As frontman and main songwriter of
the Clash,
Joe Strummer created some of the fieriest, most vital punk rock -- and, indeed,
rock & roll -- of all time.
Strummer expanded
punk's musical palette with his fondness for
reggae and early
rock & roll, and his signature bellow lent an impassioned urgency to the political sloganeering that filled some of his best songs. After
the Clash disbanded in 1986,
Strummer sporadically pursued film acting and released the occasional solo album, though seemingly only when it suited him.
Joe Strummer was born
John Graham Mellor on August 21, 1952, when his father, a diplomat, was stationed in Ankara, Turkey. During his time at London boarding schools, the teenage
Strummer immersed himself in rock and
reggae, and began busking on the streets under his newly adopted stage name. In 1974, he formed the
pub rock group
the 101'ers, and though they rocked pretty hard, they couldn't quite match the raw fire
Strummer discovered when he saw
Johnny Rotten and
the Sex Pistols.
Strummer promptly quit
pub rock to join the fledgling
punk movement, and co-founded
the Clash in 1976; the rest was history. Six albums, many more singles and EPs, and one frequently brilliant body of work later,
the Clash broke up amidst rancorous infighting and uncertainty of direction.
Strummer contributed two songs to the soundtrack of
Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy, a 1986 chronicle of the doomed
Sex Pistols bassist; the two hit it off so well that
Strummer acted in
Cox's next two films, Walker (which
Strummer also scored) and the bizarre Western Straight to Hell. His relaxed, natural screen presence earned him further work with directors
Robert Frank (1987's Candy Mountain) and
Jim Jarmusch (1989's acclaimed Mystery Train);
Strummer also wrote five songs for the soundtrack of 1988's Permanent Record. In 1989,
Strummer released his first solo album, Earthquake Weather, which blended straight-up
rock & roll with touches of world music. However, following a temporary stint filling in for
Shane MacGowan in
the Pogues (both as rhythm guitarist and in-concert lead vocalist),
Strummer largely fell silent after the very early '90s. The first peep of a return to the music scene occurred in 1996, when
Strummer appeared on the
Black Grape single "England's Irie." The following year,
Strummer scored the John Cusack hitman comedy Grosse Pointe Blank, which relied heavily on
new wave and British
ska revival for its song selections. In 1999,
Strummer released his second solo album, Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, which largely forsook straight-ahead
rock & roll in favor of eclectic, rhythmic, world music flavored compositions, plus elaborate singer/songwriter-ish lyrics.
Strummer further refined this new direction with the follow-up, 2001's Global A-Go-Go. In December 2002, he was in the midst of recording his fourth solo album when he died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Somerset. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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Joe Strummer's Jukebox