Monday, June 15, 2020

Bad Scooter and Killer Joe and You and Me

The world misses Joe Strummer. So says this guy, at least.

The Clash singer and guitarist, the BBC radio host, the philosopher, the punk rock warlord.

The ridiculous dresser, the cool customer, the outspoken humanitarian.
"Without people, you're nothing." -- Joe Strummer
Here's 53 seconds of Joe in a quick off-the-cuff plea for folks to pick their heads up and be better.



Joe and I share some of the same musical appreciations. Which Joe articulated in his own goofy, inimitable way.


Those appreciations were reciprocated. I'm sure I missed this originally, since, you know, it's the Grammys, but I should not have.
"This is for Joe." -- Bruce Springsteen, 2003
Elvis, Bruce, Grohl, and Little Steven rocking rather rambunctiously.


The world still has Bruce Springsteen in it, and a whole lot of other good ones. Grateful for that. It feels like we need them now more than ever, even if we can't go see them do their thing.
"People can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world."  --Joe Strummer, in the year that he died
Make some noise this week, gheorghies. Life is waiting to hear from you.

10 comments:

rootsminer said...

Big day in the comments. I spent a good portion of yesterday disassembling and diagnosing what was causing our fridge not to cool. Today I hunted the part I need and installed it. With any luck it will hold us over until we get around to redoing our kitchen, and I can pony up for a shiny new fridge then.

I would very much not enjoy that kind of work - cramped spaces, weird angles, little plastic tabs that you've got to manipulate with the perfect combination of force and finesse. Don't make me go back down there.

TR said...

I had a beach house in Manasquan in my 20’s. It was actually a friend’s house, but me and two friends paid money monthly to have a crash of when near our hometown. There was a homemade garage bar where we partied. My buddy’s cousin, a mom with two young kids who lived nearby and was ~10 years older than us, would occasionally pop in and blow off steam. She would get hammered and insist that us dumb kids play The Clash and nothing but The Clash. Took me a couple years after that to really appreciate their catalog. My friends and I joked years later that she was spot-on. An angry drunk for sure, but spot-on.

T.J. said...

NO DISASSEMBLE

JOHNNY 5 ALIVE

rob said...

fun joe strummer fact that i meant to include in one of the draft posts i never completed: there's a plaza in his name in granada, spain (a town that he name checks in spanish bombs - 'spanish songs in granada, oh ma corazon').

strummer fled to granada after the clash started to disintegrate in 1983. my wife and i spent several days there last fall. as you know from my travelblogue.

the other part of that unfinished blog post was about our friend richy, the madrid native who is my wife's best friend's boyfriend. richy is a punk rocker, and once he realized i was into the clash, spent the better part of an evening sharing how much he loved joe strummer. good memories from my time in spain.

Whitney said...

yo me enfriĆ³ o lo soplo

zman said...

I've heard "Don't make me go back down there" a few times. I always reply that I have an affinity for "cramped spaces, weird angles, little [bits] that you've got to manipulate with the perfect combination of force and finesse."

TR said...

SHORT CIRCUIT FOREVER. Damn you fools for not throwing kudos earlier.

Sheedy’s opus.

T.J. said...

what he said

Marls said...

The New Wave?

TR said...

Correct, Marls.