“Exciting and unidentifiable”: Joe Strummer’s five favourite songwriters
The punk rock explosion that came to define the rock scene of the mid-1970s changed the musical landscape indefinitely. For the first time, the musical means of production were placed into the hands of ordinary people. While many iconic punk songs were built around simple barre chords and on-the-nose lyricism, the scene did produce some truly groundbreaking wordsmiths who would go on to transcend the boundaries of punk. One such figure was Joe Strummer, the frontman and songwriter behind The Clash.
Learning his craft in the pub rock outfit The 101ers, Strummer found himself recruited by fellow guitarist Mick Jones in 1976, becoming the lead singer of The Clash. With the group, Strummer would establish his revolutionary songwriting style and awe-inspiring performance on a mainstream scale. Once the songwriter joined the ranks of the punk group, the stage was set for a musical revolution. In many ways, Strummer was the perfect frontman: strong, powerful, and energetic, but with a profound and politically charged mind to back it up.
Having a frontman like Strummer is an invaluable asset for any band, but The Clash were lucky enough to have amassed multiple gifted musicians in Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon. Seemingly, each individual member brought their own range of influences into the sound of The Clash, allowing the group to diversify their music and transcend punk rock. Over the course of their time together, The Clash drew upon everything from rockabilly to hip-hop. As the primary songwriter, Strummer certainly had a large role to play in this diverse record collection.
On the face of it, Strummer’s record collection followed a similar theme to that of his bandmates. The frontman harboured an adoration for ska, reggae, soul, rockabilly, and everything in between. Most often, though, Strummer sought out gifted lyricists and musical revolutionaries, soaking up their influence like a sponge. This penchant for the written word helped set Strummer apart from his punk peers, many of whom favoured simplistic compositions with half-hearted lyrics about ‘anarchy’.
Joe Strummer’s favourite songwriters:
Woody Guthrie
The exact origins of punk are endlessly disputed, but you could easily link the genre to the defiant folk tunes of Woody Guthrie. The Oklahoma-born songwriter was a true original within the folk scene of North America, penning songs with strong political standpoints and challenging the status quo of the time. Guthrie paved the way for countless future songwriters, including Joe Strummer.
Woody Guthrie was particularly influential in the early years of Strummer’s musical education. In fact, Strummer reportedly adopted the nickname ‘Woody’ for a short while during his youth, likely owing to his political interest and activism. Although Strummer’s writing was rarely as explicitly political as Guthrie’s ‘Tear the Fascists Down’, the pair certainly shared a lot in common when it came to both music and politics.
Bo Diddley
Although punk claimed to be moving away from the nostalgia and commercialism of early rock ‘n’ roll, Strummer never lost his appreciation for the rockabilly stars of the past. Guitar hero Bo Diddley was a particular favourite, so much so that Strummer invited the rock icon to support The Clash during their first-ever tour of the United States in 1979. Seemingly, Strummer’s appreciation for the songwriting of Diddley came from his endless innovation.
“My hero is Bo Diddley,” The Clash frontman told Mojo back in 2002, explaining, “People can get caught thinking it’s all about technique when it’s not really about technique at all, it’s about something even more exciting and unidentifiable.” Continuing, Strummer explained, “Everybody else was playing 12-bar blues at the time. He looked around and he was like: I’ve got to do something different if I want to make it in this town.” Strummer seemed to carry that ethos throughout his own career.
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Part of what made The Clash such an enduring success within the punk scene was their adoption of other musical styles. Among them, the group regularly paid homage to the vibrant world of ska, rocksteady, dub and reggae. While living with Paul Simonon in Notting Hill during the mid-1970s, Strummer himself found solace in the style, particularly how the Caribbean community in London utilised the music to protest against the prejudices facing them in the UK.
Within the reggae world, there are few names that command the same respect as Lee “Scratch” Perry. His prolific songwriting and production work helped to define the genre, and Strummer was a natural admirer. On The Clash’s debut, the band covered ‘Police and Thieves’, which was originally co-written by Perry, leading the Jamaican songwriter to lend some production work to the band on their single ‘Complete Control’.
Bob Dylan
When looking back at the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, no conversation is complete without considerable mention of Bob Dylan. The folk hero was one of the defining voices of the 1960s, and the quality of his songwriting and lyricism has rarely waned. A fellow disciple of Woody Guthrie, Joe Strummer adored the compositions of Dylan and, seemingly, the folk singer had an appreciation for The Clash too.
On the 60th birthday of the Minnesota-born songwriter, Strummer took to BBC Radio Four to voice his love for Bob Dylan. “He laid down the template for lyric, tune, seriousness, spirituality, depth of rock music,” Strummer claimed, adding, “He invented the whole field we all work in.” Dylan later repaid the favour, partially covering one of Strummer’s defining works, ‘London Calling’, during a 2005 concert in Brixton
Bruce Springsteen
New Jersey’s favourite son, Bruce Springsteen, is not an obvious influence on the world of punk. After all, the Boss has often been criticised for being a bit middle-of-the-road, something which is directly opposite to the manifesto of the punk movement. Nevertheless, Springsteen had an impact on Strummer, particularly after the young songwriter saw the ‘Born to Run’ songwriter at the Hammersmith Odeon in November of 1975.
Only a few months after that show, Strummer would write his first songs with The Clash, and the rest, as they say, is history. During a 1996 edition of Mojo, Strummer voiced his love of the Boss, writing, “Bruce is great. If you don’t agree with that you’re a pretentious Martian from Venus.” The Clash songwriter poetically explained, “His music is great on a dark & rainy morning in England, just when you need some spirit & some proof that the big wide world exists, the DJ puts on ‘Racing In The Street’ & life seems worth living again.”
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