Joe Strummer died on this day in 2002, seventeen years ago. It seems fitting to remember this each year and especially so this year, London Calling being all over the media and the internet. There's a good BBC show here where Pennie Smith, Don Letts and Johnny Green listen to the album and talk about their memories and role in it.
In 2001 Joe and his Mescaleros had released Global A Go- Go, an album which had back at the top of his game and leading a band who suited him. The gigs they played to promote it were raucous and life affirming affairs, Joe mixing up the new songs with Clash ones. I was at the opening night of the tour at Manchester Academy, November 17th, the venue packed with all the young punks and the old punks too, out in force. Early on there were a few beers arcing through the air towards the stage. Bass player Scott Shields scowled as he got a soaking, lager down the front of his shirt. Joe noticed this and when the song finished told Scott, over the mic, not to worry about as things were about to get a lot worse- they then ploughed into Safe Eurpean Home and the whole venue went up in the air as one, seconds before more pints were flung towards the stage. The gig finished with a memorable version of Yalla Yalla and then Joe returning for the encore with a child on his shoulders before they group followed him on to play Bankrobber.
The song that closed Global A Go- Go was a version of a traditional Irish song, The Minstrel Boy, an eighteen minute lilting lament to the boys who have gone off to war.
Minstrel Boy
A different version of the song, shorter and with Joe's vocals, was played over the closing credits of the 2001 film Black Hawk Down, a Ridley Scott about the U.S. army's raid on Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993.
The Minstrel Boy
The lyrics are a version of Irish Republican Thomas Moore's words, written in the late 18th or early 19th century.
'The minstrel boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you'll find him...
...thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery'
I got to see Joe and Mescaleros once in 2001 and two out of the 4 or 5 nights they played at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn in 2002. Those shows were exciting and as raucous as a jaded NYC audience could be. I remember getting Armagideon Time 2 out of those three shows and even Ramone's Blitzkrieg Bop.
ReplyDeleteI saw him twice at the Academy although the details and setlists blur into one. And then at the arena supporting The Who before John Entwislte died. He payed a slowed down version of White Riot to a 2/3rds empty arena that sticks in the memory. I think he must have played Blitzkrieg Bop at one of the Academy gigs too/
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