On another timeline, we’re celebrating this Joe Strummer birthday with the man himself. On this timeline, we’re marking another year gone.
And that makes more than 20 years now without Strummer. It somehow doesn’t feel that long, but also feels longer. I know that last sentence might not make sense. That’s by design. Like you, time has become elastic to me in recent years.
Sure, the COVID-19 pandemic is the primary reason. But I’m also in my mid-40s, so age is a culprit, too. And there are some cases in which the death of a musician that I love just seems nebulous and hard to nail down, time-wise. Such is the case with John Graham Mellor.
Joe Strummer Birthday 6-Pack: London Calling
Born in Ankara, Turkey on August 21, 1952, Mellor would drop his stage name “Woody” in 1975 in favor of Joe Strummer. He would co-found The Clash in London a year later. To generations to come, that band would define and embody the ethos of punk rock.
Strummer’s punk rock spirit inspired legions to pick up guitars, put pen to paper, and put their own spin on “three chords and the truth” (or two and some vague ideas). The man just vibrated on a different wavelength, somehow. And those vibrations reverberate today.
Joe Strummer Birthday 6-Pack: Death or Glory
The music Strummer created with The Clash and The Mescaleros and others is as timeless as the philosophies that he wove into his lyrics. Maybe that’s why it’s such a chore to come to grips with the fact that he’s been gone for so long.
It’s also why it was hard to settle on just six songs from his storied discography. I hope I did the man justice on his birthday. And I hope you like my picks.