Today is Joe Strummer's sixtieth birthday. I wish Joe Strummer were alive so he could have refused to play London Calling at the stupid Olympics and said something smart and awesome about it. I wish Joe Strummer were alive for a number of other reasons.
I am going to celebrate Joe Strummer's birthday by rolling my eyes at a cop if I see one. I'm going to listen to Clash City Rockers a hundred times and think about how grateful I am that Joe Strummer wrote the sentence "I wanna liquify everybody gone dry" in addition to the great many other extraordinary sentences Joe Strummer wrote that changed my life forever. I have the day off today, which is appropriate. I don't think that any human should ever have to go to work on Joe Strummer's birthday. I'm going to book Joe Strummer's birthday off work every day for the rest of my life.
If you can't think of anything to do on Joe Strummer's birthday that properly honors his legacy, here are some stories I wrote about some songs Joe wrote that you could read: Janie Jones, Cheat, Rudie Can't Fail, Lose This Skin, and Straight To Hell. And if you're not in the mood to read, all I ask is that you take maybe five minutes out of your day to think very hard about life and death. I think it would make Joe Strummer very happy, if we all could just do that.
This finally motivated me to get off my butt and buy The Clash's self-titled album. I heard London Calling for the first time in early 2011 and loved it. Bolt out of the blue loved it -- it was so different from what I thought punk was "supposed" to sound like that it felt new! I was trying to step out of my comfort zone and broaden my horizons, but I found that London Calling was right in my comfort zone. I'd just been missing out this entire time.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to listening to the self-titled record today.
What a beautiful Joe Strummer's Birthday plan! I listened to Police & Thieves on the subway and it was my best Police & Thieves listen EVER.
DeleteI feel like Sandinista could really speak to you, David. Go for that one next.
This is the cutest post I've ever read about Joe Strummer's Birthday. I wish he were alive so I could meet him and tell him how awesome he is. I think it's sweet that you wrote something for this event :)
ReplyDelete(ps: sorry for the english)