Joe Strummer

Copyright Bob Gruen

The importance of style and fashion could be easily overlooked if you automatically relate fashion to hedonism and vanity. To me the first generation of Punk in New York and London proved that fast paced, pure Rockn’ Roll in conjunction with provocative style was a not only a blast. It actually changed the course of music.
But you would have to be as brilliant as the Clash to get away with telling people that by plainly being a rock star you could make bigger changes happen in the world. God bless him for that...

There is a Joe Strummer documentary The Future Is Unwritten by Julian Temple that I was not completely happy about. I did enjoy the film as a fan. The filmmaker had everything at hand, amazing footage, sufficient knowledge of the singer, interesting participants, etc. But sadly and annoyingly, too many of the interviews of Strummers friends, acquaintances and family members are conducted around campfires. We all know now that campfires meant a lot to the late singer and that you can draw a lot from reasoning sitting around campfires. Probably such primordial gatherings could also strengthen, even deepen comradeships. But honestly, I do not want to remember the singer from the Clash as the Punkrocker who also was a hippie at heart. That just does not seem right to me. I would have preferred a more sober focus on his work.

I loved this article from the NY Times by CHRIS SALEWICZ here