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Six Definitive Songs: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer is a punk rocker to be proud of. The archetypal freedom fighter, Strummer’s command not only of music but of the political sentiment of the day was incomparable. A true ‘man of the people’, despite his wrongly assumed station as a diplomat’s son, Strummer continuously operated as the thinking man’s punk. A purist and a devotee to the plight of the oppressed, throughout his impressive career, Strummer never failed to deliver music that could cut through the radio static and deliver heaps of potent and pertinent punk rock.
As the genre of rock music continues to fail at holding the attention of the masses, we are doing our bit to help educate our readers on some of the genre’s greatest ever artists and, perhaps most importantly, their foundational moments in the world of music. While some of these acts are rightly known as icons, we’re a little concerned that they will remain just that—icons. For us, the real pleasure of such stars is the art they created. Below, we’re doing just that as we bring you six songs that defined the career of Joe Strummer.
As we aim to offer up a little insight into the icons of the 20th century, we’re distilling their back catalogues into just six of their most defining songs. The tracks offer up the first steps in getting to know the music and the movement behind the legend. Of course, for an artist like Strummer, much of his finest work is already known, but these songs showcase the very essence of The Clash lead singer.
Having started out in the punk rock scene with The 101ers, Strummer soon found his musical kin when Paul Simonon, Mick Jones and Topper Headon began crashing around in garageland. Often known as “the only band that matters,” the rock world as we know it today simply would not have existed without The Clash, the punk pioneers with a penchant for the political.
While the Sex Pistols were all about shock tactics and gobbing in the face of your enemies, Strummer’s Clash were more intent on feeding the minds of the disenfranchised youth they represented. They were desperate to add intellectual pursuit and artistic purity to their sound and sent the group and their fans into a new echelon of punk rock, one undeterred by the labelling of the genre.
From their explosive debut on the self-titled LP to their whimpering end, The Clash kept their integrity at the forefront of everything they did and ensured their names were written into the history books long before they gave up the ghost. It was a sentiment that Strummer continued with during his time as a solo artist.
Of course, Strummer isn’t without his quirks. The singer-songwriter lost his way after the break up of The Clash in 1986 and spent many years wandering the musical landscape looking for a new home. Finally, by the end of the ’90s, Strummer was again back in the groove, and when he and his band the Mescelaroes were finally hitting their stride, he sadly lost his life.
Below, we’re diving into all of that with the six definitive songs of Joe Strummer.
Six definitive songs of Joe Strummer:
‘White Riot’ (1977)
What better place to start than with the band’s debut. Despite its acclaim, The Clash’s first single, ‘White Riot’, may have a habit of hitting the ear wrong in the 21st century. With all of the racial tension that surrounds us, and Strummer employing a distinctly seventies-leaning set of lyrics, it’s easy to see why Mick Jones has distanced himself from the track in recent years.
While the song struggled for a time, after being wrongly appropriated by White nationalist groups who tried to take the song’s lyrics for their own use rather than see them as a call to arms for all of the oppressed, the track has become a misunderstood punk masterclass. The song was written after Strummer and Paul Simonon were caught up in the 1976 Notting Hill riots and saw the singer strum his Telecaster harder and faster than ever before.
It’s a powerhouse punk tune, despite racial overtones now implied, and acts as a flurry of fists to the face, reminding you just who The Clash, and Joe Strummer, were.
‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ (1979)
One song which showed Strummer’s love affair with reggae is this punk-dub joy, ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’. Featuring on the band’s seminal record London Calling, the song was a homage to Caribbean culture according to acclaimed filmmaker Don Letts.
It was a song dreamed up after a long-hot summer smoking marijuana and enjoying reggae clubs that were popping up across London. The song doesn’t only use its lyrics to pay tribute “drinking brew for breakfast” and the “chicken skin suit” but also the horns and groove of the track are undeniably influenced by reggae and ska.
It’s a joy to behold and accurately captures Strummer’s ability to affiliate with the culture around him.
‘London Calling’ (1979)
The track is an apocalyptic anthem in which Strummer details the many ways the world could end which, during the current climate, feels more relevant than ever. It is arguably The Clash’s definitive song, it sums up everything that’s great about their ethos wrapped up into three-and-a-half minutes as they stuck two fingers up at the establishment with their noted degree of intelligence.
Singer Strummer was unapologetically a news junkie, funnelling the world around him into his music. It gave him the inspiration for the track, which was written around the Cold War, and this impending sense of doom is filtered through ‘London Calling‘.
‘London Calling’ would see the band gain notoriety in the US, with the eponymous album being universally loved by critics across the globe despite its Britain-centric direction. Released around the time that Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of Britain, with their snarling intellectualism, The Clash soon became the voice of the disillusioned youth on both sides of the Atlantic.
‘Trash City’ (1988)
Perhaps a sign of Strummer’s terrible luck, some of his finest work (often referred to as “the last great Clash song”) was buried on the soundtrack to a quite simply terrible movie starring Keanu Reeves. It was so bad that Reeves has even erased it from his memory.
On the soundtrack, however, we’re given a taste of the great and incredible writing talent of Strummer. With a distinct rockabilly flavour, the lyrics are naturally quick-witted and razor-sharp; it shows the skills Strummer possessed throughout his career—able to cut through the bullshit, even if it was with some nonsense.
‘Johnny Appleseed’ (2001)
As Strummer and the Mescaleros delivered their second instalment of a promised trilogy in Global a Go-Go, there was a slight sigh of disappointment as their desire to sonically experiment meant sometimes the songs were forgotten—but when they got it right, they really smashed it out of the park. On ‘Johnny Appleseed’, they sent one flying into the stratosphere.
A modern-folk classic, ‘Johnny Appleseed was actually written by violinist Tymon Dogg, with whom Strummer had worked before The Clash. It doesn’t take anything away from Strummer’s performance as he fires out the lyrics aiming to preserve the good things in life.
To sum it all up he sings, “If you’re after getting the honey, Then you don’t go killing all the bees.”
‘Redemption Song’ (2003)
Strummer and country icon Johnny Cash shared a quite stunning cover of Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ for the country star’s covers album before Strummer took it on himself. Sadly, Strummer would not see the album released, with Streetcore shared in 2003 after his death.
Strummer’s spoken-word style and simple backing make this one of the most poignant moments in his entire arsenal. This is about as close to a perfect Strummer song as you can imagine, imbued with justice and the need for people power, Strummer pleas with his public to take heed and connect with one another.
Normally, cover songs don’t go very far in establishing the essence of those singing it; however, in this instance, we see the very distillation of everything good about Strummer.
