Pulse
By Ethlie Ann Vare
March 1984
The Clash has been called "the only band that matters" practically
from its inception in 1976. It wasn't until 1979 that Columnia released The
Clash in the U.S., but by then the band was already legendary in England and
idolized by the cogniscent in America.
The Clash---then Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Topper Headon and Paul Simonon-were the constructive answer to nihilistic punk. Where the punks said "life stinks," the Clash said " life has certain stinking aspects, and this is one of them, and let's try to do something about it." It was a powerful message coming on the hells of half a decade of "let's go down and boogie," and it was expressed powerfully.
By 1982, the Clash became a commercial success as well as a critical one. Combat Rock went platinum; "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (a Mick Jones song) and "Rock the Casbah" (a Joe Strummer song) both went Top 40. Observers of the musical mainstream were amazed that a band this rebellious, this socialistic, this dangerous could sell records and get played on the radio.
The Clash, working its way from purhad to platinum, was finally going to bring its message to the Western World. And then what happened? First, drummer Topper Headon was fired, either for "philosohical differences" or courted charged of grandstanding when they held a press conference (paid for by US organizers) in which to denounce the festival. They almost didn't play at all, insisting that US founder Steve Wozniack donate more a million dollars to the poor before they would take the stage. At the close of their set, the Clash's press agent, Kosmo Vinyl, got into a fistfight with the US stage manager.
And then the band all but disappeared. Where there had been a new Clash release once every six months, a year went by with nothing. No tour. Not even a single. Not a word.
By January 1984, word was out: Mick Jones has been fired by Clash co-founder Joe Strummer. Two new guitarists had been hired, and the drummer who replaced Headon for the US Fest would remain in the permanent line-up. The band would do a whirlwind tour of California and Europe, and then head back to the studio for a new record by a virtually new band: Strummer, Simonon, Pete Howard, Vince White and Nick Sheppard.
Strummer is now the undisputed leader of the group, because the new kids are just that and Paul Simonon won't say so much as "good morning" to the press. Strummer was uncharacteristically forthcoming while in California, visiting radio stations and talking to journalists. He was also sporting a head of orange hair, trying to quit smoking, and enthused about the rebirth of the Clash.
Now 31, Strummer is a new father and seems to have mellowed somewhat in his attitude toward the music business. He's still adamantly socialist, and takes every opportunity to make pronouncements about what's wrong with society. But you can also get a smile out of him on occasion, and he admits his own mistakes. He is also smart, articulate, and surprisingly (considering his reputation) easy to like.
"I didn't want to fire Mick," says Strummer. "I would have done anything not to fire him. But he'd changed. He seemed to think that selling a million records was a big deal. I thought it was okay for progress. Nothing less than we'd worked for, nothing less than we deserved. But not 'let's hang up the guitar and relax.'"
Jones (who is now working on some tracks with Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of the English Beat, and forming a new band with Topper Headon) has filed an injunction against the Clash's profits from Combat Rock and the US Festival. Kosmo Vinyl says the band is, effectively, broke.
"That's why I've got to play every little town, every little dot on the map. I've got to go out there and work," says Strummer. "With Mick, I'd give everyone a list of tour dates and I'd be thinking, 'Oh, great, we've never been there before!' And I would show it to Mick, and he'd throw it across the room. And all your energy suddenly goes."
The new Clash bandmembers were found through a blind in a British paper: "Wild guitar player wanted, apply here." Vince White and Nick Sheppard, says Strummer, will bring a new energy and youthfulness to the group. This was immediately apparent in the Clash's California gigs. The music is louder, harder, faster than any time since Give 'Em Enough Rope.
It's important to note that Strummer, despite a modified gutter accent, does not come from the disenfranchised underclass. His father was with the Foreign Office, "a background that's supposed to send you to a university and put you in the ruling class," as Strummer describes it. He finished college preparation courses, and he enrolled in art school, but at the beginning of the punk movement Joe Strummer abandoned his roots.
"I hit the streets," he says, "dug graves, washed toilets, bummed around the country, went on the dole, started busking (note: singing and playing in the street for coins). I went around Europe with my guitar, saw the police corrupted, saw that justice was a joke. I'd seen it all, and I came out stinging."
While Strummer calls the Sex Pistols Anarchy In the U.K. one for the most important records ever made, it's into a personal listening favorite. His taste runs more to roots rockers like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and Howlin' Wolf. Sitting on his bureau were tapes of Little Richard's Greatest Hits, Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska and a compilation of great TV detective show themes.
"Rebel rock, that's what I like. Rebel rock is what's needed out there. And we're not just going to make it 'mainstream'; we're going to make it the biggest river in town."
Jones also likes Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waites; Bob Dylan's Infidels ("but he shouldn't have let that guy from Dire Straits produce it, because he idolized Dylan too much") and Grace Jones' latest. One suspects he might take a listen to the new Rolling Stones as well.
"We had to throw all those boring, ridiculous Emerson Lake and Palmer people out of a job. Some of the old duffers changed their tune, like the Rolling Stones. We lit a fire under their backsides, I can tell you that," smiles Strummer.
The kind of record Strummer plans to make, as soon as the group gets off the
road and into the studio, will be a hard, "rebel rockin' " record.
But event though Strummer's music is getting herder, his attitude in many ways
has become milder. He's still "of the left, for the left, by the left,
forever left" (he's even left-handed). But, reflecting on the new-found
lines of communication between himself and his father and thinking in terms
of being a father now himself. Strummer had this to say:
"You know the only thing parents are worried about? That you're going to
end up in the gutter somewhere, or murdered in Hyde Park. And that's what brings
all the pressure and aggravation, all the fighting going on in homes all over
the world. When they stop kids from discovering themselves, it's because they're
frightened."
For a man who still declares that "it's bad music if your parents like it," Strummer has a certain new perspective. He also has a new band, new enthusiasm, and, if things work out, a new record in the works.
"You see," he says, "the Clash….we feel we've got a mission. We're almost evangelical about it. We really think we're got a mission to bring back real music, dealing with real things, with real meaning. And I know that's what the people out there want."
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