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Episode 19: We’re Not a “Banana Republic”
The good news is, I do not talk about Ireland or Bruce Springsteen this week, other than to point out that you can listen to my wife and I on Jesse Jackson’s Set Lusting Bruce podcast here. (You should really listen in. We had a lot of fun.)
The bad news is, do talk about American politics again, and, more to the point, a certain someone’s most recent indictment. On that note, when Joe Strummer sang “In these days of evil presidentes/But lately one or two has fully paid their due” on “Clampdown,” he wasn’t talking about America. He was talking about dictatorships without functioning legal institutions where evil presidentes were never held accountable. Unless the people rose up to overthrow them, that is. But in countries with functioning institutions and the rule of law, we do, or at least should, hold our leaders accountable. And lest you worry, rich and powerful guys like former presidents get the full measure of their constitutional rights in court, even if a lot of indigent people do not.
But it’s not all politics and legal stuff. I also talk about Spider-Punk, the Spider-Verse’s nod to the Black roots of punk rock. Though the Spider-Punk character originally was a Black American (there’s some great background information about him in this video), Black British actor Daniel Kaluuya voices Spider-Punk in the new animated film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Perhaps they chose a British actor because most people associate punk rock with the UK, but either way, it’s nice to see Marvel acknowledging Black punks, especially during Black Music Month. Speaking of which, this is a really great (albeit long) Spotify playlist of Black-fronted punk, metal, and hard rock bands.
And finally, I give my thoughts on the newly released Galen & Paul album, Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? Spoiler alert: I think it’s great. Though I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, there’s a long and fairly in-depth interview with Galen & Paul in the latest edition of Spin magazine. So, definitely check that out.
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 18: Clash Songs for the Non-Clash Fan
On this week’s episode, I return to the roots of the podcast and my obsession with the Clash … but not without first mentioning that my wife and I have our own podcast, In the Shadow of the Evening Trees, and on our latest episode we go into some detail about the Springsteen concert we saw in Dublin in May (the subject of a good part of last week’s Two Minutes Fifty-Nine show).
I also mention that my wife and I recently recorded an episode of Jesse Jackson’s Set Lusting Bruce podcast, talking, naturally, about the Springsteen show and related matters. I’ll let you know when that episode is up, but, while recording, Jesse challenged me to recommend some Clash songs for a non-Clash fan like him to listen to as a sort of introduction to the band.
So the balance of this week’s show is dedicated to that task. Here are the songs I’ve come up with, though, to be manageable, the list will have to be pared down some:
- “Spanish Bombs”
- “Career Opportunities”
- “Garageland”
- “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”
- “Tommy Gun”
- “Stay Free”
- “Gates of the West”
- “Rudie Can’t Fail”
- “Revolution Rock”
- “Brand New Cadillac”
- “London Calling”
- “Washington Bullets”
- “Somebody Got Murdered”
- “Sound of the Sinners”
- “Police on My Back”
- “Know Your Rights”
- “Car Jamming”
- “Straight to Hell”
- “Atom Tan”
- “This Is Radio Clash”
And, because I can’t help myself, I consider whether to include these solo Joe Strummer or Joe and the Mescaleros tunes as well:
- “Generations”
- “X-Ray Style”
- “Yalla Yalla”
- “Johnny Appleseed”
- “Coma Girl”
- “London Is Burning” (“Burning Streets”)
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 17: The Ireland Episode
I’m back after a few weeks off, a good part of which I spent in Ireland, traveling from Dublin to Sligo, my mother’s ancestral home, and back to Dublin to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. Needless to say, it was quite a trip.
On this week’s episode, I talk about Joe’s and the Clash’s connections to Ireland (that is, in addition to Joe’s filling in for Shane MacGowan from time to time, which I’ve talked about before), from the band’s support for the Irish republican cause (including the H Block protests in 1976) to Joe writing the song “46664 (Long Walk to Freedom)” with
Bonoand Dave Stewart to honor Nelson Mandela.Having spent some time at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin and having watched the documentary Bono and the Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with David Letterman, I also share my thoughts on the respective roles of Joyce and U2 in Irish cultural history, and how the latter, somewhat maligned these days, played a role in moving the country in the direction of a modern, progressive democracy. (By the way, the drag queen Dave interviews is Panti Bliss — how could I have forgotten her name?!)
Dublin City Center, May 2023 From there, I talk about Springsteen’s phenomenal show in Dublin — and, yes, there’s a Clash connection here too! As I’ve mentioned before, it turns out that Joe was quite a fan, as this letter demonstrates. All in all, it was a great trip and it gave me a lot to think about!
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 16: Get Out the Vote
Inspired by the president’s announcement that he’s running for reelection, I recall Joe Strummer’s performance of “Bankrobber” at Bizarre Festival in Cologne, Germany, in 1999, in which he urged people not to vote. As much as I love Joe, and as much as I agree with him that people should “make trouble,” voting is still the key to preserving democracy.
Which leads me to wonder aloud whether “making trouble,” at least in the form of mass protests, has the same political effectiveness in America today that it had in the past.
