On the morning of 21st December 2002, Joe Strummer took his dog for a walk and then returned home for a Saturday snooze. At some point during his sleep – as a result of an un-diagnosed congenital heart defect, he suffered a fatal heart attack .
Joe Strummer was 50.
You lit a flame in my heart
And it is burning still
And every time I hear you shout
It still gives me a thrill
I can see you up there
With your right leg pumping
Goodbye inspiration
Voice of a generation
Goodbye Inspiration
I won’t be playing Strummerville again
You wore your heart on your sleeve
With honesty and pride
You gave me hope, made me believe
That what I did was right
You brought out a passion
That had long been missing
Yeah you brought out a passion
That you never stopped giving
from Strummerville by Stiff Little Fingers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3E3AwdN1LU&ab_channel=JoeStrummerOfficial
Joe still has a big place in my heart.
He took being ‘Joe’ seriously, (sometimes ridiculously so) & made plenty of missteps, but
he wasn’t afraid of being vulnerable & appearing daft, but he loved life, music & people massively & it always showed.
I saw him multiple times & conversed with him on a handful of occasions.
He was exactly how you’d hope such a person would be. Charming, patient & *interested*.
I think he had a lot more in him, which is partly why his early departure remains so sad.
One of my big regrets is that I never saw The Clash, as I was just a bit too young. What an inspiration Joe was though. An acquaintance who met him a few times echoes what was said above, he was a genuinely good guy who would remember people too. OK, you might well think that doesn’t take much but I bet he met thousands of awestruck blokes who wanted to tell him exactly what his music meant to them.
I encountered rather than met him a few times. He was a semi-regular customer when I worked at Waterstone’s in Taunton and he lived in nearby Bridgwater. Beyond the best known few songs I didn’t, and still don’t really, know much about The Clash but he was always a pleasure to deal with.
I firmly believe that with The Mescaleros he’d found the right band and would’ve / could’ve crossed over into commercial success again.
Who knows – The Clash may even have been convinced to get together for a couple of shows
(unlikely but I’m sure Joe would’ve wanted to, Mick would’ve gone along with it, Topper been on the drum stool in a heartbeat, only Paul may have taken more convincing)
Probably the music death that hit me hardest (albeit that’s not saying much).
He wrote amazing songs, he was still young(ish) and he seemed to have recently found some sort of greater inner peace.
“Without people you’re nothing”. Well said, Joe.
This thread made me seek out this is a very laddish Black Grape song (England’s Irie), particularly the clip from TOTP. At the time, I was amazed to see Joe stroll out and do his thing. He famously refused to do the show in the days when an appearance would have guaranteed a big payday.
I never met Joe, never saw him or The Clash live but I have the music and I love it, thanks Joe Strummer what a great man you were.
I can’t remember the details, but I’m sure I recall that Joe Strummer has a show on BBC World Service at the end of the 90s, which was excellent listening.
He did indeed (I can’t remember the name of it either), but there are a few nice excerpts from it on the soundtrack album ‘The Future Is Unwritten’ from the bio doc of the same name, along with some lovely U-Roy , Eddie Cochrane, Elvis & Tim Hardin.
As mentioned in the “which-musicians-death-has-affected-you-the-most-and-why” thread.