songs for his Big Audio Dynamite. He even joined The Pogues at one point as a road rhythm guitarist and vocalist.

His acting career started with a cameo in Scorsese’s The King Of Comedy and a friendship with punk filmmaker Alex Cox. His starring role in Cox’s Straight To Hell in 1987 didn’t win either of them any fans. But he was allowed to return to do the music for and do a cameo in Walker later that year. Jim Jarmusch was enough of a fan to put Strummer into Mystery Train in 1989.

As for music, he disappeared after his world rock solo debut, 1989′s Earthquake Weather.

Finally, in 1996 he scored Grosse Point Blank and started to show up a little more. In 1999 he released his second solo album (billed as Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros), Rock Art And The X-Ray Style. Contrary to what everyone thought, it was a largely folk based affair with no real rock songs to be heard. It was positively Dylan-esque. The experiment continued on 2001′s Global A Go-Go.

When he died he was working on his fourth solo album and had just finished writing a song with Bono from U2 and Dave Stewart from The Eurythmics written in honor of Nelson Mandela. It is called “48864″ after Mandela’s inmate number when he was stuck in a South African prison. It will be played in early February at an AIDS benefit concert.

Joe Strummer never allowed his principles to be drowned out by anybody or anything. His music is honest and shows us exactly what was on his mind at the time. Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten may have brought punk to the main stream, but they were assholes just like everybody thought that they would be. Joe Strummer was who he was. No acts. He used his music to shock us out of submission and made The Clash one of the few punk bands who were actually noticed for their music and not their image.

Radio Clash may be silenced, but it’s message will beat on.