And, on the subject of elections and politics, I also talk about the strange political devolution of John Lydon, from encouraging people to vote in Britain’s national elections to appearing on The Colbert Report and telling folks not to vote for Trump to (apparently) becoming a genuine Trump fan, it’s all very weird. But, as I explain on the show, I’ve always been more of a Clash fan than a Pistols fan.
On a lighter note, Consequence has a new piece up called “10 Punk & Power Pop Albums Bobcat Goldthwait Thinks Every Music Fan Should Own” and given that Goldthwait and I are the same age, it’s … eerily familiar. Sadly, there’s no Clash on the list, but he’s got the Ramones, the Go Gos, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Devo, the B-52’s, the Pistols (see above), and one of my all-time favorites: Cheap Trick’s live album, At Budokan.
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 15: Support Your Local Music Venue
After briefly recapping last weekend’s outstanding Mavericks show at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, I go on a bit of an extended digression on the importance of local music venues and how they capture the spirit of the Clash and independent music. Now, more than ever, it’s important to help local independent music clubs stay alive and prosper after having suffered so much during COVID, so I thought I would highlight a few of our favorites: FitzGerald’s Nightclub in Berwyn, Illinois, Thalia Hall in Chicago, Metro Chicago (a legendary alternative music club if there ever was one), and City Winery. And I forgot to mention Space in Evanston, but that’s a great club too!
From there, I wonder aloud whether a band could write a song called “White Riot” today without it getting co-opted by the worst people in the world, talk about the 40th anniversary of Joe Strummer running the London Marathon (and finishing in a respectable 4 hours 13 minutes), and remind folks that Paul Simonon and Galen Ayers have a new album coming out next month under the name Galen and Paul.
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 14: Selling Out?
This episode was supposed to be all about country music, inspired by going to see Latin-influenced alt-country legends the Mavericks, but, as often happens … I got a little distracted along the way.
Researching the possible connections between London Calling, Bruce Springsteen’s The River, and Sandinista! (and not finding much, no disrespect to Martin Popoff’s book, The Clash: All the Albums, All the Songs), I stumbled across folks accusing Bruce of being a “sellout,” based, I guess, on ticket prices for the US leg of his current tour and the fact that he sold his catalog to Sony Music for $500 million. Which reminded me of the many instances in which people accused the Clash of “selling out,” almost from the beginning of the band’s existence. Signing a major label record deal was a sellout, they said. London Calling was a sellout, they said. Having Top 40 hits on Combat Rock was a sellout, they said …
So, that got me thinking about what “selling out” means and whether artists owe it to us to live in poverty and deprivation (spoiler alert: no, they don’t). In fact, I think the Clash did, and Bruce has done, a pretty good job of threading the needle between getting their music out, making a living, and still taking a stand.
And while we’re on the topic of Bruce and the Clash, please check out my friend Jesse Jackson’s Springsteen podcast, Set Lusting Bruce, which is really great. Both my wife and I have appeared on Jesse’s show and we had a blast.
So, after this extended digression on “selling out,” I finally get to country music and my occasional Great Artists, Good People segment, featuring, as I say, the Mavericks, who originated in Miami and came to dominate Nashville in the mid-1990s. After a hiatus, they were back and better than ever in the 2000s and they continue to make records and tour to this day. They are easily one of our favorite live acts, and we’ve been fortunate enough to see them multiple times from the ’90s to the present.
But, as the theme of this segment suggests, they are more than just great artists. They seem to be genuinely good people. While not overtly political, they are not afraid to share their values, including support for immigrants and LGBTQIA people, and simple things like, you know, loving, respecting and valuing other humans. All-around standup guys, and you should definitely buy their music and go see them live.
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 13: The Clash on Broadway
I lied to you, dear listener, when I said I would not delve into the issues surrounding the indictment of a former president, because, you see, I couldn’t help myself. The lawyer in me got the better of me, so I took some time to share my thoughts on Ford pardoning Nixon, holding presidents accountable for their crimes (of course, the song I meant to refer to here is “Clampdown,” not “London Calling”), and the many, many examples from my home state of governors, legislators, and, yes, even a sitting supreme court justice, having cuffs slapped on them and being led off to jail.
But, as David Letterman would say, that’s not why you called. So I also talk about Bruce Springsteen, the Clash, and the previously unknown assertion (unknown to me, that is) that The River was a response to London Calling and that Sandinista! was a response to The River. Who knew. And then, because I cannot let a certain congressperson’s defamation of New York go unchallenged, I delve into the Clash’s love affair with Gotham and my own fondness for it, too, before turning to a great, seriously underrated New York artist: Garland Jeffreys.
Garland Jeffreys is the definition of “great artist, good people.” He’s been Coney Island’s number one troubadour — to me, any way — since “Wild in the Streets” in the ’70s and Escape Artist in the early ’80s. I was fortunate enough to connect with him through social media when he made his comeback in 2011 with the fantastic album, The King of In Between, and that’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of the past decade. My wife and I have seen him play in Chicago many times, and we traveled to New York for his 2019 farewell concert that featured an all-star cast including Vernon Reid, Chuck Prophet, Laurie Anderson, and Ivan Julian, among others.
