Joe Strummer (1952

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Biography

John Graham Mellor, known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash.

In Their Own Words (5)

What I like about playing America is you can be pretty sure you're not going to get hit with a full can of beer when you're singing and I really enjoy that!

Interview with Howard Petruziello for the New York Hangover on March 2000 , 2000

I think that the corporation is running it and will always make it appeal to the lowest common denominator. I think we're going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth.

About mainstream radio. , 2002

Too many songs have been written about love already, you know? Subject's covered.

About why The Clash focuses on political songs. , 1981

Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.

Interview for Sounds Magazine on 17 July 1982. , 1982

My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.

Interview with Corey Levitan for Rolling Stone Online on 2 December 1999. , 1999

Timeline

The story of Joe Strummer, told in moments.

1952 Birth

Born John Graham Mellor in Ankara, Turkey. Father was a British diplomat. Sent to boarding school in England at nine. His older brother committed suicide when Joe was a teenager.

Did your brother's suicide change what music meant to you? How did a diplomat's son become punk's voice of the streets? Was boarding school where you learned to fight or to hide?

1976 Event

Co-founded the Clash with Mick Jones. CBS signed them for 100,000 pounds. The British press called them "the only band that matters."

Did CBS money compromise the Clash's credibility? What does it mean to be called the only band that matters? Was punk about destruction or about building something new?

1979 Event

Released London Calling. A double album sold at a single album price. Mixed punk with reggae, rockabilly, jazz, and ska. Rolling Stone later named it the best album of the 1980s. It came out in 1979.

How do you make a double album and sell it as a single? Did mixing punk with reggae feel natural or deliberate? Does it bother you that Rolling Stone filed it under the 1980s?

1986 Life

The Clash broke up after internal fights. Strummer spent years in the wilderness, acting in small films and campfire-hopping before forming the Mescaleros in 1999.

Were those wilderness years punishment or freedom? Did the Clash breaking up free you or break you? What did campfire-hopping teach you about music?

2002 Death

Died at his home in Broomfield, Somerset, of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. Age 50. He'd been walking his dogs that morning.

Did you know about the heart defect that was waiting? Would you trade anything about how you lived? What would you have told yourself on that last dog walk?