Tag Archives: Joe Strummer

Episode 28: Working for the Clampdown

I’m back after a short break with a new episode, this time focusing on September observations in the US, from Labor Day to the anniversary of 9/11 to Constitution Day. Apropos of those events, I talk about the two Clash songs I’ve practiced on guitar over the past couple of weeks: “Clampdown” from London Calling and “Tommy Gun” from Give ’Em Enough Rope. The first of those songs deals with the connections between the oppression of working people and the rise of fascism, while the second shows the Clash’s opposition to terrorism and political violence (while still supporting national liberation movements around the globe). 

But first, I tackle Jann Wenner’s absurd comments about Black artists and women in music and how they, in Wenner’s mind, are not as “articulate” as white male artists. Needless to say, that conflicts not only with reality but with the views of … an awful lot of white male artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Clash, who openly acknowledged the influence of Black musicians from Muddy Waters to the legends of rap.

So, please give this week’s show a listen, share your thoughts in the comments below, and follow the podcast on Twitter at @2Minutes59. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”

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Episode 27: Straight to Hell

Fifty-five years ago this week, Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention, which resulted in a police riot and split the party between old guard populists and a new, pro-civil rights/anti-war faction that would come to dominate it. On this episode, I talk about memories from that time and how the Vietnam war influenced Joe Strummer’s lyrics and the Clash’s music, from “I’m So Bored With the USA” to “Charlie Don’t Surf” and “Straight to Hell.”

These are great songs that examine colonialism, war, exploitation, and abandonment — basically, everything the Clash fought against. And if you haven’t heard it, check out Lucinda Williams’ excellent cover of “Straight to Hell.”

So, please give this week’s show a listen, share your thoughts in the comments below, and follow the podcast on Twitter at @2Minutes59. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”

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Episode 26: Happy Birthday Joe!

This week I celebrate the 71st birthday of John Graham Mellor, better known as Clash frontman Joe Strummer. Though all of Joe’s music was fantastic, especially, of course, his music with the Clash, on this episode I focus more on his outstanding post-Clash solo career. And, on that subject, it just so happens that my copy of the latest Joe Strummer release, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros: Live at Acton Town Hall, arrived on August 21, Joe’s actual birthday.

So, I go through the tracks on the Live at Acton Town Hall LP (including the last three, featuring Mick Jones!), talk about how Joe’s solo music never really got its due in America, and discuss Joe’s “missing years” in Spain and the Spanish language documentary, I Need a Dodge! Joe Strummer on the Run. I also focus on Joe’s late ’90s/early 2000s albums with the Mescaleros and the 2018 release called Joe Strummer 001, a 32-song collection across three LPs (plus a 12-inch single of the Strummer-Jones track “US North”) which was curated by Joe’s wife, Lucinda Tait. 

Then, in honor of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s recent announcement that she’s retiring from touring, I discuss the excellent PBS American Masters episode on her incredible life and career called Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On. Though she is more folk than punk, she is an absolute force of nature who captures the punk spirit in her own way. The American Masters episode is well worth an hour of your time!

And finally, I bring you Irish hip-hop. As in, hip-hop in Irish, via the Belfast duo/trio Kneecap. Check out their music on their website and their YouTube channel. You’ll be impressed … and probably a bit confused, since the lyrics are not in a language most of us are familiar with. Are they controversial? Yes. Yes they are. But the Irish language works surprisingly well with hip-hop. I just hope they’re not rapping about something that could get me in trouble … 

So, please give this week’s show a listen, share your thoughts in the comments below, and follow the podcast on Twitter at @2Minutes59. And remember, as Joe always said, “Without people, you’re nothing.”

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Episode 25: The Cost of Living

As promised, this week’s episode is a deep dive into the Clash’s 1979 release, The Cost of Living EP, which consists of four tracks: 

  • “I Fought the Law”
  • “Groovy Times”
  • “Gates of the West”
  • “Capital Radio Two”

The EP combines outstanding musicianship with sarcasm and wit in a way only the Clash could pull off. From hard-driving rockabilly to gloom and doom realism to New York-inspired hope for the future, it’s your favorite band at their late 1970s peak. 

And while I may or may not have misheard certain lyrics, I must point out that the Clash Wiki site backs me up. So, there’s that.

In other news … a new Joe Strummer release! Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: Live at Acton Town Hall is coming out August 18, and you should definitely check it out. The album features a mix of Clash and Joe Strummer solo favorites across sixteen tracks … the last three of which include Mick Jones!

Finally, and I think this goes without saying, “Try That in a Small Town” artist Jason Aldean needs to grow the hell up.

So, 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 23: Give It Up for Mick Jones

Returning to normal after last week’s special episode on Garland Jeffreys (and thanks to Garland for the shout-out on social media), we turn to a long overdue subject: Clash founder Mick Jones!