Even better, we’ve had the opportunity to chat with and get to know Garland and his lovely wife, Claire, and they’re just great people. All I can tell you is this: If you don’t know his music, get to know it. You will not be disappointed.
And while we’re on the subject, Garland and Claire are producing a documentary on his life and music called, Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between, which should be out soon. Please check out the film’s website and donate to the cause, because this is a story that must be told!
Anyway, please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 12: The Original Generation X
After a few episodes of wandering off course and talking about things that were, at best, tangentially related to the Only Band That Matters, this week I return to my core subject. In particular, at the recommendation of my friends Dan and Tammy Domike, retired booksellers from Seattle, I picked up a copy of Martin Popoff’s book, The Clash: All the Albums, All the Songs, which, as the title suggests, is literally about all the albums and all the songs.
One thing in particular that resonated with me is this: in the Introduction, Popoff talks about how the early Clash embraced the sort of anti-hippie sentiment that was common among punk rockers of the day, but, he says, Joe Strummer “would come to understand that the punks and the longhairs were one and the same” and “cut from the same cloth.” As someone who straddles the hippie and punk eras, I really feel that. While I’m technically a late-stage boomer, Popoff’s comment about Strummer’s evolution reminds me of what I think of as the original meaning of Generation X, the name that Billy Idol (born in 1955, not 1957 as I say in the episode) gave his first band, and the name of a somewhat popular, if not universally loved, novel by Canadian writer Douglas Coupland (born in 1961). While the term Generation X has taken on a very different meaning in pop culture, it originally referred to us — folks born in the mid-to-late ’50s to the early ’60s who fell in that awkward gap between the true boomers and their kids.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the book very much so far, and I highly recommend it, but I add this caveat: Popoff, as a true music critic, is not afraid to … you know … criticize his subject. I happen to respect that, whether or not I agree with every criticism, but don’t expect this book to be a dewey-eyed, naïve homage to Mick and Joe and the band.
Finally, I mention that March 31 is International Day of Transgender Visibility and I encourage you to give a listen to the LGBTQIA-friendly podcast my wife and I host called In the Shadow of the Evening Trees. Our latest episode, in particular, talks about trans rights in these challenging times.
So please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 11: Belated St. Patrick’s Day Shenanigans
I’m back after a week off and I’m ready to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Better late than never, right? And, no, the gravelly voice you hear is not a byproduct of Jameson; it’s the byproduct of 6:30 on a Friday morning and not enough coffee.
Anyway, on this week’s show I spend some time talking about two of my favorite Irish groups, Thin Lizzy and, of course, the Pogues, giving a nod to the statue of the late great Phil Lynott in Grafton Street, Dublin, and waxing philosophical about the Pogues’ fantastic album, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, which was released in 1988 (35 years ago!). I’m especially fond of the song “Thousands Are Sailing,” which, aside from being personally meaningful to me as an Irish American, might just be the most perfect song ever written.
From there, I turn to International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which occurred on March 21, 2023 (thanks to Punk Rock History on Twitter for mentioning it!). From the Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks F— Off” to the Clash’s anti-fascist, anti-violence, anti-racist credo, the true punk spirit will always stand for eliminating racial discrimination everywhere.
But, on a serious note, I can’t help but wonder about the road we’re traveling and how eerily similar it is to William Sheridan Allen’s description of small town Germany in his book, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945. I read that book decades ago in college, yet what he describes seems a little … too familiar today.
Finally, to lighten things up a bit, I talk about a truly enjoyable Twitter exchange I had the other day with longtime guitarist Mike Branch of the Hellcats and Night Rose. Mike is a great guy, so please follow him on Twitter and Instagram and check out his music. You won’t be disappointed!
So please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below. And as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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Episode 10: Women in Punk
In honor of Women’s History Month, this episode is dedicated to the great women in punk rock, many of whom have been overlooked and not given their due in what often seems like a traditionally “male” musical genre.
But first, I revisit a discussion from last week about Joe Strummer’s “your dollar bill is your vote” philosophy and the fact that making and listening to music is a give-and-take proposition. In short, as much as I admire and genuinely love a lot of artists, I don’t and never will believe in hero worship. So, it’s okay (and sometimes good!) to disagree with your favorite artists.
After that digression, I talk about the many women who influenced punk and made great punk music despite the odds and despite the perception that punk was, in a sense, men’s territory. Among the bands I listened to and re-acquainted myself with in preparation for this week’s show: L7, the Donnas, the Slits (who famously toured with the Clash in the late ’70s), Wendy O. Willams and the Plasmatics, Veruca Salt, and the great Joan Jett.
Speaking of whom, Joan Jett is this week’s selection for the Great Artist, Good People segment, and I take a long look at her career with the Runaways and the Blackhearts, her longtime collaboration with producer Kenny Laguna, and her latest album with the Blackhearts, the very solid acoustic LP, Changeup.
And, as promised, here is my Women of Punk playlist:
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, “Bad Reputation”
Wendy O. Williams, “It’s My Life”
The Donnas, “Too Bad About Your Girl”
The Slits, “Typical Girls”
Veruca Salt, “Seether”
So please give this week’s show a listen and share your thoughts in the comments. And as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”
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