This fascinating Julien Temple documentary can be viewed here:

[topdocumentaryfilms.com]

I knew little of Joe's background, but he was quite an interesting character. Even if you're not a fan of The Clash, this is an intriguing view of a man's life.

Also, there IS a snippet about the Stones and their influence on vagabond Joe's career choice.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-23 09:31 by bassplayer617.

Thanks for the post, mate. I'm a big Clash fan and saw this at the cinema when it came out. I thought it was pretty good, but why the pointless Hollywood actor talking heads? Who cares that Johnny Depp and John Cusack were Clash fans? So was JK Rowling! WOW! Go find someone better to interview - like John Lydon, who hated them and has a VERY interesting take on how the band got into reggae ....

The documentary I'd recommend without reservation is Westway to the World - directed by Don Letts. Still available on DVD. It tells a sanitised version of Clash history (i.e: no Clash 2, which is a shame). The band are all very open - Topper about his drug addiction, Mick Jones about his ego, and Joe Strummer comes across as perfectly wounded towards the end (in fact, what he says is deeply poignant). Paul inadvertently outs himself as the reason The Clash never reformed. (He also - tellingly - refused to be interviewed for The Future is Unwritten).

By the way, if you get the soundtrack, it contains the only official release of Clash 2's best song - In The Pouring Rain. It is lifted from a bootleg.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-23 09:58 by Nikolai.

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Nikolai
- like John Lydon, who hated them and has a VERY interesting take on how the band got into reggae ....

which is--?

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cc

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Nikolai
- like John Lydon, who hated them and has a VERY interesting take on how the band got into reggae ....

which is--?

Lydon contends that he was listening to reggae long before The Clash (principally Joe and Mick) discovered it, and that it was Don Letts who got them into it around 1976. Letts has since confirmed this. In fact, he was the catalyst for the reggae-punk alliance or even symbiosis, because reggae was all he played at The Roxy, which hosted most of the embryonic punk bands.

Now, typically with everything Lydon says, there are two sides to every story - especially the ones he tells. Paul Simenon was a huge reggae fan, and it was practically all he listened to in his teens. He was a skinhead (this long before the racist associations), most of his friends were Jamaican immigrants (or the children of Jamaican immigrants), and he spoke patois. Of course, Joe and Mick probably didn't take Paul too seriously, because he couldn't really play bass. In fact, for a while, he was the group's Sid Vicious. More image than talent. (That said, Sid died still not being able to find his way around anything more than a syringe).

Not sure when Strummer picked up on reggae exactly, and it doesn't really matter at all. The fact remains that he did, and the genre was very much part of The Clash's musical tapestry.

Oddly, there was a weird synergy going on between early PIL and The Clash. PIL's guitarist was Keith Levene, who'd been in The Clash's first incarnation. They fired him because of his drug use. Levene contends that it was because Mick Jones wanted to be the star and he (Levene) was a better guitarist at the time. The latter may well be true, knowing what we now do about the kind of person Mick Jones was at the time. Although, Levene was a junkie. (Strummer reputedly wrote Deny about him)

PIL released a triple album with Metal Box in 1979 - later slimmed down from three 12" singles to a conventional double album, renamed Second Edition. It was Lydon's third album of original material after Never Mind The Bollocks. The Clash's third album was a double - London Calling. Their fourth album was a triple - Sandinista.

(Yes, I currently have five minutes too much time on my hands ).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-23 20:29 by Nikolai.

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Nikolai
(Yes, I currently have five minutes too much time on my hands ).

lol... but it's appreciated, Nik.