While I’ve talked a lot about Joe Strummer (of course!) and Paul Simonon (especially in light of the great new Galen & Paul album, Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?), I realize that I haven’t given Mick his due. With his recent birthday (that I forgot to mention on the show!), I figure this is as good a time as any.

As I say on the show, when conflicts arise between songwriting teams or a member of your favorite band departs, it’s common for us to feel like we have to “take sides,” but we really don’t. Joe will always be one of my favorite artists ever, but there’s still plenty of room to appreciate Mick’s excellent contributions to the Clash. And Mick’s contributions were huge. From his formidable guitar skills to his remarkable gift for writing a great tune, the Clash would not have been the Clash without him. And it’s worth pointing out that Mick was perhaps the main reason the band expanded its horizons, particularly on Sandinista! It’s doubtful that the Clash would have embraced hip-hop and other modern sounds without Mick’s ever-evolving musical curiosity.

And then there’s the fact that Mick and Joe patched things up in the 1990s and even wrote some new material together. As Mick’s Wikipedia page says: 

In an October 2013 interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, Jones confirmed that Strummer did have intentions of a Clash reunion and in fact new music was being written for a possible studio album. In the months prior to Strummer’s death, Jones and Strummer began working on new music for what he thought would be the next Mescaleros studio album. Jones said “We wrote a batch – we didn’t use to write one, we used to write a batch at a time – like gumbo. The idea was he was going to go into the studio with the Mescaleros during the day and then send them all home. I’d come in all night and we’d all work all night.” Jones said months had passed following their work together when he ran into Strummer at an event. Jones was curious as to what would become of the songs he and Strummer were working on and Strummer informed him that they were going to be used for the next Clash album.

Just imagine what could have been!

So, 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 21: Punk and Pride

Pride Month is rapidly passing and this weekend it’s Chicago’s turn to celebrate, so I thought I’d ponder the connections between punk rock and the LGBTQIA+ community.

First, I talk about Joe Strummer and the band’s support for the community, starting with “The Right Profile” from London Calling. “The Right Profile” is a song about the legendary but closeted actor Montgomery Clift. The song is clearly empathetic, but it focuses on Clift as a tragic figure, which, indeed, he was; but this shows how many allies viewed queer people back then — as sad, lonely people who led sordid lives as a result of societal pressure and rejection. However, Joe’s empathy and support for the community grew and evolved from there, to the point where, some twenty years later in “Diggin’ the New,” Joe celebrated LGBTQIA+ people not as tragic figures but just as people. And, notably, he embraced the trans community long before most straight, cisgender artists did.

But the connection between punk and the queer community is much more than a song or two. To that end, I refer to two fascinating pieces on LGBTQIA+ punk: Jayna Brown and Tavia Nyong’o’s 2020 NPR story, “Queer as Punk: A Guide To LGBTQIA+ Punk”; and Mark E. Moon’s 2022 article “Check Out These 10 Queer Punk Bands” from the Dallas Observer. 

More broadly, though, I talk about the way punk welcomed all comers, especially outsiders of every stripe — including LGBTQIA+ people. Though far from perfect, the world of punk rock gave so many of us who didn’t fit in anywhere else a time and a place to breathe, to be ourselves even if we didn’t know who or what we were. And that was and always has been especially important for queer people.

I also highlight some of the more influential queer and queer-supportive punk acts, like the Buzzcocks, the Slits, the B-52s, Tom Robinson, and the great Joan Jett. (By the way, the B-52s song I mention, “Dirty Back Road,” is from the Wild Planet album released in 1980).

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 20: Dads, Guitars, Folk Music, and Punk Rock

Father’s Day is coming up and that can be a mixed bag for some folks. On this week’s episode, I talk about how Garland Jeffreys’ song “Collide the Generations” and the website dedicated to it helped me find the thread running through an old photograph, an old guitar, my dad, my brother, Joe Strummer, and me. 

I also discuss the 45th anniversary of the Clash’s single “White Man in Hammersmith Palais,” which they included on the US version of their self-titled debut album, and how it shows that they always knew what was up, even from the very beginning.

On a sadder note, I talk about New York singer/songwriter/legend Jesse Malin, who recently suffered a rare form of stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Jesse’s a huge supporter of the Clash, and he’s done a lot work raising money for other musicians and folks in the hospitality industry impacted by the pandemic. Now is the opportunity help him: if you can, please donate to the Sweet Relief Fund for Jesse, here. You can also watch Jesse and other assorted Clash and Joe Strummer fans in A Song for Joe: Celebrating the Birthday of Joe Strummer.

Finally, you can watch the latest episode of Jon Stewarts The Problem on Apple TV, in which he discusses the latest indictment of a certain ex-president (a subject I discussed on last week’s show).

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 Bono and 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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