HNT VIVA JOE STRUMMER!!!
Well it just so happens that today is the anniversary of Joe Strummers death in 2002. The guy was and still is one of the most influential people in my life. Though I never actually met him (seen him live a bunch of times) he made a big impression on me at a very young age. He is one of the biggest reasons for who I am today.
I know that sounds kind of hokey and corny but it's true. When I was growing up the kids in my school wanted to be firemen or doctors or lawyers or teachers. I wanted to be Joe Strummer. Nothing else. And I really tried. I come from a family of very educated people. My dad is a minister so church played a very big part in my early life. My parents knew what I wanted to be and they were totally supportive. They were always good like that.
I love them for that. They really let me be what I wanted. They gave me the freedom and support to make decisions on my own. Now I was a punker but not in the total physical sense. I didn't have a mohawk or anything like that. For me it was a state of mind and it was really all about the music and the emotion that was drawn from it. The raw intense emotion that comes only from that one little place. For me there is no other way. So instead of finishing college I pursued music for one reason and that was to be Joe strummer. I don't mean actually become joe strummers alter ego or some shit like that. I just wanted to be able to express myself with music and on stage the same way he did. I wanted to make people feel the same way I felt everytime I heard a Clash song or heard Joe speak his mind. For me it's a hard feeling to describe but I think you get the idea. Anyway this HNT picture is of me and A buddy of mine Tommy standing in front of the Joe Strummer Mural at the bar Niagara in the east village sort of looking somber. That's me with the hat. Tonight me and my buddy Tommy and his sister Veronica (who actually got to meet him at an album release a few years ago) will sit at my house and drink some beers and watch some videos and listen to some favorite songs in his honor. It's one of my favorite nights of the year. It's not a sad time it's more of a party.
There are a few more people coming this year so it's starting to pick up every year. At this time tomorrow I'll be jumping up and down to "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" or "Complete Control" or "On The Road To Rock And Roll" in my Brigade Rossi shirt and loving every minute of it. VIVA JOE STRUMMER!!!Oh and check out my HNT for last week. I know it was really late but fuck, I tried.
Later,ROB
posted by RKWJ1 at 8:33 PM
7 Comments:
Hey Rob -
That was really an honest, good post. Thank you for writing it.
Merry Christmas btw.
Not hokey or corny at all I know just what you mean.
Steve
I will play 'Coma Girl' in his honor. (And Maybe 'This Is England')
I think you're lucky to have found someone to inspire you so. I have to admit,though, that I wouldn't be saying that if your object of admiration had been, say, John Tesh.
I knew Strummer, but I think it should be known the origins that the famous "Rossi Brigade" t-shirt JS wore.
Brigate Rossi were a group of anti-capitalist terroists who murdered many including ex PM Aldo Moro. They're violence was extremely ugly, their cause pathetic and their Marxist/Lenninist views absurd.
In the first 10 years of there existence they were credited with 14,000 acts of violence, mostly among innocent & defenceless citizens.
hEY.
The one time i got to see Joe was with the Pogues in Nyc. I was a Clash fan since i was 13 or so, and they really had an effect on me, specially Joe, his attitude, his heart, his sense of humor. I grew up in the US (nyc, syracuse, jersey city, new orleans) but I live in Medellín, Clolombia. So you can imagine the thrill i got when i found out that in his later life, Joe's favorite musice was Colombian cumbia!!! Crazy world. Viva Joe Strummer!!
I miss You Joe
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